Ah, Waze. After being frustrated by Google Maps’ tendency to give me driving directions mere seconds before I need them, causing me to miss my turns, and Apple Maps’ tendency to get confused when I drive beneath overpasses, I gravitated back toward Waze, the champ of driving navigation apps.
Part of its superiority comes from the accuracy of its community road condition notes that alert you to speed cameras, cops, accidents, construction slowdowns, stop-and-go traffic, cars broken down on the shoulder, and debris in the middle of the road.
Lots of people use it, making it reliable and supremely useful. The big downside is that I don’t like typing on my phone while driving, so I’m more of a user of these notes and not a provider. Now Waze has launched a way for people to provide these reports with voice clips.
a long rollout
Waze announced the feature back on October 31, 2024. Yeah, Halloween. It was just a coincidence. Few people got to use it for most of the past year, though, as its implementation was very limited. The vast majority of Waze users soldiered on with the existing, typing-only community notes.
Recently, that seems to have changed. Although it hasn’t universally rolled out to everyone yet, 9to5Google and Android Headlines have reported that many more people have been given access recently.
“All you need to do is tap the reporting button and speak naturally, as if you’re chatting with a friend,” said Waze in their 2024 feature announcement.
“With the help of (Google Gemini AI) capabilities, Waze will understand what you’re saying and quickly add a real-time report to the map for you—no need to use a specific voice command or tap extra buttons.”
If it helps keep people’s eyes on the road and their fingers off their phones while driving, I’m all for it. I always wonder how many Waze reports we’re missing out on because people wisely don’t type in reports behind the wheel when their cars are moving.
The post Waze Lets You Use Voice Notes to Report Road Conditions appeared first on VICE.
