Lots of it is integrated into Maps: a good portion of the traffic/accident alerts have a "reported by Waze" line at the bottom. I wouldn't be surprised if they start sunsetting Waze once they're fully integrated and finished experimenting on it.

ding ding ding. this guy gets it

I'm pretty sure its because it allows them to experiment with delivering advertisements that they wouldn't be able to shove into GMaps without protest (Waze has ads that cover half the screen with a banner ad every time your car slows down/stops for example).

almost no-one i know that uses waze knows that it's a google product. some even say "i don't even know why google doesn't buy waze!".

(in my country, waze is the go to app for navigation for everyone)

Even I am surprised too but I guess since Google started working on self-driving cars and then after seeing the advent of ride-hailing apps, they may have thought to keep Waze so one day Google can convert it into a ride-hailing + navigation app. Maybe that's the plan who knows!

i still don't get that argument. target audience of Waze is people who have cars and drive it around. people don't open up waze to get a taxi, they open it up to start driving.