There is ads. You often get a pop up saying: A trip to Taco Bell add 5 minutes to your drive. Would you like to go?

It seems less invasive then most other apps out there.

Waze is a Google product, so yes, you are the product. Also, they sell ad spots. Published a few for a restaurant, worked OK actually as we got some customers who got there because of the ad.

It costs them money to develop and operate, they were bought by Google, and you don’t pay anything for it. All I know is my gut says, maybe.