You may have wondered why your chauffeur briefly exited the freeway and re-entered a few miles down the road. This likely happened because Waze told him to unexpectedly take the next off-ramp. You may use Waze in your personal travel and know all about this Google owned app. If you don’t know about it, you will likely never travel again without it after reading this article.
Waze offers turn-by-turn voice navigation, real-time traffic, and other location-specific alerts. Waze encourages users to report traffic or road hazards and Waze shares this real-time information that translates into traffic conditions, accident warnings, object on road warnings and even hidden cops shooting radar ahead. Waze is continually updated by travelers to report to other motorists what is ahead of them such as traffic jams, blocked roads, inclement weather conditions and much more. In addition to user input, Waze relies on information from state agencies for traffic events such as road construction and closures. The idea behind this is that the more people that provide data the more accurate it will be. Waze constantly collects data and analyzes it to send back to Wazers what the most optimal route is based upon the current conditions. Waze will even tell you how many minutes you will be stuck in heavy traffic.
Waze uses the information it collects from other Wazers in the area (Wazers using the app) to calculate average road speed and quickly make course corrections to help you avoid unpleasant delays ahead of you. The more people driving with the Waze app open, the better the navigation is for everyone using Waze in the area. Waze describes its app as a community-driven GPS navigation app, which is free to download and use.
Waze determines the optimal route to your selected destination by collecting data for every road driven with the app open. Next time you travel the same route, Waze will compare data between many possible routes and will suggest the optimal route. Based on the information collected, Waze can provide routing and real-time traffic updates based exactly upon current situations between you and your destination. Waze can also identify the cheapest fuel station nearby.
In 2013, the GSM Association, a trade association of mobile network operators gave Waze the Best Overall Mobile App award at the association’s Mobile World Congress Exhibition.