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One of the great bright lights of open-source software and user-driven community projects is OpenStreetMap, which offers an open-source mapping platform similar to, but also very philosophically different than, Google Maps.
It manages to duplicate most of Google Maps using primarily the contributions of enthusiastic users, too.
In my experience, OpenStreetMap is every bit as accurate as Google Maps and quite frequently surpasses it, particularly outside the US. That it is even anywhere close to Google Maps is a testament to massive amount of time and effort the OpenStreetMap community has invested in the project.
One place that Google Maps has always had OpenStreetMap beat, though, is Google Street View, for which – until relatively recently – there was no OSM equivalent.
Telenav, one of OSM's major supporters, has now launched a new project dubbed OpenStreetView with the goal of crowdsourcing street-level photography for OpenStreetMap across the globe.
Experience for yourself at https://www.openstreetmap.org.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by q.kontinuum on Thursday December 15 2016, @11:31AM
Full disclosure: I work for HERE [here.com], in a technical role, not marketing. I speak my mind, but might be biased. Part of us is Navteq (some of you might remember the name), map provider for - as far as I know - 80% of all built in car navigation systems and Garmin navigation systems. We also have a couple of other customers that might not want to work with Google for various reasons, or indeed consider our map-data or services superior, or our licensing-options advantageous. Therefore I'd say the perception to be hostage to Google Maps does not match reality.
With regards to OSM, I think it is a really nice project, and for pedestrian navigation, especially in rural areas, I often found it superior to Google Maps or HERE [here.com].
However, it relies heavily on GPS data casually collected on the way (via smartphones etc.), later merged into the map by volunteers. Therefore, it lacks a lot of supplemental information, like speed limits etc. Road classification seems to be off quite often.
Also, HERE and Google provide traffic-information (notify for traffic jams), historical travel times to predict arrival time, sophisticated route calculation, an iOS- and Android Apps for voice guidance, etc. HERE navigation allows for offline-navigation with reasonably-sized maps to download (OSM maps are afaik bigger in memory consumption and in some areas less complete), making it an ideal companion for travelling (because you can avoid roaming-fees), while Google - due to their search-business - might have more point of interests (I wouldn't know, I'm using HERE maps exclusively and not missing anything).
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 15 2016, @02:00PM
> and for pedestrian navigation, especially in rural areas, I often found it superior to Google Maps or HERE.
Huh? Am I missing something? Because in my experience in rural areas Google Maps and HERE are 100% USELESS for pedestrian navigation, I don't see them even TRYING?!
(Score: 3, Informative) by q.kontinuum on Thursday December 15 2016, @02:49PM
"In rural areas", I have to disagree. Streets are still quite accurate, I think.
"pedestrian" && "In rural areas" might be a different story. I did see some paths not suitable for anything else but pedestrian. But yes, it's only very few. That's why I wrote I found OSM superior for those use-cases. In cities-centers HERE pedestrian navigation seems quite ok.
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(Score: 2) by richtopia on Thursday December 15 2016, @04:43PM
I've tried HERE on a number of occasions, and I like the UI a lot. However it is lacking in the data gathering of Google Maps: I've hit road closures with HERE maps that Google Maps navigates around. Read into that as you will - I am paranoid and dislike Google watching my every move, but I do see the convince of better traffic and business locations.
The biggest feature that Google provides is the business search. Their library of local businesses is the best I've seen between any of the mapping software: Open Street Maps, Bing Maps, Map Quest, Here Maps (I've never used Apple Maps) all have comparable features but just don't have the vast library and often struggle associating locations with queries. Currently have OSMAnd and Google Maps on my phone as they cover the two extremes: Google Maps will help with busy traffic and locating businesses, while OSMAnd allows me to use my phone without mobile data and has some good hiking features.
And I just remembered my biggest complaint of HERE Maps: it beeps when you are speeding. Probably user error there.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 15 2016, @05:16PM
Speed-alerts can nowadays be adjusted (beep when exceeding by x km/h) or even switched off.
For the traffic information, they are shown in the app, but for some reason not considered when calculating the route. The backend is afaik capable but the apps don't use the feature... don't ask...