Foosh

There's no reason why the Waze app should have to be updated even though it is already routinely updated several times a year. The Apple IOS just must allow mirroring of Waze to CarPlay.

CarPlay is simply mirroring what Apple allows to appear on CarPlay. Once they make that possible for Waze, it will display whatever version of the Waze app is running on your phone.

DPC57

With Android Auto, apps are not mirrored from the phone. The car screen displays a simplified version of the app (at least with Waze and Spottify, the two apps I use most often). Given that, in my case, the phone display is 2960 x 1440 while the car display is 1280 x 720 mirroring would not be very useful. Though I could change the screen resolution to 1480 x 720 if mirroring was an option.

I believe that the simplified app version is part of the spec for creating an AA compatible app to allow it to provide maximum functionality with minimal driver distraction. And like the update that allowed Spotify integration with Waze, integration with Car Play will probably be made available via an app update when Apple IOS support is released.

If configured properly Android Auto apps can make full use of the Google Assistant integration in the most recent versions of Android, as well. Which means I can tap the on-screen microphone button and tell the phone what I want it to do using the AA compatible apps installed on the phone. No idea if this integration will be available between Siri and Waze.

Of course, if all Car Play does is provide a screen mirror then this is moot.

mountainears

I would agree. The apps tend to be lighter weight driving versions of the full app. My thinking is they will need to make updates to their apps to leverage the new APIs announced at the conference.

davepl

I can only tell you my experience in major urban areas such as mine, where Apple seems to have the advantage in real time data. This is on the commute roads to Microsoft, mind you!

It used to suck, then it got progressively better. Again, I'm only talking about in the last couple of months, literally. If you haven't tried it quite recently, you owe it another shot!

I have tested it 3 times in the last month or so before making my switch. In all three cases, the time estimate from Apple was more accurate. In once case Waze had a much more aggressive route that was no quicker.

Other than comparing routing and estimates, which is what I've been doing, not sure how you would make any kind of useful, subjective comparison.

Also, while I do pay $99 a year for the privilege, I'm not much of an Apple developer. But I'm pretty sure Carplay is not as simple as mirroring, as the UI is often simplified, and Touch may not be available (Mercedes) and so on.

At the end of the day, I think they're both great apps. But Maps got a LOT better when pressured with the competition from Google (Waze).

joezr2

"I got better....."


This is good news. The public Beta in June will be just in time to test it out on the trip to Watkins Glenn.

From the article:

June 4 for iOS 12 developer beta (for paid Apple Developers)
Likely June 26 for a public beta (based on iOS 11 public beta)
Likely September for the final iOS 12 software with new iPhones

rangda

I think people's experience with waze is highly dependent on how many other waze users there are in the area and how much traffic they have to deal with outside of major highways during rush hour.

If you live in Montana then you probably don't find much special about waze. Living in the urban northeast where 1) traffic is everywhere for much of the day and 2) population density is high so there are lots of waze users it's invaluable.

ShahulX

fine.. I was bored though.. lol

rangda

As a software developer I can think of plenty of reasons why the Waze app would have to be updated to work with CarPlay. I haven't looked at the CarPlay dev kit documentation but based on my understanding of how it works it's not actually mirroring the application output so the app will need an update.

I'd expect the waze update to be a day 1 release so if you can get into the waze beta program you can probably test it on the ios 12 beta once Apple opens that up to end users (or you pay the $99 fee to be a developer for a year).

rangda

This is really interesting. Here in the northeast Apple maps is awful. I live in the Boston area but I've traveled with it as far south as Baltimore and find it's ability to find businesses and deal with local traffic to be awful. For highway navigation or when I can plug an address in and don't care about backroad traffic it's fine.

I wonder if Apple is now gathering their own data and your (relatively speaking) closer proximity to Cupertino means you are seeing improvements earlier than those of us on the other coast.

Foosh

OK, I surrender. I am not a software person, and I incorrectly used the term "mirror" because as a layperson it means to me that I can do on the car's screen what I used to do on my phone.

Pegaso

Huh! great news...... about time.

redvetteman97

defaria

Indeed. In fact, I'm on the Waze beta program, though I don't like Waze at all. Recently they announced an update so I was curious if they had addressed the issues that I found, one of which was that the route display sucked! In AA with GM you can show the overview of your route. It shows you a zoomed out view of your route and highlights it in orange/red where there's traffic. It also shows you alternate routes and how much slower they might be. In Waze (running on the big screen mind you) you get three routes in straight line - no depiction of them on the map - with the cop/traffic/accident icons all piled up. This is about of no use to you. Now with the newer beta version just released, on the phone (not on the big screen), the route preview finally shows an actual route preview like GM. But on the big screen the display hasn't changed one bit. Ergo, it's not mirrored.

Indeed again. Here's the AA specs - https://designguidelines.withgoogle.com/android-auto/. Apps must comply with that.

Not only that but I can do "Hey Google, set the Nest to heat cool mode" and wham my Nest will start cooling down my apartment before I get home. And here in Phoenix where 109 degrees often happens, you want your apartment to be cool when you get there. Additionally I can say "What's my next appointment" or "What's the weather forecast" or "How's the stock market doing" right in my car, while driving. Will Waze on iPhones do that? I doubt it.

My prediction is you'll get none of that on iDevices.

defaria

That's not all. I've always thought that reports of police were pretty dumb. I mean police drive cars. Cars move. The chances that the cop is still there are small and every time they aren't it's a false positive. I don't use Waze much, for various reasons, but when I do I take note of whether or not such things as police reported ahead turn out to be true or not. In my tests I'd say between 70-80% of the time there's no cop there. That coupled with a number of deficiencies in Waze like no real route preview, no exit lane indication and no easy way to add a stop makes it so that I rarely use Waze.

I've lived in many cities including San Jose, San Diego and now Phoenix. What is the value that Waze provides that GM doesn't? As I said above, the crowd sourced warnings are often wrong and thus not useful (or they are right but still not useful - sitting in a traffic jam going 5 MPH and it tells me there's a cop near by. BFD!). The re-routing does not really speed things up (you might save a minute or two) and GM also does this, perhaps better. Is that it says there's a report of a car on the side of the road 5 lanes to my left really that important?

spireland

First thing I've looked forward to in a new IOS in a long time. Apple Maps has gotten better but in the SF Bay Area Waze, with all it's users, is still better at traffic avoidance.

davepl

I don't want to start any conspiracy theories, but in the last six months Apple's traffic data suddenly got a lot better and more up to date. I wonder if, like Waze, they can only get data from other people actively running Maps, or, being Apple they geofence all fast moving users and get -all- user data?

Foosh

Yes, this is absolutely true. Out in the middle of nowhere every nav system is going to perform the same as long as it has an up-to-date roads and address database.

The superiority of Waze is entirely dependent upon a very large number of users online in real time. As I mentioned above, at almost any time of day in the DC metro area, there are between 50-100K users in motion running Waze.

A lot of the people who think Waze isn't any better are likely running it in an area where traffic flows relatively freely most of the time. Those people are accurately describing their experience.

red62vette

In the Bay Area, I find Waze to be very good, and it shows speed traps too. But it does sometimes guide you to make aggressive turns, for example left across a busy road. That’s ok for me but it’s too much for my wife. Google Maps is the next best option, and she prefers that. Apple Maps blows and will send me on routes that are stand still or flat out too long and circuitous. I don’t have factory nav on my Vette, but I have the newest Porsche system on another car and that is even more brain dead than Apple Maps.

defaria

I'm curious - how many times has Waze pointed out a "speed trap" (BTW I don't believe there's a category for "speed trap" in Waze rather it reports police in the area which you assume to be a speed trap but often is just a cop perhaps helping a stranded motorist) and it turned out to not be a speed trap at all? Or even not a police in the area? My admittedly small amount of tracking of this has yielded to me a very high false positive rate (like 70-80%). And again, that coupled with a number of other Waze defficiencies keeps me using Google Maps.

Classic-Chevy-Guy

Can CarPlay connect via Bluetooth or does it still require a cable connection?