I've only heard of Waze mentioned on this site. I thought it was like Google Maps. What is it exactly and what does membership get ya?
well it's free no charge for it, never has been
it is owned by google now they bought it several years ago
it is like google maps except different, the main difference is I guess you could call it crowd-sourced in that you as a user can make real-time traffic reports
things like objects in the road, potholes, vehicles stopped, cars on the side of the road, construction, traffic jam, animals, you name it.
you can also mark police or highway patrol locations, then as each user passes by the same marked location the app will alert you and offer you a chance the indicate if the police are still in the location or not so the alert is always in real time, if you drive by and the cop is gone you just press not there, same for any other alert set by other users.
it is also a navigation app just like google maps the main difference in navigation is better real time updates and it will offer a alternate route if traffic is jamed up
google maps is more comprehensive, but waze is programmed to automatically update the map as you drive and as a user you can submit changes if something is incorrect.
I personally use it 99.99999% of the time if I go anywhere I have it set to automatically start whenever android auto starts.
it has a small ad format that shows up accross the bottom of the screen but only when you are completely stopped and it instantly goes away when you move again.
so the bottom line is the more people that use it the more accurate it is.