Here's the count from the details below on how well Waze performed for me:
But I noticed other deficiencies in Waze that Google Maps has. Some of these Waze deficiencies I consider a deal breaker for me.
| Report Type | Number of alerts | Positives | Not Reported | False Positives | Percent False Positives |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Police reported | 21 | 7 | 5 | 9 | 43% |
| Accident | 2 | 2 | 100% | ||
| Vehicle on road | 9 | 5 | 4 | 45% | |
| Traffic | 2 | 2 | 100% |
As for traffic avoidance and re-routing all navigation apps do this and Waze, owned by Google, doesn't seem to do these things any better than GM.
The parts I find deficient in Waze when compared particularly with GM are:
- Lane guidance: Waze does none of this. When driving on a 7 lane highway, knowing that I need to get all the way over to the far right lane, or, when I see the far right lane being congested but it's a two lane exit, lane guidance is really appreciated. Also when there's a multi lane exit and I need to be in a particular lane for an upcoming turn, again lane guidance is invaluable.
- Route preview: Waze's route preview really sucks - at least under Android Auto - in that all that is presented is 3 boxes for the top 3 routes with straight lines and a bunch of silly icons. I cannot tell which direction each route makes more sense. Contrast that to GM which also presents the 3 top routes but presents them on a map where you can easily tell which direction each route takes as well as color coding indicating traffic congestion.
Compare that with how Google Maps shows routes:
- Searching for things and adding stops: Again Waze falls flat on it's face. After you search for say McDonalds you'll get the top 3, reported in boxes again with addresses. You have no real idea if a box represents you backtracking on your route or really going out of your way. Again GM present this with a map making it easy to choose the correct stop. Additionally in Waze if you select one of these that's your new destination. You'll need to re-set up your original destination after eating that Big Mac. GM adds it as a stop.
Again contrast that with how Google Maps presents search results:
- Traffic representation: Waze doesn't seem to color the route as per the traffic congestion but instead seems to rely on those silly icons to indicate congestion. You have to determine what the icons represent.
- Inability to get under route guidance: It takes far too long for Waze to hook up with the route.
- Lack of surfacing cards: Some things from the calendar do show up but things like a Home card whenever you are not home or a Work card during weekdays are missing.
- Not showing alternate routes.
- Annoying sounds when you stop for gas. That silly noise you hear when you decide to get off route to gas up or to eat is real annoying and you can't turn it off (Note: GM's is starting to do this too!).
- Routing you around flooded areas that are not actually flooded
- Trying to detour you down dirt roads.
I spent some time recording my experiences using Waze lately concentrating my efforts on false vs true reporting of cops. The results are reported below.
Here's the raw diary like reporting:
09/26/2018: On way to work saw 2 cop warnings and about 3 vehicle on the side of the road. Of the 2 cop reports the first was a false alarm - no cop there. Then about .5 mile down the road a cop come flying by with lights on. Not sure if that was the cop I missed so I'll count it as positive. The other cop report was a false positive. Of the 3 vehicles on side of road 1 was not there and the other 2 were however the car on the side of the road was 3 lanes to my right.
09/26/2018: On my way to lunch I encountered 4 vehicles on the side of the road. 3 were accurate, one was not there. There was one cop report that was accurate and 3 of them that were never mentioned. I realize that this is because they were on the other side of the road but looking at the other side of the road I noticed there was no cop there.
09/26/2018: On the way home Waze was acting really strange! It had the proceed to highlighted route out but couldn't seem to draw a map of where I was at! Of course I suspected GPS first but my GPS is always on. Switched over to Google Maps which had no problems finding me then later back to Waze. It finally connected. While driving there were a few DOT trucks with lights on on the side of the road. There was no report of them so I decided I'd report this hazard but the button for reporting things was not there! Later I past by 2 cop sightings, again, on the other side of the road and again
they were not there.
09/27/2018: Drove from Scottsdale to Glendale. Got one cop alert on the way there and one on the way home. Both were false. Both times when taking off Waze would say proceed to the highlighted route and then would not move nor budge for a while. I think it was still calculating the route or something like that. What I do know is that I get in my car, set up AA, click the route I want (note with Waze as my default mapping app when I get to AA's main screen it does not surface card for Home nor Work. With GM on AA I always have a Home card whenever I'm not home) and start driving. As Waze took about 3 minutes to finally get the route going I'm driving and not knowing if I should turn left or right at the upcoming stoplight. This is not acceptable to me.
9/28/2018: I'm actively using Waze this week and maybe for a while so I can record my observations and report back. Today I noticed yet another deficiency in Waze WRT to GM. I also have 3 different ways (ha! Waze... vs ways... lol) to get to work and depending on traffic GM routes me to any of those 3 different routes. One thing that GM does is that it shows different routes on the map while under navigation. The current, optimal route it highlighted and color coded based on congestion. Alternate routes show up as grey and there's a little annotation on the alternate route. It says things like "5 minutes slower" or "Similar ETA". When headed to work it often directs me to take 143 then go over to 202 but the other common route is taking 60 E. If I'm getting to the turn off for 60 E off of I-10 and I see a little bit of a traffic jam ahead on I-10 heading towards 143 (sometimes there's a little bit of a delay before Google becomes aware of a backup in progress) and the 60 E gray highlighted route says "Similar ETA" I take 60 and avoid the congestion. I noticed using Waze today that it doesn't do any of that. There's no "5 minutes slower" or "Similar ETA". I'm not even sure there's any indication on the map of an alternate route as I find the color scheme that Waze has choice to be odd and harder to read at a glance.
Here's how Google Maps presents Similar ETA:
Here's how Google Maps presents Similar ETA:
09/28/2018: On the way home from work today I still had that problem where Waze says proceed to the highlighted route when I was on the route I always take home from work for a few miles before Waze caught up and started me on route guidance. Meantime it was literally all over the map changing it from one place to another in some random fashion. Once back on route it did report one cop and was correct.
10/01/2018: On the way to work this morning I sat in the car longer waiting for Waze to connect and show the route. Didn't have the problem whereas it takes Waze like a mile or two before displaying the route.
10/01/2018: On the way to work this morning I sat in the car longer waiting for Waze to connect and show the route. Didn't have the problem whereas it takes Waze like a mile or two before displaying the route.
Saw two traffic icons on I-10 W on the way to work. First was "heavy"
and the second said "standstill". Managed to drive at 79 MPH through
both of them. IOW it wasn't there. Where's the button to report that the
traffic jam is no longer there?
One cop report - false report. Also saw a cop moving and reported him. No way to report that he was anything other than visible. IOW I couldn't report him moving.
On the way home there was 1 cop report that was false and 2 about cops on the other side of the road and I could look over to verify - both were false reports.
One cop report - false report. Also saw a cop moving and reported him. No way to report that he was anything other than visible. IOW I couldn't report him moving.
On the way home there was 1 cop report that was false and 2 about cops on the other side of the road and I could look over to verify - both were false reports.
10/02/2018: Again, when I get into my car and get AA up and running, Waze doesn't surface a card for going to work or appointments. I have to get into Waze and select Work. Not cool. However, Waze did offer me an alternate route to work due to traffic which was good.
One "minor accident reported ahead". False report.
Where I work there's a big parking lot behind the building. There's also a street of sorts going through it. It's almost a private road and really only used by people who need to park in the parking lot. Waze navigates me to the middle of the parking lot correctly. Even Google Maps doesn't do that that well. However when leaving the parking lot and going home Waze does not navigate me out of the parking lot but rather gives me that proceed to highlighted route which starts just outside the parking lot!
On the way home there was one cop report that was false and a cop on the other side of the highway that was true.
Question about alerts like red light camera. There's one very close to my apartment. Every day when I drive past it I get interrupted about this red light camera. I know, I know. I don't need to be reminded every day! And there's no way to turn that off without turning off all red light camera alerts. They should have a way to make a camera as "I know and stop telling me about it!".
I think I figured out why Waze was routing me out the back of my apartment complex. We had a thunderstorm two days ago. The internet said the street outside my apartment was flooded and closed. So naturally Waze was trying to route around that. Problem is that the street was not closed nor flooded! This went on for a few days. And the most annoying thing was that Waze kept playing that "your not on route" annoying sound admonishing me about 20 times for nothing! And you can't turn that off without rooting your phone!
10/04/2018: Today one cop report that was false and then just down the road 2 times I reported a cop. So the worst false positive you can get where it says there's a cop there but there's no cop there. Drive another mile or so and wham there's the cop unreported! May have been the cop at the first report that just drove further down the road but he had somebody pulled over.
Driving home from work there was a minor crash alert that was false, a cop alert that was true and two vehicle on side of road that were both true.
Oh and when you have traffic again Waze says the estimated time in traffic. I guess that's pretty cool but I still don't like it interrupting my music/podcasts. GM used to do this saying something like "There is traffic ahead causing a 15 minute delay. You are still on the fastest route". I say used to because they stopped that and instead just surface a card with the information.
10/05/2018: Decided to drive up to the Grand Canyon. Haven't been there for a while. Tried using Waze again. There were about 2 or 3 cop reports that were correct and 1 or 2 where no cop was in sight. But by far the worse was that I got pulled over for speeding! No warning from Waze. Now I know that Waze is only as good as the number of people reporting and probably there weren't that many people using Waze on this stretch of the highway. But really, isn't this exactly what Waze is supposed to be good for? Warning about cops? Luckily I got just a warning.
Later on I got things like:
Which is Waze saying proceed to highlighted route where no route it highlighted. Instead I'm traveling 61 MPH and apparently I'm off roading!
Here Waze is leading me down a dirt road near the South Rim of the Grand Canyon:
Where I work there's a big parking lot behind the building. There's also a street of sorts going through it. It's almost a private road and really only used by people who need to park in the parking lot. Waze navigates me to the middle of the parking lot correctly. Even Google Maps doesn't do that that well. However when leaving the parking lot and going home Waze does not navigate me out of the parking lot but rather gives me that proceed to highlighted route which starts just outside the parking lot!
On the way home there was one cop report that was false and a cop on the other side of the highway that was true.
Question about alerts like red light camera. There's one very close to my apartment. Every day when I drive past it I get interrupted about this red light camera. I know, I know. I don't need to be reminded every day! And there's no way to turn that off without turning off all red light camera alerts. They should have a way to make a camera as "I know and stop telling me about it!".
I think I figured out why Waze was routing me out the back of my apartment complex. We had a thunderstorm two days ago. The internet said the street outside my apartment was flooded and closed. So naturally Waze was trying to route around that. Problem is that the street was not closed nor flooded! This went on for a few days. And the most annoying thing was that Waze kept playing that "your not on route" annoying sound admonishing me about 20 times for nothing! And you can't turn that off without rooting your phone!
10/04/2018: Today one cop report that was false and then just down the road 2 times I reported a cop. So the worst false positive you can get where it says there's a cop there but there's no cop there. Drive another mile or so and wham there's the cop unreported! May have been the cop at the first report that just drove further down the road but he had somebody pulled over.
Driving home from work there was a minor crash alert that was false, a cop alert that was true and two vehicle on side of road that were both true.
Oh and when you have traffic again Waze says the estimated time in traffic. I guess that's pretty cool but I still don't like it interrupting my music/podcasts. GM used to do this saying something like "There is traffic ahead causing a 15 minute delay. You are still on the fastest route". I say used to because they stopped that and instead just surface a card with the information.
10/05/2018: Decided to drive up to the Grand Canyon. Haven't been there for a while. Tried using Waze again. There were about 2 or 3 cop reports that were correct and 1 or 2 where no cop was in sight. But by far the worse was that I got pulled over for speeding! No warning from Waze. Now I know that Waze is only as good as the number of people reporting and probably there weren't that many people using Waze on this stretch of the highway. But really, isn't this exactly what Waze is supposed to be good for? Warning about cops? Luckily I got just a warning.
Later on I got things like:
Which is Waze saying proceed to highlighted route where no route it highlighted. Instead I'm traveling 61 MPH and apparently I'm off roading!
Here Waze is leading me down a dirt road near the South Rim of the Grand Canyon:
At this point I gave up on Waze. Note that even Google Maps had problems around this area as there is really no cell signal here and I foolishly forgot to download the map of the area for offline use.
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