Skift Take
Google is all grown up now and won't take chances on integrating Waze's reports about police speed traps into Google Maps. That takes some of the life and authenticity out of the Waze community.
Google began integrating the Waze community’s accident, construction and road closure intelligence into Google Maps apps for Android and iOS, but there is a glaring omission — notifications about police speed traps.
Conservative-minded Google confirms that Waze users’ alerts that a cop car is a mile up ahead, either out in the open or hidden, did not make the final cut in the integration of Google’s $1 billion Waze acquisition.
This real-time, on-the-road intelligence from Waze users, pointing to disabled vehicles on the shoulder, traffic ahead, a downpour, and the presence of radar-wielding cops is one of the most attractive aspects of Waze.
However, as a grown-up public company, Google apparently didn’t want to punch the ticket, and chance getting on the wrong side (or right side, depending on your perspective) of the law.
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Photo Credit: Waze's apps enable users to input information about cops by the side of the road, and traffic reports. Google has decided to omit the police-related alerts from its integration of Waze into Google Maps apps. Waze