Originally Posted by
me just saying I tried waze for the first time a month or so ago and was surprised it showed where a cop was sitting. It also showed the new construction on the highway that started a few days before.
That's what makes Waze great - it's actually crowd sourced for information. It allows users to report road hazards as they drive such as police, stopped vehicles, road construction, traffic congestion (and others to confirm if these hazards are still there or not as they drive past). It is also the best ranked mapping service for redirecting routes around traffic congestion because users are reporting those things live.
Google bought Waze a few years ago, but have let them do their thing instead of rolling it into G-Maps. Google has incorporated a couple of items from Waze into G-Maps (like reporting some items), but Waze does it better and has the largest user base for a reason. It's the best service out there.