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Google Maps Rival Sports a Feature That Waze and Apple Maps Need as Well

While Google Maps is currently the world’s number one mobile navigation solution, it’s also not a secret that some of its rivals came up with ideas that customers of the search company would love to get as well.
Huawei Petal Maps dynamic lightning effects 6 photos
Photo: Huawei
New Petal Maps featuresNew Petal Maps featuresNew Petal Maps featuresNew Petal Maps featuresNew Petal Maps features
The wrong-way driver warning from Sygic, for instance, is a brilliant idea that would work like a charm not only in Waze (where the crowdsourcing engine is playing an essential role in the entire experience with the app) but also in Google Maps, which sources some of the data from its sibling.

Huawei, however, has also developed a little feature that users of Petal Maps seem to really love: support for dynamic weather effects when the navigation app is running.

Back in 2019 when Huawei was blacklisted by the United States, the company started working on alternatives to most apps and services offered by American companies. As a result, Google Maps was replaced with Petal Maps, an application that has since made huge progress and which is now a pretty advanced navigation solution for Huawei users.

In addition to the essential feature package, Huawei Petal Maps also comes with a series of extras that help it set the app apart from the rest of the crowd, including what the parent company calls dynamic lightning effects.

Petal Maps can already display weather information when the app is launched, but with this feature, it shows weather animations on top of the map. For instance, when it’s raining, Petal Maps displays dynamic lightning effects over the app, therefore making the experience overall more, well, eye candy.

For users who are only interested in the navigation experience, this probably doesn’t make any sense, but on the other hand, it certainly makes everything feel more modern, especially if the forecast is accurate and the effects on the screen align with what’s happening outside.

The bigger challenge for navigation software companies is to make this experience feel as less intrusive as possible. With dynamic effects showing up on top of the map, the navigation information could therefore be blocked or harder to read, which eventually increases the level of distraction behind the wheel. And given these visual effects are displayed when it’s raining, so the visibility is already reduced, this is without a doubt a big no-no.

For the time being, however, Google Maps, Waze, Apple Maps, and the rest of the navigation apps out there stick with a clear UI that is entirely focused on the map data offered to drivers. Some also show a weather temperature icon and information related to the pollution level, but otherwise, a new layer that would include dynamic effects isn’t something they seem to be very interested in. Or at least, not for the time being.
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About the author: Bogdan Popa
Bogdan Popa profile photo

Bogdan keeps an eye on how technology is taking over the car world. His long-term goals are buying an 18-wheeler because he needs more space for his kid’s toys, and convincing Google and Apple that Android Auto and CarPlay deserve at least as much attention as their phones.
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