Waze

 
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did you try a search?

Did you try a search or just pop out your question? there have been several discussions where POI-Factory users have weighed in on WAZE.

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just started using waze

got excited and wanted to share

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My impression of Waze is that it is populated by 14 year olds.

Waze can be OK

but, it depends on a data connection to do any good so be aware. I use it on occasion to route but more often to check for traffic and other problems before heading out on a route that I'll be using TomTom USA for.

Oh, and I'm hardly a 14 year old. smile But then again i never use the chat or social feature of Waze so I wouldn't know.

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If you don't know where you are going, you might wind up someplace else. - Yogi Berra

waze user

Motorcycle Mama wrote:

My impression of Waze is that it is populated by 14 year olds.

I do use it and certainly not a 14 year old. Not perfect but it does have its uses, especially maps that have locations not on my Garmin PND and app.
And it has been extremely useful when there is heavy traffic, which has been reported by other users but which have not yet shown up on the "majors."

I don't use the chat part of

I don't use the chat part of it, but I use it to report hidden speed traps.

Have it installed

Have not used it much recently. A previous version was crash prone for me, while the Google nav app is quite stable and reliable.

If you have co-pilot, Waze makes more sense as they can report issues while you concentrate on operating the vehicle. An interesting concept and implementation though.

wase

I have been using it for the past year. I use it as a toy, not a GPS. It keeps me busy when I get bored, and it's nice on speed traps and other distractions on the road.

Shlomie

what works best for me

alofficial wrote:

got excited and wanted to share

What works best for me is the INRIX app. They supply the traffic information to most of your local TV and radio stations. It will suck a battery dry pretty quickly - as well as your data plan as it does require a constant connection. But the hidden advantage if you are a Sprint or Verizon customer and using 3G is no annoying incoming phone calls.

The INRIX display is driven through actual data taken from vehicle probes in the road along with a few users that have turned on the "Follow Me." It uses GPS to both update the map display and to report your actual travel speed and location.

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Good, with limits

Like many things, good when you understand the assumptions going into the technology, and the limitations present.

I've been using WAZE for a couple of months. I like the traffic feedback. I like the audio alerts; in my Mini, since they come through Bluetooth, the music pauses, WAZE tosses in its two cents, and the music resumes. Very polite.

What I don't like is you need to have the thing on a charging cable, as WAZE will drain your battery (and turn your iPhone into a dandy hand warmer).

A point I commented on in a different thread, WAZE assumes data connectivity to load map tiles.

I understand that areas in and near Yosemite may not have cellular coverage. But Santa Clara County, where so much of this technology came from? and not low-rent or unpopulated areas either; I'm talking about populated, high-rent sections of the county with ATT proudly delivering NO SIGNAL.

But that's why I rely on my Nuvi for nav, as it has a full set of maps built in, is hard-wired for power, and is mounted so I can tag the touch screen with a finger without taking my right hand off the steering wheel.

Oh, in the Mini, its oversized centrally mounted speedo is a poor joke. Not accurate even with stock tires, let alone if you change tire sizes. Severe parallax from the driver trying to read it while driving. That's another thing I depend on my Nuvi for -- accurate speed.

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Nuvi 2460, 680, DATUM Tymserve 2100, Trimble Thunderbolt, Ham radio, Macintosh, Linux, Windows

Heck, I thought it was

Heck, I thought it was Elmore Fudd's way of saying "Ways"

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Motorcycle Mama wrote:

My impression of Waze is that it is populated by 14 year olds.

My impression is that it isn't populated. On several trips on I-95 there was no data, despite passing (and uploading) several "active police" locations. The only things I saw in Waze were the "known enforcement locations".

Ok for traffic but terrible routing

I've used it... as far as crowd-sourced data (traffic, police, accidents, etc), it's not bad. OTOH, for routing, it's terrible. It chooses weird, way out of the way routes that you would NEVER want to take. So my recommendation would be to only use it for the traffic (etc) info when you know where you are going and ignore the routes it comes up with.

FWIW, I've tried waze, inrix, google maps, beat the traffic, and others, and I have consistently found the best traffic reporting to come from google maps. I can be on the highway looking at the map, and when it shows yellow, I'm in traffic; and when it goes to green, the traffic ends. Very very accurate per my tests.

Waze only for police and accident reporting.

I use Waze daily and find it helpful for traffic information on busy highways that I travel to get to my work. For navigation to a destination over unknown roads, not so much.

Yes, I like the police and accident reports but some navigation routes are listed goofy. For example: on my daily route to work, Waze tells me to take a right and then after 100 feet to make a u-turn while I can go straight over an intersection without losing a lot of travel time.

In my opinion, there is no better navigation app than Google Navigator. Unless you go driving off roads, then I rely on Backcountry Navigator Pro.

Still don't understand the need of Waze user icons on my screen. First, those users are not always truly in close proximity and with funny nicknames who cares if they are. Secondly, social features as chit chat do not belong in a navigation application. Rather show me an icon, that shows the maximum speed for a road and alert me when I go 10% faster than the maximum speed wink Or show me a list of users that drive the same work route 90% of the route length so I can contact them for car pooling smile

update

Time for a WAZE update:

I have recently moved from Chicago to Atlanta and as most of you know that both cities have terrible traffic problems.

I have been using my Garmin 3597 and my WAZE app at the same time to travel from Chicago to Atlanta and I have used them both to go to and from work in Atlanta. All I can say is that WAZE has come a long way and the product is getting more and more "polished" with every new version that comes out.

The TRAFFIC reporting is the BEST reporting of any device I have used (including my Garmin's). WAZE has rerouted me around Atlanta traffic on a daily basis while my Garmin is still routing me through traffic.

All I can say is that if you want a product that saves you time on your commutes then try out the WAZE app. Their routes are as good as the Garmin. Their traffic is number 1, Google now uses WAZE traffic in Google Maps.

Happy travels and stay away from traffic!

WAZE is really useful--

-- particularly when you come upon traffic... Bring up WAZE and you'll get a quick (and accurate) idea of what's going on, especially in Silicon Valley where we have a reasonably high population density of WAZE users. As WAZE gets data from its users, their updates are usually faster and more accurate than the stuff from the Garmin, which must be captured, digested, and disseminated. With WAZE you can see, "Oh, there are a bunch of WAZE folks 3 miles ahead of me on this road, and they're going 4 MPH."

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Nuvi 2460, 680, DATUM Tymserve 2100, Trimble Thunderbolt, Ham radio, Macintosh, Linux, Windows

How does Google maps use WAZE?

I know Google Maps bought WAZE or something like that. I have seen the WAZE maps, but I don't see WAZE on Google Maps.

traffic

WASTENTIME wrote:

I know Google Maps bought WAZE or something like that. I have seen the WAZE maps, but I don't see WAZE on Google Maps.

Google maps is using WAZE traffic data.

Waze went weird

I was a very enthusiastic supporter of Waze until yesterday when I used it to try to get out of a very congested downtown Bethesda, MD, and it routed me some gawd awful back roads, including a one way bridge with an excruciating long wait for oncoming traffic to clear. and then the app froze, which, worse than crashing, took me a while to realize that my vehicle's icon wasn't moving. It's possible that the phone lost its GPS signal since it was sitting on the console well below the dash. But Waze should have indicated no GPS.
The wife pulled out the Garmin and got us back on track.

I have been using Waze in

I have been using Waze in addition to, and not in lieu of my Garmin.

First off, Waze can sometimes come up with bizarre routing for no good reason (ex. severe traffic).

What does make Waze a good tool is that the traffic data is user driven and often more up to date and accurate than what I am seeing on my Garmin.

I frequently travel from Long Island to the Poconos and have to drive through the Bronx and over the George Washington Bridge. There is quite a bit of ongoing major construction and a few accidents here and there to add an hour to a 3 hour drive. All to often I am sitting in the Bronx, stuck but a few miles from the GW Bridge but at a standstill that can easily add up to an additional 40 or more minutes. The Garmin frequently does not show the delay- even though a lot of the times it is due to long term construction. This is where I pay attention to Waze, see what it offers and make a decision based on both units.

Waze is also helpful in reporting and receiving information about road hazards and police. Sure, you can use Waze for more social functions, but I am only interested in the user-driven data so that I can decide the paths I will travel and avoid.

Rob

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Maps -> Wife -> Garmin 12XL -> StreetPilot 2610 -> Nuvi 660 (blown speaker) -> Nuvi 3790LMT

Would it be fair to say that

Would it be fair to say that Copilot is a better choice for navigation than Waze? Is there a better option for phone gps than Copilot?

Sticking to My Garmin

I'm not crazy about Waze, so I'm sticking to my Garmin GPS.

INRX

For up to date traffic conditions presented well in an app, I like INRX. Though, I have to say that their latest update has rendered the app less useful than before IMHO.

downloaded it

but haven't gotten a chance to use it yet. Have heard alot about Waze but not Copilot. Do they do the same things? Which is better?

I occasionally use Waze. As

I occasionally use Waze. As long as one has a good cell/internet connection it performs well.

It is completely dependent on Waze users to report speed cameras. Their database of these items varies by location depending on how many waze users travel in that area and report.

Personally, I feel unsafe doing any reporting while driving unless I am at a full stop at a red light or in stop and go traffic.

Waze has the potential to be more useful than a Garmin GPS in that traffic speeds, police speed traps, accidents, etc.. are reported by other drivers in real-time beating the timeliness of GPS based traffic systems.

Good for Real Time Reports

Waze is a good GPS application for real time events such as traffic jams, road hazards, wrecks, or police. The application has saved us from being stuck in traffic on multiple occassions.

Distracted Driving Issue

I don't use my cell phone in the car - and distracted driving is only one reason. I find the screen too small for my aging eyesight redface

I am not trying to be a smart***, but how do you get around the distracted driving issue, if you are looking at your cell phone for traffic flow and accidents?

Do you place your phone on a mount and simply run the app while you are driving?

It can be a bit distracting

If you set up Waze as a GPS, and have it plan a route for you, you can keep your eyes on the road and listen for the turn by turn directions. You can glance at it now and then, as you might glance at your speedometer, to see if the map colors have changed to indicate something like slow traffic ahead. I find the distracting part is something as simple as trying to report a vehicle on the shoulder. You must hit a button as you pass the vehicle to lock in the GPS position. Then you must hit several other buttons to indicate what it is (hazard), what kind is (vehicle), where it is (on shoulder). Then hit "send". By the time I've "glanced" at the smartphone that long, I find myself sometimes drifting out of my lane. I've stopped making those reports. The most I do now is confirm or hit "not there" when a warning pops up.

Try Voice Commands

Most of the input for Waze can be done with voice commands. I just wave my hand over the screen (I don't even need to touch it) which activates the voice commands listen function. I then say what I want to report. It works pretty well except for when there is a lot of background noise (I have the radio turned up too loud).
Instructions can be found here: https://www.waze.com/wiki/Voice_Commands

"Report Police"
"Report accident" - "Major"
"Report hazard" - "Shoulder" - "Car stopped"

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Live every day like it's your last. Some day you'll be right - Benny Hill

I will have to give Voice

I will have to give Voice Commands a try sometime. Thanks!

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Maps -> Wife -> Garmin 12XL -> StreetPilot 2610 -> Nuvi 660 (blown speaker) -> Nuvi 3790LMT

Ditto

Ditto

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Gattina11

Waze is OK. I use it to

Waze is OK.

I use it to supplement my Garmin. Waze sometimes has some wacky routings though, so be careful.

Be careful is an

Be careful is an understatement. You should always use your common sense when using any GPS guidance.

BTW I've used WAZE since it came to market and I always use it with my Garmin and the routes are as good or better than the Garmin.

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HowardZ wrote:

I occasionally use Waze. As long as one has a good cell/internet connection it performs well.
. . .
Personally, I feel unsafe doing any reporting while driving unless I am at a full stop at a red light or in stop and go traffic.

If Waze detects you are moving when you try to report an item, it will pop-up a balloon about it being unsafe to do so while driving. I think it lets you click/touch that you are co-pilot for workaround, but I haven't tried it so can't say for sure. Haven't tried the oral commands posted above yet either.

Just started using it

I just started using Waze, so far I like it.
Tomorrow I start an 1100 mile trip so I will get a better feel for it.

WAZE and Means

I've used WAZE for 2 years now. I only use it for traffic and accident reports, I trust my TomTom for routing me to where I want to go. I use both WAZE and my TomTom when traveling - on a trip to Mass. WAZE came in very handy with realtime traffic updates on the unfamiliar roads.

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I know of some people who

I know of some people who swear by Waze but I've tried it on and off and I'm not entirely comfortable using it versus other methods. Maybe one day it will just click for me. I do know for a fact that the updates on traffic is pretty accurate.

Make sure you have a backup

I was on a trip to Miami. For some reason I lost the connection to the Waze servers so I also lost the routing. Had to use a backup device to continue my trip

I May Just Be Paranoid, But . . .

I started to install Waze but stopped when I saw the list of permissions that they require. When I saw that they require access to my Contacts file, I decided that I would give Waze a pass. I see no reason to provide that information to them, so I just backed out of the installation process for Waze.

- Tom -

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XXL540, GO LIVE 1535, GO 620

Well, Waze is now owned by

Well, Waze is now owned by Google - and Google likes to spy on us to some degree.

I think the Contacts might be for other reasons. I wonder if you can have Waze friends who get added to the contact list?

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-et- wrote:

I started to install Waze but stopped when I saw the list of permissions that they require. When I saw that they require access to my Contacts file, I decided that I would give Waze a pass. I see no reason to provide that information to them, so I just backed out of the installation process for Waze.

- Tom -

If you want to navigate using Waze, wouldn't Waze need your contact information? Nothing nefarious about that.

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If you don't know where you are going, you might wind up someplace else. - Yogi Berra

Tried it

Just can't bring myself to use it. Just too cartoonish and doesn't provide anything more useful then what Google Maps offers.

access to camera and mic

-et- wrote:

I started to install Waze but stopped when I saw the list of permissions that they require. When I saw that they require access to my Contacts file, I decided that I would give Waze a pass. I see no reason to provide that information to them, so I just backed out of the installation process for Waze.

- Tom -

i would also like to have an option to turn off the access to camera and mic for this app. if I don't care about voice commands I don't want to be listened to

crowdsourcing

bandirector wrote:

Just can't bring myself to use it. Just too cartoonish and doesn't provide anything more useful then what Google Maps offers.

It gives you intel on conditions ahead, from other Waze users. Such as accidents, debris in road, police activity.

I agree it's too cartoonish, but in metro areas with many users, it beats traffic reports every 10 minutes on the radio, or a ticket.

Waze and Bad Routing

JamClam wrote:

I've used it... as far as crowd-sourced data (traffic, police, accidents, etc), it's not bad. OTOH, for routing, it's terrible. It chooses weird, way out of the way routes that you would NEVER want to take.

I have the same experiece.

Also, just this week I used Waze on my tablet (it overheats my phone & eats the battery) on what should have been a 45 min trip. Despite Waze identifying standstill thruway traffic due to construction for 2 miles, it still routed me through there and it took me an hour to go 2 miles. Meanwhile there was an alternate route that Waze never took me through, that would have bypassed those two miles in ten minutes.

-et- wrote:

I started to install Waze but stopped when I saw the list of permissions that they require. When I saw that they require access to my Contacts file, I decided that I would give Waze a pass. I see no reason to provide that information to them, so I just backed out of the installation process for Waze.

- Tom

I'm using Waze for Android 3.7.2 from August 2013. Nice permissions, no access to Contacts.

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Re-CAL-culating... "Some people will believe anything they read on the internet" - Abraham Lincoln

Google Maps uses Waze

It's interesting that Google Maps App traffic now reports on Waze traffic incidents. Google should buy them. smile

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ptownoddy wrote:

Google Maps Uses Waze

It's interesting that Google Maps App traffic now reports on Waze traffic incidents. Google should buy them. smile

Already did... Last July...

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*Keith* MacBook Pro *wifi iPad(2012) w/BadElf GPS & iPhone6 + Navigon*

Just curious

How do you get immediate updates to conditions ahead? Are the people that report this adding it to the site as they are driving down the road? I certainly hope not! Are they pulling off the road at that time and entering the info? Probably not, so how accurate is the information.

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Nuvi 2460LMT.

Waze

Yes, they are making the updates real time. Waze allows Voice commands to make updates as to stopped vehicles, police construction, etc. Your actual driving speeds are automatically uploaded to Waze in order to show where slow downs, traffic backups, speeds in construction zones, etc. Some Tom Toms do the same things.

The information is usually very accurate.

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Frank DriveSmart55 37.322760, -79.511267

real-time!

Friday night my wife called me -- she was stopped in traffic on the freeway, and wanted to know what was going on. I brought up Waze on my iPhone and was able to tell her where the accident was (just ahead of her) and that things opened up again afterwards. She may even be interested in this stuff now!

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Nuvi 2460, 680, DATUM Tymserve 2100, Trimble Thunderbolt, Ham radio, Macintosh, Linux, Windows
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