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What did we do in the days before electronic maps were installed on our phones? Some of you might be old enough to remember getting in the car and unfolding a massive map to plan your journey before heading out on it.
It's largely a thing of the past in 2025, with even Uber drivers relying on their phones to get you to your destination.
There are any number of apps that try to get us there, and whether you rely on Apple Maps, Waze, Google Maps, or any of the others, you probably have a favorite.
Now, a former Uber employee claims to have found the 'best' navigation app, and it might not be the one you're thinking of.
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Posting on X, Former Uber employee Flo Crivello crunched the numbers with Google Maps, Apple Maps, and Waze, revealing that one of them comes out on top.
Even if you've got an iPhone, Apple Maps might be left gathering dust as you opt for Google Maps or Waze. In a shock result, Crivello said that Apple Maps is the best and will give you the shortest route.
Explaining the findings, Crivello said that people tend to think of Apple Maps as the worst and Waze as the 'best'. Instead, his research puts it in the reverse order: "We understood why Apple Maps got a bad rap given how bad it was at launch — it rapidly got better, but the brand stuck."
As for why Waze comes in last, he referred to it as a 'mystery': "We ended up realizing that people thought its routes were best because it was exposing them to so much info on traffic, construction, police presence etc."
Saying that while everyone thinks that was a minimalist UI, it's actually the opposite: "In practice, when they see all this info, they subconsciously conclude 'wow, these guys really have their sh*t together' — even when the routes were actually the worst ones."
When I was at Uber, we ran the numbers on the maps app offering the shortest routes
— Flo Crivello (@Altimor) May 27, 2024
We prob had the biggest dataset with this info: we had millions of trips where we knew both which app was used and how long they took
Now this may be shocking, but the ranking was:
1. Best:… https://t.co/MOnyXJhPkZ
As for Apple Maps, who could forget when Apple CEO Tim Cook apologized for it in 2012 and suggested people use Google Maps instead?
Back when Apple Maps launched alongside iOS 6 and the iPhone 5, Cook said: "While we're improving Maps, you can try alternatives by downloading map apps from the App Store like Bing, MapQuest and Waze, or use Google or Nokia maps by going to their websites and creating an icon on your home screen to their web app."
By the sounds of it, Apple has made some serious improvements and delivered on those promises of making Apple Maps better.
Others in the replies remain unconvinced by Crivello’s findings, with one person adding: "You can talk all you want about which one is best in theory but in my location (NYC) Waze is FAR superior and I make all my employees use it over any other GPS.
“I don’t really care about how it performs in other places ('overall')."
Another chimed in: "My personal experience since the beginning of Apple Maps has been… horrible. Always. Consistently. And everyone else seems to know this. It frequently takes me to the wrong place. Google has been solid."
Remembering that Crivello notes that the data was collected eight years ago, things have likely moved around a lot since then.
