Man Studied Google Maps, Apple Maps and Waze for an Entire Year to Determine Which Is the Best
Getty Images
There are many ways to get from point A to point B, but which app truly gives you the best route?
ANDREA ROMANO
Most people have their preferred popular navigation app, whether it’s Google Maps, Apple Maps, or Waze. But which is actually the best at getting you to your destination?
To put the navigation apps to the test, one man spent a year measuring estimated driving times for each app, departure and arrival time, traffic conditions, as well as other factors, the Daily Mail reported. After 120 trips, he found that Google Maps was the app that got him to his destinations the quickest.
Arthur Grabowski wrote about his findings on his blog, and he didn’t stop at simple speed tests. Even though Google was found to be quick, it was Apple Maps that turned out to be the most accurate. This could come as a surprise to many, since when Apple Maps was first released, it was widely criticized for its inaccuracy, and has yet to shake its reputation. Apple Maps gave 8-percent longer trip times but overall, compared to Google, Grabowski usually arrived 1-percent faster than estimated.
“In other words, Apple sandbags its estimates so that users on average arrive ... slightly sooner,” Grabowski wrote. So Apple users will always be pleasantly surprised on their trips, or at least rarely be late for a meeting.
Google Maps, even though it won out in the app race, was not always on the mark. In general, Grabowski found it was 2-percent slower than its average estimated trip time on average. Not far off in terms of accuracy, but less accurate nonetheless.
Waze promised speedy travel times — about 3-percent faster than Google’s estimates — but didn't deliver when put to practical use. Overall, Waze had slower-than-expected arrival times 11 percent of the time.
“If the estimated trip times consistently predicted actual driving time, Waze would be my preferred navigation app,” Grabowski wrote.
No comments:
Post a Comment