[SUPPORT] Traffic Avoidance Failure

[gettingthere]

So based on the comments here, seems that Alternative Routes is not at all reliable. How do you know which route is the fastest if the data is not correct? Of course Waze should adjust automatically, but how can it if the data is not correct?

[tibble]

So based on the comments here, seems that Alternative Routes is not at all reliable. How do you know which route is the fastest if the data is not correct? Of course Waze should adjust automatically, but how can it if the data is not correct?

I have to make a decision on which way I go pretty much from the first turn. So I need the route list to be accurate. If i wait the 5 min for the auto reroute its too late.

[CBenson]

So based on the comments here, seems that Alternative Routes is not at all reliable. How do you know which route is the fastest if the data is not correct? Of course Waze should adjust automatically, but how can it if the data is not correct?

I have to make a decision on which way I go pretty much from the first turn. So I need the route list to be accurate. If i wait the 5 min for the auto reroute its too late.

My experience (which is now completely consistent for another day) is that waiting the 5 min doesn't get you any accuracy for the alternative routes. The route you're accepted will get updated. But whenever you bring up alternatives the ETA and travel time data for them is wrong (including your current route). Thus for instance, my current route will indicate a travel time of 58 min. If I then ask for alternatives all three will have travel times of less than 45 min.

[tibble]

My experience (which is now completely consistent for another day) is that waiting the 5 min doesn't get you any accuracy for the alternative routes. The route you're accepted will get updated. But whenever you bring up alternatives the ETA and travel time data for them is wrong (including your current route). Thus for instance, my current route will indicate a travel time of 58 min. If I then ask for alternatives all three will have travel times of less than 45 min.

Correct, but the automatic rerouting works at that point. So if you wait the 5 minutes you can then trust the route it picks.

[CBenson]

Correct, but the automatic rerouting works at that point. So if you wait the 5 minutes you can then trust the route it picks.

I see your point. But given the other examples in this thread of routes showing through the only jam in town, I'm not so sure you can.

The other thing I can say is that what I have been doing for the past couple of days is every once in awhile checking alternatives. Of course merely bringing up the alternatives clears the current route. So I select one of the alternatives, typically the one that shows the shortest travel time, but sometimes just the first one on the list. This is frequently not the route that waze was routing me on before I asked for the alternatives. Even after driving for awhile after selecting the alternate route, waze does not reroute me back to the route that it intially selected as the fastest. I suspect that this is because the various alternates are within a few minutes of each other.

[tibble]

yeah i've heard the threshold is a few minutes, so probably anything less than 5 minutes won't reroute?

That is why i really wish this was fixed. I loved hitting alternate routes and picking one that was a minute sooner .....ahhh the good ol' days of waze working

[gettingthere]

yeah i've heard the threshold is a few minutes, so probably anything less than 5 minutes won't reroute?

Maybe not. A few days ago Waze popped up that it was re-routing me and saved me 2 minutes... But who know's if that was actually correct based on all of the issues we are seeing with ETA's, Alternative Routes, and traffic avoidance.

[gettingthere]

I loved hitting alternate routes and picking one that was a minute sooner .....ahhh the good ol' days of waze working

That is a very aggressive strategy. Really does 1 minute make that much difference in your day?

If Waze were to reroute on a 1 minute traffic change, it would likely try to re-route me several times on my commute - each way, everyday. This is not user friendly. The threshold should likely not be less than 3-5 minutes of time savings. I believe that the two minute time savings re-routing that I got the other day is too aggressive to re-route.

[tibble]

i'm definitely not advocating it. i'm just obsessed and want to see how accurate waze really is it's kinda fun.

I also tend to manually pick the shorter one if it's reasonable, so having accurate time in the altroutes screen would be required for that.

[AlanOfTheBerg]

If Waze were to reroute on a 1 minute traffic change, it would likely try to re-route me several times on my commute - each way, everyday. This is not user friendly. The threshold should likely not be less than 3-5 minutes of time savings. I believe that the two minute time savings re-routing that I got the other day is too aggressive to re-route.

That's where the future "profiles" will come in handy as we can select how aggressive the rerouting should be. I'm thinking that'll take until next year to get into testing.