Palestinians in the Palestinian-administered parts of the West Bank live in a completely separate reality from Israelis just a few miles away, to the point that many roads are only open to one of those populations. This turns out to be a real challenge for crowdsourced navigation apps like Waze and Google Maps. Although the linked article makes much of the countries each service is based in, I find this more interesting as a study in the accidental politicisation of maps. I don’t think Waze is trying to handicap Palestinians; it’s stuck in a model of trying to show one consensus reality, when what’s a great route for one driver may be illegal or unacceptably dangerous for another.