I noticed the fact that the new mobile Maps apps for Droid and iPhone included “Enhanced navigation” out of the corner of my eye but it became apparent this morning as I started playing with the new iPhone App exactly what it meant. On the Lat-Long Blog Google noted:

Enhanced navigation: In addition to current traffic conditions, we’ve added two new features to help you navigate around traffic. You can now see reports of problems on the road that you can tap to see incident details. While on the road, Google Maps will also alert you if a better route becomes available and reroute you to your destination faster. This feature is available only on Android and is coming soon to iOS.

These road reports include construction information (obviously sourced from DOT etc) as well as incident reports. It is not at all clear where that information is coming from. It is interesting to me that Google is including this real time information prior to their full absorption of Waze. It is obvious that Google would have done real time data with or without the Waze acquisition. Perhaps not as well, perhaps not as thoroughly but done it none the less.

What will be interesting with Waze is whether Google is capable of sustaining their strong community. That has not been a strength of Google. It will also be interesting to see how Apple responds to this feature or if they are able to.

Here is a screen shot of the area around Philadelphia.