Google is Hollowing out Waze, and that's a Problem for Apple

“I prefer Waze because it finds better routes”.

But does it?

Try asking people which navigation app they use, and you'll notice that we have strong opinions, usually without evidence.

You arrive at your destination, totally unaware of how long the other apps would have taken.

You never see the counterfactual, so every trip serves as 👍 Confirmation Bias.

Even if Waze is better at optimising your morning commute, you don't have any objective way of knowing.

This is an example of a silent benefit.

In other words, the challenge for a navigation app isn't to efficiently show you the best route, it's to make you believe that you've found the best route.

Because of that subtle difference, their designs are very deliberate.

Google, Apple and Waze need to be intentional about how they frame their product.

In 2022, a decade after acquiring them, Google merged the entire Waze team into the same division that runs Google Earth, Maps and Street View.

Waze has been without a standalone CEO now nearly two years, and in that time, Google have been poaching their features.

At times, they're basically copy + paste functionality.

For example, reporting that you've seen police in the area: