Toys4RJill

Wondering what people use. I have started to slowly remove myself from the Google world. I have come to learn how they collect so much data on you and its more the advertising across different platforms is what I find concerning, for example we were retirement house hunting recently in Virginia Beach, Charleston and Savannah and were using Zillow, then Google maps to do some searching. Always, a few days later, across laptop and You Tube on Apple TV, I am starting to see home search advertising in some of these areas and locations. I moved form Google Nexus to a iPhone over a year back. Google still has a place, but I am not sure I want them knowing everything where I drive to then to be cross-linked to Google search engines from other devices etc etc.

So, I have been slowly moving towards Apple Maps and have been using it as the default map systems when getting around doing some quick searches while driving. Pleasantly surprised, it is different however I do like it. About to delete Google Maps for good

Your experiences?

JDR76

With our own cars, we just use the Toyota/Lexus navigation systems already present. They always seem to work really well for us.

If we are in a rental, I usually use Google Maps on my phone, but lately, each time I've used it, I seem to get more disappointed. When we used it for directions last summer while in a rental in southern California, the directions were awful. It sent us in the most ridiculous ways, and when on the freeway, anytime we'd go past an off ramp, it would instruct me to get back on the freeway, even though I had never left it. I haven't really tried Apple Maps in the last several years. Maybe I'll give it a try on this summer's vacation.

Toys4RJill

All of my experiences, my old CT and any other borrowed car I used, the Toyota/Lexus system was just superior.

Google Maps has done this to me a few times, have yet to experience it with Apple Maps.

Stroock639

I use google maps, I don't really go anywhere that id be really against Google knowing about... and I know where my weed guy is without needing directions lol

bitkahuna

iTrader: (20)

Once you use waze while driving, nothing else comes close.

oh and yes, that’s google too.

swajames

I'm generally invested in the Apple ecosystem but I find Google's mapping products, and Waze in particular, to be far superior to Apple Maps.

Apple has made big improvements, their map data etc is getting better, but I find I get better route options and far more useful information - notification of objects ahead, warnings that police are ahead, delays and so on - from Waze.

Och

iTrader: (3)

BMW nav works great for me. Tried waze a few times due to all the hype, couldn't stand it.

bagwell

Apple maps got me 100% seriously lost one time (someone else’s device) I switched on Google maps and quickly got to my destination. I believe traffic is far superior in Gmaps vs Apple too.

i need to try Waze, I mostly use navigation now for traffic on known routes.

Benoit

Serious question : Does someone actually know how those two "services" are collecting data and with who they are shared with ?

If I remember right. Toyota classified both as a "safety risk" for their consumers, but seem to be forced to adopt it anyway.

My old tests on an android phone that was equipped with a closed firewall where giving me cold shivers sometimes.

tex2670

If you think Apple is collecting less data than Google, you are fooling yourself.

I split use between Google Maps and Waze. The crowd-sourced info on Waze will give me alerts for police, so on along road trip, I can avoid speed traps. BUT--in unfamiliar areas, I like that Google Maps will tell me what lanes I need to be in for upcoming turns.

I don't use Apple Maps because I can't figure out the settings to get the sound to come from the phone's speakers instead of over the BT in the car (if I'm not listening to BT, then I can't hear Apple Maps). Waze and Google Maps have simple settings for these.

Toys4RJill

Here is an interesting article.

https://www.idownloadblog.com/2019/03/13/apple-mapsnavigation-privacy/

what does a closed firewall mean? How does it apply to this discussion?

Toys4RJill

You are actually fooling yourself.

From Apple:

"When you use Apple Maps, your route from A to B is fragmented into scrambled sections on Apple servers, because nobody else should know your entire route. Not even us.

jrmckinley

I refuse to use Apple Maps- I used it about 6-7 years ago and it got me lost 3 out of the first 3 times I tried it. This was around the same time that it was known to show people a route to get from point A to point B was to drive through a pond/lake (true story).

I use Google Maps 95% of the time and Waze the other 5%. I didn't know until recently that Google Maps uses speed data to populate and update the map with the intensity of traffic. I always assumed they collected that data from Waze users sharing it and just had it port over to Google Maps. I started wondering why a Waze user would submit traffic info on some back roads and neighborhood roads... Turns out they're likely tracking your speed on any given route even if you aren't using the app and using it to populate to help inform other drivers.

Here's a pretty interesting video showing that your location can still be tracked on a phone that has no SIM card and is therefore not even connected to a cellular network. This is worth 3 1/2 minutes to watch but may creep you out.

tex2670

Right--because they don't care about your route--they care about your destination. They don't want to know if you took the major roads or the back roads to get there (just your current location to calculate traffic data). They want to know that you searched for "Acme Store" to know that you are interested in that place.

And--unless Apple is actively tracking your current location (although it might be anonymously)--not route--then their traffic data will be garbage. That's how Google Maps has such accurate traffic info--they are tracking the location of not only every Google Maps active user, but every Android phone (again, anonymously). {@jrmckinley beat me to it on the prior post}

And, frankly, I wouldn't even care if any of these companies were tracking my route.

Do you use EZ Pass (or Canadian equivalent)?

Aprilia

What difference does it make? Unless legislation comes along that forbids big brother from tracking us, the companies will say one thing and do another.

I just hope they use the info for better and not for worse.