I have been using this since about 2014, as it gave me a great way to work out whether the route I was on to work was good or if something had blocked traffic. Its good in that you can see alternate routes or just head another way and it figures it out.

You also get to see the progress of other users to see if another route is better.

From what I recall, I think Google use the data it gets in Waze to tell other users using Google Maps about the routes.

Either way, it seems a lot of police aren't too happy about people using it. Either because they believe it distracts the driver, or it gives away the location of the police.

www.news.com.au/technology/gadgets/mobile-phones/the-mobile-phone-app-police-want-you-to-stop-using-because-it-helps-motorists-avoid-cops/news-story/f8359d9c5a7fc8fbd1253ebc260cf9f9

I think its time that the police start doing things differently. I have driven from Sydney down to Jindabyne about ten times over the last couple of months, and to my mind, sitting around waiting for people to drive up is a poor way of keeping people safe. In the old days I am sure you saw more unmarked cop cars, and no doubt they kept people a bit more sedate as they never knew where the police were, and if they do something dumb, they will probably get caught.

Now, on the trip to and from the snow, you know almost exactly where the police are located, in the usual places all the time, and that's even without using Waze. It doesn't stop the usual idiots overtaking over double white lines, overtaking in dumb locations, doing crazy speeds, doing stupidly slow speeds, yet the police seem wedded to the same old breathalysers and speed traps in the same place.

I read recently that the accident rate is not going down, and possibly going up.

Does this mean that the police will accept that their current methods don't work, or will they just campaign for double demerit points every weekend....

Driverless cars not far away, taxes will go up as no revenue from speeding fines.

Waze is awesome.

Its been around for over a decade, invented by GenX...... I thought it would be too old for you Loto......

WOW, for someone who wants me on their ignore list, you really do follow my posts lol , Im flattered.
How do you know anything about apps??? You said you would NEVER have internet on a phone like all the young Farktards, phones are for phoning.

Some of the routes it chooses are hilarious, I'm sure some of them weren't actual roads. It reminds me of a friend who always knew a 'shortcut', usually consisting of making 30 extra turns down little odd streets.

Great for traffic conditions, accidents etc,
Yeah the nav needs some work, but pretty good most the time.

I prefer to use an app called Metroview, just because it doesn't need internet access all the time, and it provides a pretty accurate indication of the speed limit where you are.

That said, sometimes Waze is better as it can give you realtime info, so if you can see that the traffic jam speeds up in a km, you can stick with it, or if not, you can look at other routes and also the average traffic speed on them.

Like a lot of navigation programs, there are problems, like when it thinks a street that is closed off is actually open, or it thinks you are better off doing a u-turn even when you know that the traffic is better another way.

I sometimes find myself rejecting a route suggestion as mine is better, and sometimes the suggested route blows out in time as you go as more realtime data comes in to show the true time that it would take.

I think if the police are so worried about Waze showing people where they are, they should be more mobile, or even start planting their own bogus locations into Waze. Anyone can report info, so they could just start reporting they see a cop when they want people to slow down.

These sort of apps will never go away, so the police may as well change their approach to policing if they really want to keep the road toll down. I can't help but feel that they have taken the easy way out with fixed speed cameras and are not actually policing the poor driving that is out there.

Yep waze user here, it's great down the Hume I've only been using it for a year or so which is since Google has owned them so I've had no real navigation issues with it, i'm sure all that data comes from the google mothership now. Google maps actually has some of the waze features integrated into it now as well, like report a crash, report a mobile speed camera etc and it now displays fixed speed cameras, speed etc.

As FormulaNova says I think the police/gov need to rethink their entire policy of speed kills and re focus on actually teaching people how to drive a car. I personally think the only reason the road toll has been on a downward trend is because cars are simply much much safer than they ever have been before, not the incessant focus on stopping speeding. I have been driving for over 20 years now I do not think the standard of your average driver has ever been worse. I'm sure in Vic, the home of 'stopping speeding solves all issues' their yearly road toll is up 40% or something on the same time last year?

waze is **** at navigation but great for alerts . I usually run waze simply for alerts and incar gps if i do need help getting somewhere

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dusta said..
waze is **** at navigation but great for alerts . I usually run waze simply for alerts and incar gps if i do need help getting somewhere

I find incar gps is junk if the traffic is bad.
At Easter did a trip from Bondi to Pearl beach.
I used apple maps and took 3 hours.
Friends used the Mercedes gps and took 4 leaving at the same time/location

Used it today, 3 different ways to get to a location, it picked the shortest, thumbs up
What it didn't do was warn me of was the driving glove wearing nanna in a Volvo doing 40 in a 80 looking through her steering wheel.

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FormulaNova said..

Does this mean that the police will accept that their current methods don't work, or will they just campaign for double demerit points every weekend....

The Police will never admit to be being wrong nor will they ever admit that their prime purpose is revenue collection.

Getting ripped off by the cops is just one of the Waze of the world these Daze.

I've been using waze for years, I often doubted it when it told me to take an unusual route but have found most of the time it is right.

I was driving into work in the city heading South on the Mitchell Freeway early one Sunday morning and the road was nearly empty, I noticed it had told me to exit on Karrinyup Rd...... WTF!!!
Stupid app I thought and continued on the freeway, within minutes I was sitting in my car stationary for ages, police had closed all lanes temporarily due to a major incident.
They eventually opened one lane but it took me at least 20 minutes longer than usual to get to work.

There has been a few other times when it has told me to go a way that I thought surely not, like taking the next turn off North off the freeway than I usually take then coming back South to get to my place.
Yep, several comparison have shown that although a slightly longer distance that route it is quicker.

I use it nearly all the time now, it is data and battery hungry though.

Lol. Downloaded it and used first time last night (not from this post, just saw it now). Mate told me about it. I was totally drunk and had to get home without getting caught.


Nah just kidding, but surely a possible misuse of it ?

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tightlines said..
...
There has been a few other times when it has told me to go a way that I thought surely not, like taking the next turn off North off the freeway than I usually take then coming back South to get to my place.
Yep, several comparison have shown that although a slightly longer distance that route it is quicker.

I use it nearly all the time now, it is data and battery hungry though.

I remember in WA in about Feb or March, I was heading from Rockingham up to Northbridge, and it started pushing me off the freeway and into suburban streets, and then pushed me back on again a relatively short distance ahead. It wasn't until later I heard on the radio that there had been a big accident on the route, and Waze had successfully routed me around it with a delay of only about 10 minutes I think, when I would have just been stuck, stopped, if I got caught up in the traffic.

Yep, it comes in handy. Good to see most enjoying the App age, makes life so much more convenient ie. seabreeze app

Does.it rely on app.users to report cameras etc? I had a look and i dont think too many here use. Couldnt see any csmeras and only 1 waze user

Many users, but I think your profile pic distracted them

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lotofwind said..
Many users, but I think your profile pic distracted them

has distracted me for years...

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stoff said..

dusta said..
waze is **** at navigation but great for alerts . I usually run waze simply for alerts and incar gps if i do need help getting somewhere

I find incar gps is junk if the traffic is bad.
At Easter did a trip from Bondi to Pearl beach.
I used apple maps and took 3 hours.
Friends used the Mercedes gps and took 4 leaving at the same time/location

Aye, both Apple Maps and Google Maps use anonymous user data to calculate traffic jams and the like. And calculate the fastest route accordingly. And reroute accordingly.

You can turn "traffic" on/off.

Wish I knew that last week when I was in Sydney, I would have just turned traffic "off" and got to Bondi heaps quicker.

Used to use it, pitted it against Google Maps navigation a few times when it was giving me suspicious routes and have now abandoned Waze, it seems to have gone a bit loopy on the route finding. Google Maps driving mode does almost everything the same with better routing (including around traffic jams etc). The only thing it doesn't do in comparison to Waze that I can tell is indicate whether you're over the current speed limit, and since that's not always known correctly (roadworks, recent changes) I figure I'm better off actually looking out for road signs.

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lotofwind said..
Yep, it comes in handy. Good to see most enjoying the App age, makes life so much more convenient ie. seabreeze app

You are obviously a phone addict, Faceplant, snap chat, whats app, twitter on and on.

How bad is your panic when you are out of phone range??

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GreenPat said..
Used to use it, pitted it against Google Maps navigation a few times when it was giving me suspicious routes and have now abandoned Waze, it seems to have gone a bit loopy on the route finding. Google Maps driving mode does almost everything the same with better routing (including around traffic jams etc). The only thing it doesn't do in comparison to Waze that I can tell is indicate whether you're over the current speed limit, and since that's not always known correctly (roadworks, recent changes) I figure I'm better off actually looking out for road signs.

i have found more so in the country that waze doesn't route very well . Take for instance leaving bruce rock and coming back home to perth . waze only gives GEH as an option yet google maps gives either GEH or coming home via york as route options . While longer distance it's actually quicker to come home via york . I've raised it with waze support but they don't really understand

I've found Waze will learn from shortcuts you follow while ignoring its mapping. It's not perfect but it does learn. The more that use it the better it does

If you understand it has real work limitations it generally does a pretty good job all round. I've also ignored it many times thinking I know better, I usually don't.