Bidding war for Waze?

Facebook had it bought but negotiations stopped because Waze wanted their employees to stay in Israel while Facebook wanted them in California.

Waze has deviated from being a traffic app to more of a social media app. The mapset is created by volunteers and can be edited by anyone with a minimum level of "points".

Users of Waze who wish to update the road conditions risk their lives and the lives of others by "texting and driving". The traffic conditions is only as good as those who provide/feed the info.

With each update, Waze integrates more social media settings or features. There is nothing fun about driving in traffic and chatting with fellow Wazers.

For that reason, I can see Facebook taking a lead in this venture. For me and in my big large city, people hardly ever use Waze for traffic conditions any more. Perhaps the people behind Waze realize this and want to ditch their product while it's still worth something.

http://www.engadget.com/2013/06/09/google-waze-acquisition-r...

There's no texting necessary with Waze. It only takes 4 screen taps on the icons to send a message to others that there is heavy traffic or a car stalled on the shoulder. Less, if you enable voice commands.

I'm finding it pretty reliable after a few days of testing.

I have been using Waze the past few weeks.

I find it's speed camera database is missing some, as it is based on people reporting them, and Waze is not yet so popular here.

It has some nice merits, as it does turn-by-turn GPS, Trapster like reporting of cameras or other road hazards, displays traffic slowdowns, and has some kind of user to user messaging (which I have not tried).

It is a little challenging to resist looking down at the phone. Perhaps a dashboard phone mounting gizmo will make it a little safer?

Waze does have voice reporting options available to use while driving. With them turned on all you do is either a quick tap on the screen or use a hand wave to get it to listen and then say the commands.
I have also noticed Waze seems to pre-load the maps for the general area around you when it is running - even when not using the navigation feature. If I am in a rural area and loose cell service it will still show the maps for the next 20 to 30 minutes of driving or so. Of course it doesn't get immediate updates of traffic and such without cell service but it still shows the maps and it is still accurate.
I did find a minor map problem one day (mis-labeled street name - it was State Highway in a rural area that had been re-routed since the old route along the Ohio River flooded too often) so I went online when I got home and corrected it on their map update website. As soon as I saved the corrections the maps instantly updated.

Yesterday, we were stopped behind a jack knifed semi on I-77 north in NC. Supposedly, there were 500+ "wazers" near us. We sat there not moving an inch for 1.5+ HOURS. People were out of their cars walking around talking to eachother. If I had had my frisbee with me, I'd have been playing frisbee LOL.

Through all this, WAZE continued to claim that the traffic flow on this section of road was about 44 mph... Despite having an alert for the blockage.

Cheers,
--Hawk

That precisely is the reason why I like INRIX. It uses sensors placed in the road to determine if traffic is moving rather than waiting for someone to report a stoppage.