Waze Continues to Show You the Fastest Driving Routes
If you want to get to your destination quickly, you are better off using Google Maps or Waze instead of Apple Maps – Waze if you really want the “fastest” option.
Informal testing by an Adobe manager found Apple’s estimated travel times are typically 8% longer than actual travel times. Engineer Arthur Grabowski says he spent “most” of 2017 collecting data on Apple Maps, Google Maps and Waze.
Although estimated travel times were 8% less, navigating with Apple Maps typically resulted in arrivals 1% faster than predicted by the software.
Grabowski says that “Apple makes its estimates with sandbags so that users arrive at the predicted time or a little earlier, on average.” Basically, he is deliberately telling you that the trip will take longer than it actually is.
This gives you a conservative estimate, so you’ll have a good experience when you arrive a little earlier than expected, but the directions themselves are often not as fast as what you might get from Waze or Google Maps.
However, if speed is your thing, then Google Maps is your best bet. Navigation with Google Maps is 5% faster than with Apple Maps. If you switch to Google’s Waze, things get even faster. Navigating with Waze was 6% faster than Apple Maps.