Waze

[FlatBroke]

Someone in a post mentioned this AP. Thank you! It’s so much better than my old Garmin it’s not even a contest. Only thing I’d its a power eater do I will have to hook up to my charger when using. I was using Waze going down the busy interstate and it warned me there was a vehicle parked on the shoulder. I thought it must be looking at the cars running down the service road beside me, but sure enough there was a old pick up parked on the shoulder about a mile down the road. That sold me!

[Lantley]

Waze is a useful app however users are in denial if they think there isn't an inherent risk by interacting with the app while driving.
I understand you can have the passenger push the buttons but I'm not naive enough to believe there is always a passenger involved. The driver is certainly distracted by entering data into the app.

[p220sigman]

It's a useful tool. Case in point. Traveling north on the Florida Turnpike at Orlando last week. Waze indicated a delay of 45 minutes ahead and routed me off of the Turnpike to a route I would have never found on my own. The time added to my arrival estimation on GPS by the time the detour was done and I was back on the Turnpike? 8 minutes. Worth it to me and I didn't touch my phone one time during this. It sure beat sitting still on the Turnpike for 45+ minutes.

[rk911]

philh wrote:

fj12ryder wrote:
Great, people interacting with their phone when they should be paying attention to their driving. What a fine idea.

Ever use the app? Mine is mounted on the IP. To make a report, you touch a big yellow explanation point. That takes you to another screen with big buttons, for you to tap the type of report. Most reports require one more tap.

deleted

[fj12ryder]

Okay, it's congested/busy/accident which is why you're making a report, so you take your eyes off the road to touch the big yellow exclamation point, then to another screen to tap another button that you have to select, then maybe one last tap.

I just think anything that pulls your attention from the road is a bad idea. No, I've never used it and unlikely to do so.

[philh]

fj12ryder wrote:
Great, people interacting with their phone when they should be paying attention to their driving. What a fine idea.

Ever use the app? Mine is mounted on the IP. To make a report, you touch a big yellow explanation point. That takes you to another screen with big buttons, for you to tap the type of report. Most reports require one more tap.

[fj12ryder]

p220sigman wrote:
It does rely on input from users for things such as stranded cars, police cars, etc, but it is still a good navigation tool without the direct input as it uses the speed data from users to identify slowdowns without the users inputting data directly. You may see a slowdown indicated, but not know why it is occurring until a user indicates a crash or something else causing it.

The only time I have actually entered data while using Waze was having my passenger enter the data. I'm sure not everyone does it this way, but I prefer to be as safe as possible while driving so I don't text, read a book, etc while driving.

Okay, that's pretty cool, and acts without direct interface with the driver.

[2naEagle]

It really gets my attention when I hear "watch out, object on road ahead".

[p220sigman]

It does rely on input from users for things such as stranded cars, police cars, etc, but it is still a good navigation tool without the direct input as it uses the speed data from users to identify slowdowns without the users inputting data directly. You may see a slowdown indicated, but not know why it is occurring until a user indicates a crash or something else causing it.

The only time I have actually entered data while using Waze was having my passenger enter the data. I'm sure not everyone does it this way, but I prefer to be as safe as possible while driving so I don't text, read a book, etc while driving.

[fj12ryder]

FlatBroke wrote:

fj12ryder wrote:

rk911 wrote:
Waze is a neat app, no doubt. just remember the road data is supplied by other Waze users

Great, people interacting with their phone when they should be paying attention to their driving. What a fine idea.

Just took my wife to a place down town. Never looked at the phone, it told me exactly what I should do.
This trip took my on a route I never would have thought about. It was faster and less stressful that I never would have followed, and I’ve lived here since 1945.

That's great, but did you actually contribute to the Waze app? My understanding is that it's a group contributing app. If no one adds data, there's no new data, is that correct?

So if people don't interact with their phones and add data points, it pretty much becomes, while not useless, much less useful. If you can contribute without cell phone interaction, I think it's a very useful app.

[FlatBroke]

fj12ryder wrote:

rk911 wrote:
Waze is a neat app, no doubt. just remember the road data is supplied by other Waze users

Great, people interacting with their phone when they should be paying attention to their driving. What a fine idea.

Just took my wife to a place down town. Never looked at the phone, it told me exactly what I should do.
This trip took my on a route I never would have thought about. It was faster and less stressful that I never would have followed, and I’ve lived here since 1945.

[paulcardoza]

Waze is the best. I cannot count how many times its saved my commute by routing me around Boston traffic problems. I drove my 90 year old father in law up from SC and he was mesmerized by Waze's functionality.

[fj12ryder]

rk911 wrote:
Waze is a neat app, no doubt. just remember the road data is supplied by other Waze users

Great, people interacting with their phone when they should be paying attention to their driving. What a fine idea.

[philh]

as RK stated, make reports and confirm reports. It's user data that makes it so useful.

On long trips, I will still use my Garmin too. They don't use the same traffic database, and sometimes one will pick it up sooner than the other one. Routing disagreements will often require a quick review of why one wants a reroute. I actually use a 3rd app, which is the Garmin database, Inrix. I can do a big picture scan on that map very quickly to see what and why.

[rk911]

Waze is a neat app, no doubt. just remember the road data is supplied by other Waze users