Google Maps Adds Cool New Feature

You'll have to come up with a better excuse for being late.

Google Maps bought traffic-tracker app Waze back in June for a casual billion dollars. Today, the two gargantuan map companies merged. In other words, you'll never get lost again.

Sure, Google Maps works just fine on its own (just ask sulky Apple) but it's based on algorithms and mapping data, not real-time updates. On the other hand, the Israel-based company Waze has cornered the market on updates by real people, doing a lot of real-life moving around. Google Maps is the world leader of GPS technology, so the higher-ups at Google did some math and realized that a merge can only end in map-brilliance.

On Tuesday, Google kicked off the merge: Google Maps has been updated to include traffic updates from Waze, and Waze users now get Street View and a Search tool. As Google puts it:

No one likes getting stuck in traffic. That’s why the Waze and Google Maps teams are working together to harness the power of Google technology and the passion of the Waze community to make it easier to navigate your daily life.

So how exactly does this "Waze community" work? Well, drivers, pedestrians and other moving humans — more than 50 million of them, to be exact — inform Waze of road closures, deadlocked traffic, the location of speed cameras, and pretty much everything else in sight. You name it, Waze updates it, and then adjusts everybody's route so you get exactly where you want to be at top speed.

As for LA traffic, it can't fix that.