Waze free sat-nav

megakid

megakid

megakid

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Has anyone used this?

I've just been reading up on it and it seems very good indeed. It automatically tracks your speed and tells others about the averages on that road etc. The more people using it, the more data it will have to pick a route.

Plenty of people on other forums saying they now use it on their commutes over their Tomtom Live HD subscription due to it providing more up to date traffic information and routes.

http://world.waze.com/?country=GB
 
I use it sometimes, its good for traffic when you notice other people have been on the same route recently.
 
I use it , not really as a sat nav , as my car has one built in , more to just get silly points and generally see where slow traffic is coming up. Im currently ranked like 2100 or something in my area.

It needs data to update the map so it isnt useful at all for offline naving.
 
Cuchulain said:
Is it openstreetmap requiring an always on data connection? If so, think I'll stick to Tomtom on my phone.
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Yep - it's dynamic traffic info etc needs a data connection but maps and routes are cached so can be travelled on without a consistent data connection.
 
Looks handy, but does it actually serve as a nav as well, with directions to take etc? Not the impression I got from the intro video.
 
Conscript said:
Isn't this a similar principle used for the traffic overview in Google maps?
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Just looked this up - cool! I didn't know they crowd sourced their traffic info. Although I've used Google Maps more often when walking than driving so that must screw things up (Waze probably rules out that given it's specifically a driving GPS tool).
 
Yeah Google Nav's traffic function is rather useful and has been around for a while.

Waze is good but the UI isn't as fluid as Google Maps Navigation and integration with your phone isn't brilliant either.

Bottom line? Stick to Google Maps Navigation.

Waze will grow over time though!
 
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No Google Nav on iPhone though? I've been using Waze for a few months now and had no issues, great free app!
 
The only use I would have for this is predicting the time it would take me to get to places and seeing as it currently estimates it will take 56 minutes to get home as opposed to Googles much more realistic 39 minutes I'm not sure it will be of any use.

Still, I'm going to give it a go for a few days to see if I am wrong!
 
i use it on my iPhone when in need of a nav. works really well i find. need to have the phone plugged in though as it eats through power.
 
I've been using Waze regularly for a few months. Both the mapping and traffic capabilities are very much dependent on the users.

Mapping is reliant on some fairly dedicated amateur editors. In the UK they imported some fairly rough base-maps but the permitted turns and traffic directions have been populated either automatically by people driving the routes or by individuals editing the maps.

Likewise, to get much useful realtime traffic info you need other users to have travelled the road before you. It suffers from the same major drawback as google navigation traffic: they don't really do closed roads. Traffic jams are detected by sufficient users slowing down in section of road in a short space of time to give a realtime road speed. Waze then uses this information for routing and has diverted me around jamps several times. The trouble with closed roads are that Waze doesn't see that they're closed. If nobody's on it it's clear as far as the routing server is concerned. If you're lucky there may be sufficient congestion nearby to result in a suitable diversion.

I regard it as more as a 'commute optimiser' than a satnav. One thing it does very well is picking out sensible routes for the time of day, based on previous users data. Road speed data is held in half-hour slots for the time of day. In this it functions rather like Tomtom's IQ routes and does the job very well.

It's not the greatest satnav option if you don't know an area well though. In such cases you really need to check how complete the map is (at world.waze.com livemap) before using it. After starting to use it I did a fair bit of map editing in areas I knew well. Before that it threw up some serious voice direction errors - stuff like seeing a dual carriageway as two separate exits off a roundabout.

Around Sheffield, where the mapping is now very well done and there's quite a few users, Waze works very well. I've tried it near Goole and in Cornwall. In both cases it was nearly useless because of the mapping only being partially complete. If the mapping is not properly edited then voice directions can be dangerously misleading.

A minor irritation is the way it seems to encourage driver interaction while on the move. I think satnavs are best with clear voice directions and as little extra info on screen to distract a driver as possible. Waze brings a myriad of potential distractions. Some of these can be turned off but the majority are on by default, encouraging a fair bit of button pressing while driving. I wish there was a way to completely turn off the pestering for button pressing while on the move but unfortunately not at the moment.

I think Waze has massive potential. As it matures, it will get better. If the developers could just sort out the lack of realtime road closures and the users get the UK maps to a high level of maturity, it could be on par with a relatively high end Tomtom as far as routing goes.
 
Just tried a route i need to do on Sunday.

Did not give the one Google Map give me (with traffic), in fact, one of the route it gave would not be on my list of route to take ! The route I want to take seems to be a combination of a few.....
 
Tried it properly for the first time this morning after a dabble last week and I can see why it thinks my commute takes an extra 15 minutes... the routing was ridiculous! It would try to take you off of a main road, around 5 miles of country lanes to join back 2 miles down the road you were just on! In total it tried to add 7 miles of extra travelling.

Uriel is right it is very distracting. If you just have it on without a route set it pops up all the traffic issues around you irrespective of the direction of travel. It also updates your ETA so frequently that you get frustrated, within 3 minutes I don't need to be told that I am 5 minutes ahead of schedule, 8 minutes behind schedule then 2 minutes ahead again. That is of no use what so ever!

If it works in your area then great but having had a quick look at the forums on there it is the motoring equivalent of SETI with people more concerned about their score and ranking than whether the software actually gets them where they need to go or saves them any time.

Uninstalling straight away.
 
lordrobs said:
Tried it properly for the first time this morning after a dabble last week and I can see why it thinks my commute takes an extra 15 minutes... the routing was ridiculous! It would try to take you off of a main road, around 5 miles of country lanes to join back 2 miles down the road you were just on! In total it tried to add 7 miles of extra travelling.

Uriel is right it is very distracting. If you just have it on without a route set it pops up all the traffic issues around you irrespective of the direction of travel. It also updates your ETA so frequently that you get frustrated, within 3 minutes I don't need to be told that I am 5 minutes ahead of schedule, 8 minutes behind schedule then 2 minutes ahead again. That is of no use what so ever!

If it works in your area then great but having had a quick look at the forums on there it is the motoring equivalent of SETI with people more concerned about their score and ranking than whether the software actually gets them where they need to go or saves them any time.

Uninstalling straight away.
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Just noticed your location, it doesn't like the A11 does it. It tried routing me from Norwich to Thetford via every possible road except the A11!
 
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