Waze

me all the time everyday I love it

I've been using my Garmin GPS for navigation while running Waze on my tablet. I don't trust Waze for navigation, so this is the perfect setup for city traffic.

I usually have Waze booted on my Iphone while using the Garmin for navigation. I also distrust Waze for routing but it does give you a good idea of what's happening on the road ahead.

Unfortunately, the small screen on the Iphone makes interaction with Waze difficult. I've been thinking of getting an Ipad Mini but I wasn't sure how it would work. I'm glad to hear it works on your tablet. Thanks for the info.

I like waze but don't always get sound. It is difficult to look at my phone and drive at the same time. I prefer my GPS for safety reasons but wish I could incorporate the waze directions into the GPS. They seem to be more intuitive.

I also have sound issues with Waze on my Iphone 5S. Since I have a Bluetooth enabled vehicle paired with the 5S, the fix for me was to go to “My Waze” / “Go to Settings” / “Sound” and check “Prefer Bluetooth”. That way, the Waze directions are sent to the vehicle speakers. There are far fewer missed directions using Bluetooth than with the Iphone speaker.

I have a simple desire :
To run Waze, tap the power button to turn off the screen, place the phone in my pocket, and hear the warning as I drive around for hours.

Unfortunately, I just can't seem to get this to work with WAZE nor with TRAPSTER.

Waze, seems to interfere with loud audio on my Samsung Galaxy S4 runing the latest Cyanogenmod operating system.

Trapster does not have the low volume audio problem, but somehow over time it just stops telling me warnings.

So, I continue to use the Garmin Nuvi for speed camera warnings.

i rarely use waze anymore.

Yes my husband : the program went from great to almost unusable, still don't work over Bluetooth

I agree. As far as traffic goes Garmin has catching up to do. Should be able to have interface or something like Waze does.

Great product for traffic but I heard Scout is also good.

I like to use Waze for the hazards, cops, and other incidents on my iPhone but also use my Garmin. Together, it's almost a perfect world. Oh I almost forgot - I also have the Garmin Smart Link app running in the background on my iPhone and the app of course connects to the Garmin. Highly recommended!!

I've been using my Garmin and Waze running on my G3 side by side for the summer. There is the occasional times where loss of data connection can trip Waze up, but otherwise it proved vastly superior for our uses, more than making up for the hassle of putting my phone in a holder and plugging it in. The traffic data was faster and more accurate. The alerts are helpful as is avoidance items like speed/red light camera's and speed traps without the need to manually install files. Routing between the two was generally the same with both having their bizarre what-were-they-thinking moments. Traffic avoidance was where Waze really shined. In one case Waze routed us off and on a highway to avoid a recent truck accident that stopped traffic for what we later heard was hours. Garmin would have had us plow right in. I finally made the decision to retire the Garmin from regular use a couple of days ago, it now resides in a map pocket just in case there's ever a dire moment without any data.

Today, on a familiar route along the Interstate, Waze wanted me to exit two miles before the regular exit I take. I ignored Waze, and as soon as it recalculated, it warned me of an accident ahead. I continued, but there was no accident and no slow-down. Perhaps the accident was cleared out and Waze did not get an update.
In spite of that, I prefer Waze for the reasons you cited and have retired my Garmins as well. I didn't even get the Nav system on our 2015 Subaru because Waze, with frequently updated software, is superior.
I just wish Waze would do a better job of locating places like Maps does. If I type in the search bar, Joann Fabrics, Waze will come up with a list of Joanns all over the area, not necessarily the nearest one. I'd rather see the search results listed by distance from my current location. Some day, they may get around to fixing that glitch.

Seems like a good option for cars with built in navs, since they usually do not include traffic. Or do the built in ones do now?

Glitch, it's a feechur

The difference between a 'glitch' or bug and a feature is the latter is documented.

I've ignored the warnings to get off at the next exit and have been screwed, thereby adding insane hours long delays. Reversely, I have also listened to Waze and have sat in lights on the service road while drivers on the nice 'congested' road I just exited sailed by me. It all depends on how thorough those before you were in making their contributions by updating the system. This whole procedure only works when people input accurate data. If everyone lurks, no one wins...

Same here. Waze is nice for crowd-sourced data like accidents and police locations. But for routing it is absolutely horrible. Once I watched it try to make a pleasant 15 minute freeway ride into a 45 minute odyssey through back roads and side streets, complete with inexplicable U-turns.

I been used waze for about 2 years and truly I love it.

Have you tried it since Google bought Waze? It has improved.

I use Waze on major roads, for hazards, traps, etc.

I use INRIX for traffic. The best, hands down.

I use my Garmin Nuvi for routing and less than 50% reliable traffic.

I use Google Maps on cell phone for routing and/or traffic when I don't have my Nuvi, or if the Nuvi is not behaving well.

Like the fact you have the ability to choose from different routes with different traffic conditions etc.

If I'm a passenger and without the Garmin I would check for traffic congestion using the Waze, Inrix Traffic, and Calif Traffic apps. Waze is pretty helpful plus it's entertaining to look at the animations.

Google maps uses both INRIX traffic data and Waze reports.

That is so true. Or keep a spare battery or stay plugged in to vehicle's lighter socket

I nearly always use a car charger when using Waze. It really is a power hog. I've been using Waze for a few years now and when I first started using it the phone battery would deplete in a little over an hour or two. It's much better now but it still uses a lot of power. A good, high power charger is a big help.

Good to know. thanks.

From my experience Waze notices generally have the approx. timing on reporting of an event eg. 5 mins. or 15 minutes ago. I use that as a rough guide to whether the event, accident etc. might have been resolved by then, along with trying to read the traffic flow in and around me.

Agree. It is a power hog.

I use Waze on my rooted Android LG G3, which is a quad 2.5GHz phone. I use the SetCPU app so that when the Waze app is running, the CPU top speed is limited to only 1.5GHz and the CPU governor is set to "powersave".

This dramatically improves the battery life of my phone when running Waze. The only sacrifice is it is a little slow drawing the map when I first start the app.

I've noticed that to receive audible Waze warnings, it has to be on top (on screen). If it is in the background, it might still suck power, but it won't give audible warnings.

On my iPhone, this aspect of Waze is nondeterministic. If it's the top app, I get the warnings (but the screen will time out). If it's in the background with as an example, Fog of World on top, the screen won't time out (Fog of World takes acre of that), and some times I get Waze audible alerts, some times I don't.

As a systems and software developer, hard bugs are one thing -- nondeterministic behavior like this is far, far worse.

My main gripe with Waze is that the routing can be terrible.

I still see situations where my destination is five miles directly in front of me on the freeway, and Waze wants me to get off at the nearest exit and U-turn back the way I came. Or my destination is right off the next exit, and Waze wants me to keep going.

I don't get screen timeouts with Waze on top. Maybe there's an app setting?

Sometimes I don't get Waze audibles at all, even when on top. When I discover that, I close the app and reopen it, and/or restart the iPhone. That usually resolves it. I wish there was a "sound test" button in Waze to test for audibles, without having to run navigation in Waze.

I have no clue how in works in the states, here I use my Garmin but I was visiting the country where WAZE was developed and for 16 days of travels up and down the country and in the cities it worked flawlessly, from the Sea of Galilee to Haifa down to Ein Bokek in the Dead Sea Area and everywhere in between not one complaint.

The question was asked: "Anyone tried Waze for Android or iOs?"

Answer: NO

I use Waze, INRIX, and Google maps on IOS.

i like it

I use both when driving long distance. Waze has better route and alerts, while Garmin has better interface.

i check routes on waze/google maps whenever navigate. Garmin has good routes, but may not be best when traffic is considered.

The Garmin is great when there is no cell coverage, and the WAZE roads disappear...

I added this app to have an alternate to my GPS and it seemed to work ok. I like the traffic feature but from what I am reading it is dependent on users inputting the traffic problems?

is useful when I am stuck in a traffic jam and need a sense of how long the jam will last.

No driver input = no useful traffic data

Waze does sense your speed while you drive and if your driving significantly under the speed limit it uses that information to advise others of slow downs or traffic jams (no, it doesn't use the information to report you as a speeder).
For other problems (wrecks,cameras, etc) it relies on user input or other traffic sources.
Since it is now owned by Google they also use the Waze traffic information to supplement Google Maps traffic.

http://www.engadget.com/2015/09/03/waze-data-lawsuit/

If the plaintiff can really show that Waze was using imaginary data buried in his product, the defense will have a hard time claiming to be innocent.

- Tom -

It sounds like both Waze and Inrix are worth a try to complement my Garmin as opposed to replacing it. I will give them a try.

Still trying Waze. Haven't decided if I'll keep it.

Yes, and I am a big fan of the app.

I've searched this site and haven't found an answer. Does Waze use very much data? I only have a 2 GB data plan and don't want to run over, but would like to use Waze. How about it?