How reliable is Waze as your main 'sat nav'

[steveningelbrecht]

It indeed depends on the usability of the map and how active the local community is in updating and finetuning the map, i guess.

[svx-biker]

It all depends on the area and the local community editing there. That's the same as with EVERY navigation system. However, some big advantages are:

1. Same maps online and on the client
2. real-time traffic info
3. Most current maps (depending on the editors)

Point 1 is quite important and that is what helps me prepare the routes. As with every navigation I usually don't "just drive on" and blindly trust the voice. Especially when I've never been there I usually check the road online - if possible even with more than one provider.

Then finally on the road you always have to consider deviations, weather, blocked roads, etc. The navi is just a tool to HELP but you NEVER want to have too much confidence in it.

[MeX_DK]

The only real thing i miss to make this my main and primary GPS app on my phones are:

1 - Offline option, either a full offline map, or caching like Google Maps
2 - Option to declare bridge height or weight restrictions for various vehicles...

[Ruby799]

My feeling is that Waze is great at efficient routing using real time traffic info. If I know where I want to go, Waze is awesome at getting me there.

However it's no where near as good as Google maps at searching for locations. In fact it really sucks at locating waypoints either by name (may take you to the city center instead of an actual store location) or even messes up navigating to a specific street address. (It uses Bing to get the Lat/Long and then routes you to the nearest street even if it's a freeway or a completely different and wrong street. This is especially true if the destination is set back from the desired street and closer to some adjacent street.

So overall Waze is a mixed bag. I prefer my Garmin or Google maps if I'm going to a new location and absolute fastest time isn't as critical as is getting there reliably. However for finding the currently best way to reach a familar familiar destination in real time, Waze wins hands down.

[ncc1701v]

I use it primarily for traffic avoidance. There are quirks that can be trouble, for example taking you around two sides of a triangle - a couple of weeks ago it did that to me and gave me a vicious left turn to make. I had people honking at me from both directions. So it's best if you take the route Waze gives you (it really is good at traffic avoidance) but look at the details, smoothing out some of the microfeatures.

[harling]

I use it primarily for traffic avoidance. There are quirks that can be trouble, for example taking you around two sides of a triangle - a couple of weeks ago it did that to me and gave me a vicious left turn to make. I had people honking at me from both directions. So it's best if you take the route Waze gives you (it really is good at traffic avoidance) but look at the details, smoothing out some of the microfeatures.

Properly-set turn restrictions should eliminate those. (Be sure to report when & where these happen, even if you plan to fix them yourself.)

"I don't use a 'sat nav' every day... but when I do, I use Waze."

[kuduboet]

It all depends where you are and how active the local community and editors are. I can tell you there is a group of us in North East Ohio working hard to ensure that Waze maps are every bit as good or better than Google Maps or other Sat Nav solutions. The waypoint finding is a shortcoming, and with the loss of the Google API, it is worse as it now relies heavily on Bing. If you have a jailbroken iPhone there is an app that allows you to search for waypoints in Google maps and then navigate through Waze. I use Waze almost exclusively for many of the reasons already mentioned above.

[timbucks]

When doing my deliveries I have a company supplied Sat Nav and I can't remember the last time I used it. I have Waze running as my main sat nav.

My only bug bear with Waze is its definition of fastest route. Even in areas I know like the back of my hand I have it running and it'll give me a fastest route and I'll look at it and go "nah, not going that way" - it tells me I'll be at my destination at 14.09 for example, I'll hang a left when it tells me to go straight on and then after recalculating it tells me I'll be there at 14.06 - so by forcing a recalc by not following suggested route gives me a route that is 3 minutes quicker -> the original route was not the fastest!

[xteejx]

Waze posted about an ETA issue recently. Related?

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