Yankee 2.0

So, I’m known to be an Apple fan, but not a fanboy. But I don’t think that’s why I’m noting that I for one am not ditching my Apple Maps app for iOS for Google just yet.

I’ve been running an interesting (to me) experiment with the two, along with INRIX traffic on my phone. I haven’t had to use Google Maps much yet for directions, but I have used it on my commute to tell me how the traffic is and when I might actually pull into my parking garage and get into the office.

And so far – Apple Maps is killing Google when it comes to giving me the right time when I am farthest from the office – and in fact, Google has been nothing short of atrocious.

Wednesday morning, leaving my house, I was informed slightly depressingly by Apple that I was going to be at my office 1 hour, 1 minute later. INRIX was less optimistic, at about 1 hour, 3 minutes. But Google had me panicking by letting me know that actually we were looking at a 1 hour, 24 minute ride – to the point where I considered adding about 10 miles to my ride as it suggested to take a route that would get me down to 1 hour, 10 minutes.

But I stayed the course, and lo and behold, as I got closer to Boston, the time improved on Google, all the way to, wait for it, 1 hour, 1 minute when I was about 2 miles from the office. (Of course, at that point, I didn’t need an app to tell me how much longer it would be.

So I scored a victory for Apple and moved on. But on the reverse ride, it happened again. Apple was almost on the mark and Google was about 15 minutes off in its estimate. And Thursday AM. And Thursday PM. And Friday. And Friday night, going to a different destination – same result.

The old Google Maps didn’t have this issue. But then again, maybe Google is thinking like the restaurant maitre d’ who tells you it will be 30 minutes for your table and seats you in 15. You feel like you saved time and it makes you happy. If this is a feature, I’m not sure I’m a fan.

Or maybe they’re just wrong.