Suspect, sometimes Dangerous, Directions

[pointlessly]

I am experiencing some of the most suspect directions. A left turn from Gough Street, south bound, onto Fern, in San Francisco, should be impossible based on the "Live Map" here, yet that's what Waze tried to do to me this week. I mean, really, a left turn onto a tiny, narrow street, even if Fern ran the correct direction in San Francisco, it's practically an alley. No left onto major roads like Bush St or Post St? This is not a safe application. Do not trust it, it may one day tell you to take a left turn in the middle of the Golden Gate Bridge.

Driving home today, when I ignored a rather round about suggestion of how to drive home, Waze suggested I continue for several miles down a highway, then make a u-turn, and go back up the highway to resume Waze's earlier round about routing. Until these, and multiple other gaffs in direction, are corrected, Waze remains nothing but a toy, it cannot be taken seriously.

[AlanOfTheBerg]

Check to see if you have an option for 'prefer goodie munching.' it's supposedly removed and turned off by default, but this has been known to cause bad routing.


--
If it looks strange, or I used bad grammar or misspelled anything, it's my phone's fault.

[Spil]

Also, check out the editor ... most likely there are errors in the maps that are causing the problems with the navigation. Waze is a community-based system, and the work that the community puts into editing the maps helps make it a better product for everyone.

As for turning left off a bridge ... yeah, Waze has told me to do that before (across three concrete barriers and four lanes of oncoming interstate traffic ), but I was smart enough to follow the signs for looping around on the offramp instead , which means that I'm still alive to tell you about it ... and now, at that intersection, Waze won't do that to anyone else anymore, because I've made the necessary corrections to the imported basemap in that area.

[bz2012]

Every GPS I have ever used has tried to make me turn off the middle of an overpass near my home onto the street below. Deadly if the direction were followed.

WAZE is the first GPS that has allowed me to correct the problem.
Now it gives me the correct directions.

My first GPS tells me that the maps need updating but the company that sold that GPS never made updated maps available. They also failed to follow through on a promised 'upgraded' unit at a reduced price.

Other GPS that I bought has map updates available. They charge a bunch for the updated maps.

My first GPS DOES have one feature that I wish WAZE had. It beeps if it thinks I am exceeding the speed limit AND it turns the speed indicator on the screen 'red'. I wish WAZE would add those features. Of course, then we would need a way to set the speed limits for each segment we edit.

WAZE is an aMAZEing product, for the price.

[pointlessly]

Cookie munching? Off. (Having it on is pretty pointless, pardon the pun, when there haven't been any munchables in weeks.)

Of course anyone with common sense is not going to make a turn off of a bridge mid-span or the middle of an overpass, and anyone who's paying attention isn't going to make a wrong turn onto a street running one-way.

Thing is, you go to the "Live Map" to edit these directions and in the case of Gough/Fern, the map here is set up correctly yet the iPhone app tells you to take the wrong turn. Something like this cannot be fixed by this neato nifty user-involved system because somewhere in the system itself there is poor coding or other technical problems.

Or, in the case of some roads local to where I live, in Long Beach, NY, there are certain spots where you cannot make turns, and these were fixed a while back yet now some "helpful" person has gone through and made all connections active at these intersections and even more they are now locked so you cannot fix them. So Waze will go back to giving wrong directions of the sort that could lead a user to getting a ticket for a left turn where it's not permitted. We have a local "helpful" person who also "corrects" my notifications of errors almost as soon as I've placed the notification except nothing is corrected, all he/she seems to be doing is going to the notification on the map, clicking "problem solved" and nothing gets fixed.

So the user-involvement is a bit problematic, sort of like the folks who put red light cameras in the middle of residential neighborhoods, or speed traps (speed cameras) anywhere in New York State -- speed cameras are not implemented in New York State at this time. In Nassau County, New York, there are roughly 50 locations (+/-) with red light cameras, yet I've deleted upwards of 600 "reports" of them all over the area.

I say again: Waze is a sweet little toy, but it's not to be relied upon as anything serious so long as people can capriciously report all manner of things, or unhelpfully "correct" issues that really never are corrected. There is need of some way to control such things, else Waze will be relegated to the list of apps that might have been really useful.

[AlanOfTheBerg]

Thing is, you go to the "Live Map" to edit these directions and in the case of Gough/Fern, the map here is set up correctly yet the iPhone app tells you to take the wrong turn. Something like this cannot be fixed by this neato nifty user-involved system because somewhere in the system itself there is poor coding or other technical problems.

If that's the case, then this error has been recently fixed by someone and the map cycle update needs to complete to get this change live in the app.

We have a local "helpful" person who also "corrects" my notifications of errors almost as soon as I've placed the notification except nothing is corrected, all he/she seems to be doing is going to the notification on the map, clicking "problem solved" and nothing gets fixed.

You have their username and can PM them, if you have not already.

So the user-involvement is a bit problematic...[/quote]

In the world of collaboration, it's hard to get a good line between inviting enough people in to help get everything correct and keeping out those who are clueless, unhelpful, vandals, or any combination thereof.

I say again: Waze is a sweet little toy, but it's not to be relied upon as anything serious so long as people can capriciously report all manner of things, or unhelpfully "correct" issues that really never are corrected.

At some point, if Waze becomes economically viable, it would make sense for them to be more aggressive in locking down the map.

[BlackjackNY]

Cookie munching? Off. (Having it on is pretty pointless, pardon the pun, when there haven't been any munchables in weeks.)

Of course anyone with common sense is not going to make a turn off of a bridge mid-span or the middle of an overpass, and anyone who's paying attention isn't going to make a wrong turn onto a street running one-way.

Thing is, you go to the "Live Map" to edit these directions and in the case of Gough/Fern, the map here is set up correctly yet the iPhone app tells you to take the wrong turn. Something like this cannot be fixed by this neato nifty user-involved system because somewhere in the system itself there is poor coding or other technical problems.

Or, in the case of some roads local to where I live, in Long Beach, NY, there are certain spots where you cannot make turns, and these were fixed a while back yet now some "helpful" person has gone through and made all connections active at these intersections and even more they are now locked so you cannot fix them. So Waze will go back to giving wrong directions of the sort that could lead a user to getting a ticket for a left turn where it's not permitted. We have a local "helpful" person who also "corrects" my notifications of errors almost as soon as I've placed the notification except nothing is corrected, all he/she seems to be doing is going to the notification on the map, clicking "problem solved" and nothing gets fixed.

So the user-involvement is a bit problematic, sort of like the folks who put red light cameras in the middle of residential neighborhoods, or speed traps (speed cameras) anywhere in New York State -- speed cameras are not implemented in New York State at this time. In Nassau County, New York, there are roughly 50 locations (+/-) with red light cameras, yet I've deleted upwards of 600 "reports" of them all over the area.

I say again: Waze is a sweet little toy, but it's not to be relied upon as anything serious so long as people can capriciously report all manner of things, or unhelpfully "correct" issues that really never are corrected. There is need of some way to control such things, else Waze will be relegated to the list of apps that might have been really useful.

PM sent.