Technology Tuesday: Wazing Around

I am often hesitant to even bother trying out apps to replace ones that are already “best of class” and darn near perfect. Yet, despite my reluctance to add another navigation app to my phone, I downloaded Waze a few weeks ago and have been using it exclusively in place of Google Maps Navigation.

There’s lots to love about Wave which is a free, turn-by-turn navigation app with community traffic reporting and social features available on most phones including iPhone, Android and Blackberry.

The Basics

While voice-directed, turn-by-turn navigation with spoken street names is nothing new for most Android users, this might come as a major upgrade for others that have never used an app like Google Nav or Waze. I was mildly entertained a couple of weeks ago when a co-worker proudly showed me his iPhone and a Mapquest App that spoke directions. I was waiting for a punchline or some other awesome display of new functionality. Nope. That was it. Spoken directions. Regardless, whether it is new to you or not, navigation apps with clear, spoken directions are certainly now every bit as good as most standalone GPS units. There are scores of apps available across all platforms that range from ridiculously expensive to mildly expensive to free. With the impressive quality of the free offerings, including Waze, meeting and even exceeding some of the paid apps that can have a price tag of $60 or even annual subscriptions, it’s hard to believe there will be much market for the latter in a few short years.

[Waze navigation screen zoomed out showing next turn, ETA, distance to destination on bottom, and on top bar: Current road reports (18), Group members, my mood (visible to others) and status of GPS and Waze connection]

Massive User Base Already

One of the most important features of Waze is the community reporting and updating. Already boasting a couple of million users in the US, there are most likely many “Wazers” using the app in your area. With the app running, navigating to a specific destination or just running in the background, Waze updates their traffic data with average speeds and more accurately can calculate better routes or a more reliable ETA. While many GPS apps have relatively up-to-date traffic, indicated by red-yellow-green or some other visual indication of road conditions, Waze not only can show you the road speeds but actual reports from users.

In the three weeks that I’ve used Waze, and have had the ability to test it all around New England, the Baltimore area, Washington D.C, Chicago and Charlotte, I’ve yet to pass a fender-bender, accident, road construction or other traffic tie-up that hadn’t already been reported. Even mundane events like tire changers in the break-down lane, or disabled vehicles are reported with incredible speed and precision. One can even look ahead on the route and see other users’ icons and then tap to initiate a chat about upcoming road conditions. Tying this user reported data (both passive and actual reports) in with conventional traffic update sources provides the most up-to-date and accurate traffic reporting of any GPS system I have used.

Furthermore, users can edit maps with a simplicity simply not offered with other systems. Incorrect house numbers, new roads, changes of traffic patterns, closed roads and any other needed update can be done quite easily. Rather than waiting for a semi-annual map update and even having to pay for updated maps, Waze users are constantly served maps that have been communally updated and verified.

One of the features that is amusing are dots on roads that have not been verified since being added. Twice in three weeks (Coming out of Martin State Airport in Maryland and heading into Manchester, New Hampshire airport) there were brand new highways which drastically changed the shortest route that simply were not on Google Maps or TomTom yet. They appeared in Waze with the dots, turning them into “PacMan Roads” which changes the user icon on map into a PacMan like character than munches the dots: this helps to validate & confirm the road AND scores the user “points.” (All the while, potentially saving significant travel time!)

So What the heck are “Points”?

If you want to have a little fun with your driving and enjoy this type of thing, there is a pretty big social and gaming component to Waze. If you care to take advantage of it and like to see yourself climbing the leader board, there are points associated with everything from driving a mile, to munching dots, reporting road problems, correcting house numbers, adding new roads, making forum posts and dozens of other things. Judging the leader boards by state, area or nationally, you can see that lots of people are clearly motivated by “winning” which is great because it means the maps and driving conditions for everyone else is markedly improved.

Groups

Another cool feature is the ability to create and join groups. These can be anything at all: groups of people with a common destination, from the same general area, co-workers & company uses, or a family headed to a weekend getaway with a multi-car caravan.

Let’s say you’ve got a group headed to a big music festival. You are leaving from several points on the East Coast, meeting up at a pre-determined spot and caravaning in together for the last 200 miles. Simply create a group, “Parker’s Festaroo,” and all the other users can easily search and find that name. Now, you can simply stay in touch, see each other on the map, suggest alternate routes, scope out resting spots and generally keep tabs on the caravan. Join as many groups as you please, keep your tin foil hat on for the public groups if you want, and share more with your close groups.

Cops

“It’s not that I don’t like cops, it’s just that I like it when they aren’t around.” I can’t recall which movie had the memorable quote, but I guess if they are going to be around, it’s good to know where they are! There are many apps that offer this functionality, and often cost a few bucks. I’ve tried out a handful, so I know where the speed traps might be lurking, but often the reports are hours or even DAYS old or completely missing. Just like the road reporting, Wazers are vigilant about dropping a “Police Visible” or “Police Hidden” marker: giving me ample warning to light up a bit on the gas pedal.

General Navigation

Even with social features, groups, traffic information, community map improvements and timely road reporting, a GPS app is worthless without reliable, accurate and quick routing and navigation. Waze performs admirably in POI search & general navigation. Routes are calculated quickly and if you veer off the suggested route, re-calculation is prompt. Waze purports to be able to analyze your most traveled routes (to and from home & office for example) and get better over time with best route prediction. I haven’t really been able to test this as my routes are always different. However, the suggested routes and ETAs always seem uncannily accurate.

[Comparing alternate routes]

History and Dashboard

Yet another great feature which I haven’t seen on previous navigation apps is the ability to go onto a website and review your travels. Like apps designed for biking or running, sometimes it is awfully handy to be able to go back and look at routes and history. You can even click a link to import your trails onto Google Earth.

Room for Improvement

  • I don’t like the direction list summary that I sometimes like to view after a route is calculated. Some of the roads and routes are not labelled properly so the direction list my simply say, “4.5 miles take a Right” without telling me the name of the street. While the direction is spoken and put on screen when it comes up while driving, I like a quick de-briefing with all the details before I start my journey.
  • When reporting road conditions, speed traps and other traffic issues, the marker is dropped the moment the report button is pushed. Often times this make take several seconds after noticing the issue. Travelling 65 MPH could obviously mark the spot several hundred feet or even yards away from item needing reporting. It would be good to be able to drop the marker and either have the ability to move it or mark it with an appropriate distance to actual item.
  • The main navigation screen has a top bar (see first picture) with several useful icons including traffic reports. First of all, the easiest to tap and find on the bar is a completely useless “about” screen with nothing more than version info (the white Waze icon in the upper left). Why would you waste precious real estate with such trivial info that could be buried on an “about” screen deep in the settings menu?
  • The “Live Info” icon (Red Exclamation point) should show relevant reports only “on route.” Police reports, accidents and other reports are useless to most drivers if they are not on the route you are traveling. The “Around Me” radius can be changed from anywhere from 1 mile to 100 miles, but even in the case of 1 mile, that’s a lot of irrelevant reports.

Bottom Line

Waze is an admirable replacement to many GPS apps offering not only turn-by-turn directions, but also a host of other features not seen in any other GPS app. This Free app is available on iPhone, Android and Blackberry and I suggest you give it a whirl. If you see TMWSIY on the road, be sure to honk and wave!

See you on the road! Waze on!


**Other Mapping News**

Just this morning, Google pushed an update for Google Maps that is apparently only available for Android. One of the new features is INDOOR mapping! Select malls, airports, office buildings have floor plans and layouts where you can navigate around just like you are on the highway simply by selecting which floor you are on. Businesses & locations not currently supported can add their own floorplans so hopefully this will be widely supported in the future. Check out the demo and click “Go Indoors” along the bottom.

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Hidden Track Technology Tuesday
email: [email protected]
twitter@tmwsiy
voice-mail:  (781) 285-8696

Have an idea for an article? Product, app, or web service you are passionate about? Feel free to get in touch with me.

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4 Responses

  1. Google and tom tom are horrible. People should be using navteq maps they are much more accurate. Navteq maps can be found in Garmin, Bing maps, etc… this app looks interesting. I will check it out

  2. I’ve been using the Waze app over the last couple of weeks (thanks to this post) and have been pretty happy with the results. Keep up the good work!

  3. That looks like an awesome nav app, I haven’t tried it yet but might give it a whirl. I just got my first android phone the other day.

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