> Today, I would argue the three pillars of its comparative advantage are Places, Street View, and 3D data.
And TRAFFIC data. The main reason I still use GMaps/Waze is because they give better arrival estimates than anyone else, because they have more traffic data, because of network effects.
I think the winner of the maps wars will be the one who gets the best traffic estimates, and I think Google/Waze are still way ahead on that front.
I just wish the GMaps UI and Waze UI would be combined. I love the cop, traffic camera, and hazard notifications of Waze, I love the lane markers in GMaps, as well as their navigating by landmark (I was once told "turn in the driveway after the Chipotle" by GMaps). I also love Apple's "turn at the second stop sign".
So if I could get a UI with all those things and Google's traffic data, that would be peachy.
> A lot of people use their car’s built in navigation.
I don't think that's true anymore. We were looking for cars back in February, and one thing I noticed is that many of the new cars did not come with navigation. When I asked why the dealer told me everyone just wants CarPlay because they use Google Maps on their phone. That made sense to me, since I too did not want to pay for navigation since I just use Google Maps via CarPlay.
And TRAFFIC data. The main reason I still use GMaps/Waze is because they give better arrival estimates than anyone else, because they have more traffic data, because of network effects.
I think the winner of the maps wars will be the one who gets the best traffic estimates, and I think Google/Waze are still way ahead on that front.
I just wish the GMaps UI and Waze UI would be combined. I love the cop, traffic camera, and hazard notifications of Waze, I love the lane markers in GMaps, as well as their navigating by landmark (I was once told "turn in the driveway after the Chipotle" by GMaps). I also love Apple's "turn at the second stop sign".
So if I could get a UI with all those things and Google's traffic data, that would be peachy.