Waze has been hugely successful in helping its users in finding directions to their destination and has been reportedly doing even better than its Apple counterpart.
It is the most popular GPS navigation app in smartphones. Lately, there have been rumours stating that Apple could be purchasing Waze but both companies are mum about any such transactions taking place.
Apple Maps are said to make use of data from Waze. The company is an Israeli one that is presently based in Palo Alto, California. Their asking prize for a buy-out is $750 million and Apple can only willing to shell out about $500 million.
All of this apart, let’s take a look at how Waze has been performing better than Apple Maps. Other maps like the ones from Apple have faced big problems while Google struggled with iOS 6. Waze does its map laying very meticulously and even spends millions sending its representatives out on the streets with cars that have fish-eye cameras, much like Google. One of the strongest points of Waze is that they do not rely on data for mapping from other companies like TomTom, like the way other companies like Apple do. Waze relies on building maps through crowd sourcing – an old-fashioned and most reliable method.
This company that was formed in the year 2009, kicked off with an intention of helping drivers avoid high density traffic spots during their evening and morning commutes. The company was centred on empowering drivers for sharing information. Within no time, the company has over 1.5 million (read 20% of Israel’s population) Israelis using it. The idea began with drivers who were stuck in traffic to tap at their app to notify other users. These notifications helped drivers save around 5 minutes on an average each day. Waze also helped drivers find alternative routes to their destinations.
While this was going on, the data from Waze collected from many other users was helped to make maps. Waze then grew in popularity in countries in U.S. and Europe. With its widespread users, its maps also grew in terms of quality and reach.
An insider at Waze, revealed details saying that the content was all based on the location of its’ users’ driving routes. Information that is up to date keeps flowing in from its users on all main roads and streets. When Waze was able to detect around 100 persons travelling in one direction and not in the opposite – it would automatically detect that street as a one-way. There are added features like text boxes to provide names, editing tools and many such additional features that can be added to the map.
The maps of Waze are all made real-time – this means that in case you happen to be the very first Waze user to drive down a road, you will be making that route on Waze’s map and all other Waze users shall henceforth see that road on their maps. If a new road in inaugurated, it is instantly listed on the map the next day.
As such, the work on Waze’s maps is always in progress. They tend to be more accurate in some countries than in others. But thanks to its social aspect, its service is reliable and is always getting better!
Related ItemsWaze
