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Comment by useful_intern | Hacker News Reader

They do have access to Google Maps data which provides sizable competitive edge

If it we were in 2012 that would be true. There are multiple competing mapping suppliers now which are perfectly good enough for taxi navigation, including Uber's own system, not forgetting Tomtom's third party stuff, AAPL's heavy investment, etc. This looks like too little too late.

And yet Uber still uses Google Maps.

In every Uber ride I've been in recently, my driver's used Waze for navigation.

Which is owned by Google.

Waze has been owned by Google and shared data -- both mapping and traffic, etc. -- with Google Maps for years. Using Waze, in a very real sense, is using Google Maps, and vice versa.

Heck, the new Google service at issue in this thread is Waze Carpool.

Waze does not use the same data as Google Maps.

Google Maps always gives perfectly-accurate directions to where I live. Waze does not give accurate directions to where I live. It goes out of its way to force drivers to enter a gated community that's adjacent to my complex. What's even worse is that the entrance to my complex and the entrance to that gated community are on separate arterials [0], and if you try to enter my complex through the main entrance, Waze will instruct you to make a U-turn out of my complex and go into the gated community. Google Maps does not do that.

As such, I text every driver picking me up at my place to tell them to use Google and only Google and to not use Waze (and I tell the name of the street they need to enter my complex from). I watch them on the map, and if I see that they have disregarded my message and do things that only Waze would instruct them to do (like pass by the entrance to my complex, and/or turn onto the arterial the gated community is on), I cancel the ride and call another.

[0] Here's a map, just to show you how terrible Waze is:

           ROAD A              |
    ---|---------------------------
       |  ...G.........        |
     R |  . GATED     .        | R
     O |  . COMMUNITY .        | O
     A |  .   .................| A
     D |  .   .      MY       .| D
       |  .   G      COMPLEX  .|
     D |  .....               =| B
       |      .               .|
       |      ..||.............|
    ---|---------------------------
           ROAD C              |

Without fail, no matter what direction you are coming from, Waze will insist you turn onto Road A and go through the gated community. Google actually knows that the main entrance to my complex is on Road A (and sometimes, on rare occasion, it'll pick up the side entrance on Road C, but I don't count on it) So if I see a Lyft or Uber driver, after I text them telling them both not to use Waze and to only enter my complex from Road B, a) pass by the entrance on Road B when driving northbound on Road B, b) turn right on Road A when driving southbound on Road B, c) fail to turn left on Road B when driving westbound on Road A, or d) turn left on Road D when driving eastbound on Road C, I just cancel on them and request another driver.

Google Maps at least uses Waze data for traffic, perhaps it doesn't go both directions.

> Waze does not use the same data as Google Maps.

They share (some) data, they may not use entirely the same data. Though your problem seems quite possibly something else:

> Google Maps always gives perfectly-accurate directions to where I live. Waze does not give accurate directions to where I live.

That could be "not using the same routing algorithm" rather than "not using the same data".

OK so they used another Google product, but the Uber app itself uses Google Maps which is what I was referring to.

I believe it doesn't. They acquired some assets from Microsoft Bing maps team:

https://techcrunch.com/2015/06/29/uber-acquires-part-of-bing...

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