Dreading a long road trip home this holiday season? Relief is on the way in the crowdsourced driving app Waze.
Recently acquired by Google — reportedly for more than $1 billion — this brilliant app for iOS, Android and Windows Phone is a new take on GPS navigation. In short, it makes traffic social.
Waze, based in Israel, allows users to report — and commiserate about — road hazards, police activity and traffic conditions, with a critical mass of devotees leading to a stunning level of accuracy that, on my recent four-hour drives to and from New York, far surpassed that of Google Maps and my portable GPS.
However, you will want to make sure the passenger in the car — not the driver — is using Waze. While full-voice integration is surely the future, Waze currently requires a set of eyes on the screen.
What sets Waze apart from other traffic apps is that it makes calculations based on the vehicle speeds of other users. Both my Garmin GPS and Google Maps suggested that I exit the Mass Pike at the Brighton tolls — but Waze noticed cars were crawling and recommended an alternate route.
Even during a long, frustrating journey, using Waze allows you to at least feel like a good Samaritan. While using Waze, I was able to tell drivers on a particularly narrow stretch of Interstate 95 in Connecticut that a stopped vehicle in the right shoulder meant that those nearby should keep left.
But I'd be careful not to dub Waze a traffic safety app. The ability to report the location of speed traps — probably a key reason for its popularity — is likely not appreciated by the law enforcement community.
In true social network form, Waze users choose screen names and avatars that show their location on a map. You'll get the occasional "hi there" or "this stinks" message from other users. In an emergency, the ability to ask another user "do you have jumper cables" or "know how to change a tire?" is something that I'd consider if AAA or state trooper help were far off.
Google Maps is in the process of integrating some Waze features, and at some point, Google Maps will probably subsume all of Waze. In the meantime, Waze is a great way to make those endless holiday car trips a bit more bearable.
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