We appear to have been fairly lucky in the UK so far with the lack of advertising (I haven’t seen any before) and whilst I know that it would only be a matter of time before we start seeing it, I have to say I’m not a fan of this advertising campaign by Nissan.
I’m quite happy with the pop-ups that appear when I am stationary, they’re absolutely fine. I’m also happy with the Nissan logo depicting all of the dealers nearby:
What I don’t think is good is the random exclamation points that pop up randomly all over the map (which bring up the same pop-up advert as when you are stationary). It looks too much like a Waze alert and is very distracting:
I don’t know how much interaction AMs, CMs, etc have with Waze themselves but really I think these detract from the day-to-day use of Waze. I’m all for them making money and love Waze but it defeats the object of using it if the ads get in the way of the app working efficiently.
I agree with everything you say. The fact a red exclamation point has appeared at almost every major junction is very distracting. It looks far too much like it should be a real traffic alert.
Haven’t done much “routing” but just running the app and have not seen any ads in the UK since the “we buy any heap” ads over 15 months ago in Nottingham.
Did see some ads whilst running about in Sardinia but they were non obtrusive, not like those nasty warning indicators…
Ads will likely come at some stage, given this is how Waze are to raise money/income, but I would hope it is a little more discreet that that!
The map on my phone has come up with an attack of measles, with "Nissan Stress Point"s appearing all over the place. This seems to be some form of advertising.
In my view, advertising on a paid-for app is unacceptable. Now while I don’t pay for Waze in cash, I have put quite a lot of time into editing the map. I shan’t be doing any more editing while “Stress Points” are cluttering up the map.
If Waze wish to keep my custom, they need to provide active editors with an opt-out from advertising.
I don’t think it’s fair to expect to not receive ads for editing the map and also, where would the limit be. If every user just adds a Speed Camera for example, does that make them exempt?
You’re going to get into a situation worse than those randomly paving and making false edits just for points if you then say that it’s ad-free after x edits/points.
Just seen some of these. The nissan bit is bearable (mind you, a note to nissan, I have now vowed to never buy a nissan car even if they are the last things on four wheels!) but those warning points are damn confusing!
Are they warnings of some road/traffic issue? More worrying, are they warnings that you may be missing some “great deal” somewhere? Has anyone passed one (routing or non-routing) and do they give a warning or pop-up?
I can see a possible law suit if thee provide a distraction to drivers who then crash and burn or kill peeps!
From panning around Lincoln they seem to mostly located where there’s a speed camera (though not all speed cams have one and not all ads are co-located with a camera).
Those warning wouldn’t then be cases where people have reported a camera as being “not there” maybe?
There doesn’t seem to be any rime or reason to it. I did spot a missing speed cam on the A610 though…
There are two of these “exclamation points” on my route to/from work - and they are both in locations that used to have speed cameras which have since been removed (physically and from the Waze map). I also see quite a few along the A2 - a road that has always attracted a large number of speed camera reports (and deletions).
So it seems possible that they are being placed where speed cameras once were - although the obvious question is “why?”.
Let’s face it - advertising was always going to come. It’s the first I’ve seen since I joined Waze, but I’m not surprised. The Nissan shields at dealerships is easy enough to put up with.
I agree with the rest of you that placing apparent warning markers on main roads is just bloody stupid. If these are former speed camera sites, then they are presumably sites where accidents are likely and safety is an issue. Having something new appear there and distract the driver’s attention demonstrates a very disappointing lack of thought & consideration for Waze users.
I wonder sometimes whether anyone at Waze HQ bothers to think of the consequences before acting. :evil:
Looking at the Groups, there now appears to be a new group: New [Expletive deleted] nissan note (UK). Created 30 days ago by nissan_uk who joined 20 days ago. Hmmm…
Apparently, according to the group wall, “Stress points” are:
“A stress point is where extra caution should be used in driving. By reporting such hazards in the nissan group, you help all Wazers (I bet to differ here)travel more smoothly - [marketing spiel].”
So, not replacements for speeds cams but possible danger points, but without relevance or context they are more than useless - dangerous.
Sorry, but crying “Wolf” 5 times along a single road is only going to make users 1) leave and 2) ignore them.
/rant ON
These would be obvious to any one who is actually paying attention to the road and driving conditions. Are we, therefore, to assume that drivers of nissan notes do NOT pay attention and need to be warned of possible poor road conditions?
Can we report the presence of note users so that other decent road users can avoid them as they obviously need help in recognising basic road conditions!
/rant OFF
The “stress points” are seemingly based on speed camera data from x point in time. The advertising campaign is probably either for some speed camera alert build into the Notes native satnav, or more likely it has an electronic speed restrictor which is increasingly popular these days.
Advertisers don’t care about road safety, they care about selling. The “stress points” are confusing in that they pretend to be something they’re not. They are in fact adding danger to the road for wazers.
Thank [insert appropriate diety here] I live in NI, not a single stress point to be seen so far and only the ‘Nissan’ dealer ads, which are few and far between! As for what people are saying about placement of them it sounds very much like it is old and outdated data being used from one of the ‘safety’ device sellers. That being said it is going to hit waze use quite hard and very possibly cause problems as drivers either stare at their phone or blindly around them wondering ‘what the? are they for?’
Why call it ‘stress point’ and use ‘exclaimation mark’? Not only make me stressful and also distracted and confused. I agree what you guys said. Hope Waze will listen. Otherwise, it may piss people off.
Why isn’t it fair to gain some benefit for the time spent working on behalf of Waze?
The level could be set so that 10’s of man-hours would be required to gain exemption, so that it wouldn’t be worth people’s while just to do a few fake edits for the points. Setting the limit to level 3 editor (AM) would be one option, although personally I think the threshold should be lower.
I repeat, ad’s in a paid-for app are not acceptable, and that applies as much to an app paid for in time and effort as in cash.
I disagree. The app is free, you choose to add your time and effort to it but the app is still free. Yes there are and will be a few teething problems with the design of the ad model but it’s still less irritating than the standard ad bar.
Does nissan really think wazers are going to be driving along thinking “Gee, I sure do want to buy a car today, but I honestly dont know where any close dealerships are…”?
Of course not, but they’ve been the talk of waze in the UK for a whole day now. And you may say it’s all negative but it’s amazing how little that matters.
