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A comment on Ask HN: What are some alternatives to Google maps?.

Re:Ask HN: What are some alternatives to Google maps? by gurpreet- on Sunday September 30, 2018 @12:41PM (#18106892)
From a user-perspective definitely Waze. It provides a great voice assistant and live updates from other users. Other Waze users are on-screen and you can chat to them. Other users can report roadblocks, broken down cars, traffic jams, slow-downs and even accidents long before any radio station finds out about them. It has places you can go to which are more accurate than that of Google Maps. Plus, it also shows you speed cameras and your speed on-screen. The only downside is that it's really only for private transport only - no options to see routes and timings for walking, cycling or public transport.

From a library perspective, I think Mapbox is pretty good as it integrates with a lot of languages and it has a lot of smart decision making tools.

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Re:Ask HN: What are some alternatives to Google maps? by lscotte on Sunday September 30, 2018 @01:22PM (#18107133)
In addition to Waze being owned by Google, as mentioned by others, Waze pops up ads in the middle of trips which should never be tolerated by users. Waze also tends to make bad traffic worse by directing cars off high-volume roads onto low-volume roads, distributing gridlock everywhere and encouraging people to drive through residential neighborhoods or other areas that cannot support this type of traffic. And finally, Waze is not a general purpose mapping application, but a very specific one for driving. I think that's enough from me on this. :-)
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Re:Ask HN: What are some alternatives to Google maps? by pensatoio on Sunday September 30, 2018 @12:45PM (#18106919)
Waze is a subsidiary of Google.

I say this because the typical driving force for seeking an alternative to a Google service is the fact that it's owned by Google.

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Re:Ask HN: What are some alternatives to Google maps? by LeoPanthera on Sunday September 30, 2018 @03:37PM (#18107940)
I used Waze just yesterday, after a couple of years of only using Apple Maps, and was kinda surprised about how weird it was.

The map detail is quite low. It doesn't understand U-turns (turn left, then turn left), it doesn't give lane guidance.

The "watch out" warnings are quite useful though, I suppose.

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Re:Ask HN: What are some alternatives to Google maps? by zpr on Sunday September 30, 2018 @01:04PM (#18107030)
Waze is pretty cool, especially with alerting to the presence of nearby speedgunning cops, but the battery drain is too much for me to tolerate, not to mention the obnoxious "integration" with Spotify.
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Re:Ask HN: What are some alternatives to Google maps? by hsson on Sunday September 30, 2018 @12:46PM (#18106927)
Might be worth mentioning that Waze is a subsidiary of Google since 2013.
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Re:Ask HN: What are some alternatives to Google maps? by konschubert on Sunday September 30, 2018 @01:26PM (#18107159)
Does Waze have public transport navigation?
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Re:Ask HN: What are some alternatives to Google maps? by gurpreet- on Sunday September 30, 2018 @04:54PM (#18108365)
Just checked and no it does not seem that it does have public transport navigation. With that being said, you can select different transport types. Those are: Motorcycle, Private, Taxi.
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