Waze anyone?

Author
Discussion

S73VO

17 posts

137 months

Friday 4th July 2014
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I used to use this all the time, have gone over to Google Maps on my Galaxy S5 though, directions are better and seem to find a lot more routes ect.

ridds

8,218 posts

244 months

Wednesday 20th August 2014
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Been on it for a few years now.

Royalty
Points: 362,785
Rank: 156

Great app, realistic arrival times. Unlike what I used to find on TomTom which I could frequently drop by 15 mins on my commute.

Appears recently to have lost all my friends off it.

The share drive function is great for letting people know when you're arriving and even works for people who don't use the app as they can see you on the internet.

numtumfutunch

4,723 posts

138 months

Thursday 28th August 2014
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This month I've had a major high with Waze and also a bit of a trough

The high was a predicted 7h journey across France on the most notoriously bad day of the year taking under 8h with clever use of dual carriageway to skip the worst of the jams. For reference on the last leg our mates using a factory tmc unit took 6h to do a section on the peage we did in 2h!

The low was traversing the UK with a choice of 3 similar routes. Waze chose my favourite but deposited me in a huge jam on a dual carriageway due to it being shut between 2 roundabouts. The map doggedly showed the road to be open, I can only assume that it just thought there was no one about versus getting a signal of 100's of people at walking pace which would have alerted it to trouble

I'm a bit less keen on it now......

eybic

9,212 posts

174 months

Friday 29th August 2014
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The other day we were going to a restaurant and it took me a really rural route when it didn't need to, it could easily have been accessed via dual carriageways and A roads rather than tiny farm track type lanes.

There is a speed camera alert on the M3 that winds me up, it's not there and never has been but you need to be a "level 5" map editor to delete it, I'm guessing the "not there" report doesn't actually do anything other than remove the notification from your device for that journey.

Dan_1981

17,389 posts

199 months

Friday 29th August 2014
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Report the location as a "map issue" you'll then get contacted by a map editor asking what the issue is.

I did this with a route problem the other day (road had been turned into a dead end) - it was fixed with a few days.


eybic

9,212 posts

174 months

Friday 29th August 2014
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Dan_1981 said:
Report the location as a "map issue" you'll then get contacted by a map editor asking what the issue is.

I did this with a route problem the other day (road had been turned into a dead end) - it was fixed with a few days.
thumbup

mondeoman

11,430 posts

266 months

Friday 26th September 2014
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I like it, better than Google for traffic from what I've experienced.

Does do some odd stuff and occasionally local knowledge has helped eg coming home from one of my work locations, the quickest way is to go back on yourself to get to the M6, Waze insists on heading for the M42 along 30mph limit roads that get clogged at chucking out time. Another thing that bugs me is the claim that it learns your route: I NEVER use the M6 toll, but it always wants to route me along it (until I turned tolls off in options), and it still hasn't learnt my early morning route either. Hey ho.

Do like it for for upcoming traffic problems and the fact that it gives an average speed along sections ahead.

DennisCooper

1,340 posts

171 months

Saturday 4th October 2014
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Hi,

Currently - 510,777 points and ranked 88 for the UK and 1327th for 'everyone' in the world using the app. Using on a Samsung Galaxy Mega 6.3 on the 3 network and £25/month The one plan tariff.

I find it excellent to use.. for the most part!

Issues I have are sometimes I find in a more congested network of road junctions it doesn't 'refresh' the screen fast enough as I'm travelling. I've taken plenty of wrong turnings as a result. Nothing anywhere approaching problematic, just sometimes and perhaps partly my fault for having the voice notifications switched off - I listen to music a lot and rely on looking at the map.

The latest update to the app, and I immediately notice it's seemed to have forgotten where all the petrol stations are! I tap to update prices and for a whole day I got 'no petrol stations nearby' when I was 20 yards from an actual pump! over a few following days, it did realise I was near a station and prompted me to update the price. Still, well over 50% of stations went as none found! highly annoying!

I find the map colours a bit difficult to see, some 'bolder' colour schemes would be good here

In the latest update, when arriving at a destination, the little 'hand' prompt to update to say I'd arrived has gone. There's an option now to take a photo instead. As I get to places via a postcode search, when I arrive on the map and on the arrival flag, I might have to drive around a little to find the exact place I need to be. I'd usually then press the 'hand icon and it'd update to know I'd arrived. That's now gone, so I just hit stop navigation instead. I guess I then don't get the updated points?

I'd really like to know how some users amass 40,000 points in a week?! I 'usually' drive around for 3 days, sometimes 4 and occassionally 5 during business hours sometimes going into 8,9,10 and even 11 hours for the day. Privately, I'll use the app perhaps 80-90% less and I seem to get 'around' 4-5000 points a week. What are those users doing to get 30 or 40,000 points each week ?!!

Overall, absolutely excellent for a free app! Now that Google have purchased them, I wonder if it'll eventually be incoporated into Google maps?

Cheers Dennis!

CocoPops

463 posts

231 months

Wednesday 29th October 2014
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You can get points for updating thr maps via their website. So some people don't drive at all, more just update thr maps with traffic closures etc.

Dan_1981

17,389 posts

199 months

Wednesday 5th November 2014
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Been a little disappointed with Waze this week.

Does anyone know if it updates from a road traffic service anywhere or is it all updated from users?

For example - Monday evening the A42 was closed northbound from about 15:30 due to a three lorry accident.

Waze tried to route me that way home at 17:00. Road was still closed at 18:00.

Every morning this week road works on the A38 have overrun the 6am finish time meaning the road has remained closed. This has been highlighted on the matrix boards on the M1

Every morning Waze has tried to route me down the closed A38.


Frustrating.

numtumfutunch

4,723 posts

138 months

Wednesday 5th November 2014
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Dan_1981 said:
Been a little disappointed with Waze this week.

Does anyone know if it updates from a road traffic service anywhere or is it all updated from users?

For example - Monday evening the A42 was closed northbound from about 15:30 due to a three lorry accident.

Waze tried to route me that way home at 17:00. Road was still closed at 18:00.

Every morning this week road works on the A38 have overrun the 6am finish time meaning the road has remained closed. This has been highlighted on the matrix boards on the M1

Every morning Waze has tried to route me down the closed A38.


Frustrating.
I think this is what happened to me above

The road was shut but as there was no traffic at all using it between roundabouts Waze just thought it was quiet and still open
Im sure 100's of cars traveling at a crawl would have triggered a reroute

Ive been meaning to take this to the Waze site community but havent got round to it

There is definitely a way to mark roads closed as I saw it going through France for a carnival



bad company

18,574 posts

266 months

Thursday 11th June 2015
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Bump.

I'm new to Waze, just 1690 points.

I wanted it to replace my trusty Pogo speed camera detector which has died. Trouble is while Waze seems to show the cameras on the screen it only sometimes gives a verbal warning . As I can't drive staring at my phone this is not great. Is there a fix?

markmullen

15,877 posts

234 months

Monday 15th June 2015
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bad company said:
Bump.

I'm new to Waze, just 1690 points.

I wanted it to replace my trusty Pogo speed camera detector which has died. Trouble is while Waze seems to show the cameras on the screen it only sometimes gives a verbal warning . As I can't drive staring at my phone this is not great. Is there a fix?
It only warns you if you're over the limit, which isn't ideal.

bad company

18,574 posts

266 months

Monday 15th June 2015
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markmullen said:
It only warns you if you're over the limit, which isn't ideal.
Thanks for that. Wase also seems to have eaten a lot of my data allowance.

numtumfutunch

4,723 posts

138 months

Monday 15th June 2015
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bad company said:
Thanks for that. Wase also seems to have eaten a lot of my data allowance.
Not my experience actually, its data requirements are modest on my Android

How much are you getting through?

DeuxCentCinq

14,180 posts

182 months

Monday 15th June 2015
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bad company said:
Thanks for that. Wase also seems to have eaten a lot of my data allowance.
Waze is fine for me. Find out what this "Wase" app is, and get rid of it. Don't want it using all your data!

Dan_1981

17,389 posts

199 months

Thursday 2nd July 2015
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Very very poor from Waze yesterday afternoon.

I was in Solihull, and needed to get home to Sheffield - was leaving Solihull approx 8pm.


Knew for a fact that the M1 was closed between 28 & 29 as it had been all afternoon due to a lorry fire, (load of batteries on board)

Anyway Waze directs me to the normal route home, straight up the M42, A42, M1, predicts i'll do it in about 1 hr 20 - as normal.

Matrix signs as early as the 42 are warning of severe delays from 26 on the M1 and that the road is closed at 28.

Absolutely nothing from Waze for some bizarre reason.

Ended up jumping of at 26 and guiding myself home the back way via Google Maps - who were showing a 2 hour delay on the normal route.

numtumfutunch

4,723 posts

138 months

Thursday 2nd July 2015
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^^^^ see my reply to your last post in November

Same scenario I think
Waze assumes the roads open as it only uses its own traffic movement data

Some external facility for waze hq to flag total closures would be good

Dan_1981

17,389 posts

199 months

Thursday 2nd July 2015
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numtumfutunch said:
^^^^ see my reply to your last post in November

Same scenario I think
Waze assumes the roads open as it only uses its own traffic movement data

Some external facility for waze hq to flag total closures would be good
Agreed - does seem a very similar situation.

I'd expect them to find someway to tie up with one of the big road data providers or something - it'd be perfect then.

DennisCooper

1,340 posts

171 months

Friday 17th July 2015
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Hi,

As per above, Waze still relies on user generated data, so I'm usually using another GPS solution in conjunction with it in case no Wazers are updating when they're stuck in a jam etc! I updated a petrol station price that hadn't been updated for around 500 days recently too !

Still an excellent free app and I agree with the above comment, if they can integrate real time traffic data from sensors on roads etc to combine with user generated data, the accuracy would improve a lot!

Cheers, Dennis!