Club Benefits
One of the great things about modern navigation apps is that users are able to report any problems they see on the road. That feature gained traction with Waze, and the idea was that those reports help the app figure out whether it's going to negatively affect arrival time or not. So you're helping other drivers and they, in turn, help you.
Waze is far from the only app to offer it these days. Unsurprisingly, its cousin Google Maps also features incident reporting that works rather similarly. It wasn't always that way, but Google has made a lot of changes in recent years. Not only does it make the process a lot easier, but it also pools its reports in with those from Google-owned Waze.
Waze vs Google Maps: Incident Reporting on mobile
Simply opening up Google Maps and Waze on mobile shows a stark difference in the way you can report an incident. Waze has the report button front and center on the app screen, whereas Google Maps hides it until you actually start navigating. That's an easy few points for Waze, and lets passengers or pedestrians report road problems just as easily as drivers. This is true on Android and iPhone.
Waze also makes reporting incidents with your voice a lot easier than Google. The microphone button is prominently displayed at the top of the screen, and the settings menu has something called "Talk to report."
When this option is switched on, tapping the incident icon will automatically turn on the microphone so that you can tell Waze what's going on. However, I could only get this to work on Android, meaning iPhone users will have to do everything manually.
From what I can tell, Google Maps doesn't offer this feature, and attempting to ask Gemini to report an incident ends with the AI offering instructions on what to do. Hardly ideal.
Waze's reporting menu has more on offer, but it's readily apparent that a bunch of the options aren't road issues. It's just another way for users to contribute to Waze's crowdsourced system, by offering information like gas prices, weather, locations and more. At first glance, the number of incident options seems smaller than Google Maps — though this is rather deceptive.
Selecting one of these incidents actually opens up a second menu with more options. Traffic, for example, comes with the option for "heavy traffic" or "standstill," while Police includes general police presence, mobile cameras, hidden officers and police activity on the opposite side of the road.
With Google, what you see is what you get, with little room for nuance and additional context. Police means police, as an example, but there is a separate option to report a mobile speed camera too.
Waze vs Google Maps: Incident Reporting while driving
Incident reporting behind the wheel is a similar experience, though Google Maps on Android Auto has taken more measures to ensure that it's not distracting.
For instance, I was able to use voice commands to report problems without any particular issue. Once I figured out what the right commands were, obviously. I was able to do this with the voice control button on my steering wheel, and using the "Hey Google" wake-up word.
Waze functioned in much the same way. You could file reports with Google Gemini or Assistant, once you know the right combination of words. However, the automatic listening will also kick in if you tap the incident report on your display. While not totally hands-free, the fact that it automatically starts listening means there's one step less than Google Maps.
Once again, things don't work so smoothly with an iPhone. Using Google Maps on CarPlay features zero incident reporting options that I could see. And attempting to use voice commands led to Siri defaulting to Apple Maps. Waze fares a little better since the report button is visible on screen, letting you file reports by hand. But without the Talk to report feature, your options for doing it hands-free are just not there.
Waze offers fewer options while driving, but you still get the same selection of hazards to report across those same submenus. You're just missing smaller things like gas prices, which aren't exactly urgent.
It's worth noting that Waze doesn't give you the option to undo a report. Google Maps does give you about 5 seconds to change your mind before it actually sends the report. That's helpful if you're just trying to figure out how incident reporting works, but I'm not sure it makes much difference in the grand scheme of things.
However, the most important thing is that both apps make it easy to report without having to take your eyes off the road, or by letting whoever is riding shotgun do it on your car's infotainment screen.
Bottom line
if you're using Waze and Google Maps with an Android device, then your experience is going to be very similar. Both offer many of the same general incidents, and let you actually send those reports in ways that are (nearly) identical.
The fact that Waze offers a little more nuance to its reports and features the Talk to Report feature means that it's probably going to be more convenient in the long run. But you won't be missing much if you prefer to drive around with Google Maps over Waze.
The experience on iPhone is totally different, and the fact Waze offers the slightest bit of consistency on iOS gives it the edge over Google Maps. Honestly, as a long-time Android user, I didn't realize just how awful Google Maps looks on CarPlay compared to Android Auto. Google should probably do something about that in the near future. Otherwise, people will end up like Siri and just default to Apple Maps.
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