Google has started rolling out a feature that allows its Maps app to display crash reports from Waze, allowing users to confirm them while navigating. This update is part of a broader overhaul of crash reporting across all of the search giant’s platforms.
Improved reporting across all platforms
This summer, Google announced improvements to its reporting interface for Android, iOS, Android Auto, CarPlay and Android Automotive, with a rollout starting in mid-September. As part of these updates, Google revealed that crash reports will now come from the Google Maps and Waze communities, with clear attribution indicating the source of each report.
This feature launched with Police Alerts, and Waze noted that additional data types would be shared in the future.
A first concrete case
A first concrete example of this integration was spotted in Google Maps. A Reddit user who was browsing the app received a “Police Reported Ahead” alert with attribution of the information to Waze drivers. The prompt included a confirmation option, asking “Are they still there?” » with the “Yes” or “No” buttons. As always, interaction panel automatically disappears after a brief countdown.
An example of integrating Waze data into Google Maps.
This seamless sharing of incident data between the two platforms improves the accuracy and usefulness of both services. Google Maps, with more than 2 billion monthly active users as of October 2024, benefits from Waze’s collaborative insights. In comparison, Waze had 151 million monthly active users at the end of 2022. Yet Waze is much more accurate about speed cameras and incidents.
Collaboration between Waze and Google Maps
Internally, both applications are now managed by the team Geo from Google, which facilitates two-way data exchange. This organization ensures that drivers on both platforms have access to the most complete and up-to-date map data.
Waze, known for its interest in collaborative mapping conditions, has also experimented with new features. In October, Google began testing a voice-based “conversational reporting” feature, further improving its incident reporting tools. And this is just the beginning.
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