02/05/2014   English German

  Edition # 106  
San Francisco, 02-05-2014


Figure [1]: Mounted on the dashboard, the iPhone running the Waze app triggers alerts when traffic light cameras and other hazards are approaching.

Michael

Recently, I installed the "Waze" app on my smartphone and was blown away. "Waze" (pronounced like "ways") is some kind of navigation software with a social touch. Not only can it navigate you from A to B, but also knows about traffic jams and finds new routes if detours get you to your destination faster. For this to happen, the app keeps sending your current location to the Waze server, but the driver can manually help as well: If there's an accident or a hazard like an item on the road, the driver presses a few buttons to report it and other wazers in the vicinity get a message onto the screen to alert them. The reporting wazer gets bonus points in return.

The driver can watch on the interactive map where the vehicle is currently located, and tiny Pacman-like symbols indicate where other Wazers are driving on streets nearby. By linking to Facebook, the app knows if any of the driver's friends are driving close by, and announces them.

Figure [2]: When running the Waze app, the driver gets the latest police sightings and can see the location of other Wazers on the road.

If there's a radar cop waiting at the curb, attentive drivers quickly press a button in the app for a report, and other Wazers passing by the same location will soon notice a cute police symbol on the map. They will then adjust their speed accordingly to the speed limit of 65 mph. If the report was incorrect or the cop has left the scene already, because he's chasing down a subject, subsequently passing drivers hit the "Not there" button to report this fact and if several Wazers agree on this, the service will remove the police symbol from the map.

You wouldn't believe how this ongoing activity livens up even the dullest commutes to work. In the meantime, I've given up on listening to audio books when I'm driving into work one day a week, but instead keep reporting every stranded car and try to verify spotted radar cops. Waze was acquired by Google in 2013, and the Wazer data is now getting fed into Google Maps. I hope Google lets the friendly Waze app continue!

Greetings from the backbone of the Internet:

Angelika & Michael

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