Google Maps and Waze have a lot of things in common, which makes sense considering Google is responsible for them both. But no matter how many updates happen, and how small the gap becomes, Google Maps and Waze remain very distinct as their core. And it's primarily down to the fact the two navigation apps both work in completely different ways.
Google Maps is all about the data, with years of archives to fall back on, while Waze is more focused on crowdsourcing data from other drivers — and relying on them to keep things up to date. Waze is also famous for how aggressively it can be in trying to speed up your trip, which is part of the reason it's so popular.
