Hi. I am new at waze, but i noticed that it could be provided with automatic registration of such road conditions as hard bumpiness. Because almost all devices are provided with accelerometers, it could be possible through some tests find out believable patterns of shaking of device in hands or mounts to be sure that vibration of device is caused by road. It would be usable for those who are using gravel roads, wood paths or to spot sudden problems on flat road such as holes, obstacles, garbage.
If there less believable shaking appears, waze could ask user if this was road problem or accidental shake of device by someone.
I repeat - such kind of info could be VERY useful. For example, I live in neighborhood where back-roads are in quite different conditions - then i would suggest avoid such problematic roads if users priority is to save car or not to disturb sleeping child, if route is not longer of couple of minutes/hundred meters.
I think its useless and to hard to implent, I like you idea, but its not going to work.
In the Netherland we have many and I mean many “drempels”, that are little bumbs in the road that prevent people to drive to hard. Also it is very depending on how accurate the device is, some device have good accuration and some other thinks that you are falling 10KM without moving you hand.
Its also to hard to implent it, dev must do resource how the device shakes and what typ of road it is. What if you dont have a holder and you going hard right or you let it fall ? Phone flies away and waze makes a hazard or bad road condition.
Also if you cant drive that good or you have mechanical problems that the car shakes when you give gas? I think its just to complex to intergrate it into waze.
New car’s have a system tat when you make a emergencybrake, the alarm light are going on, maybe waze can inplent this with making a ‘car stopped’, but also then you must avoid the phone is fly in your car or you let them drop.
Sorry but You could not be developer, because I read only pessimistic opinion.
What was made inside waze is way more difficult then solutions for road surface quality registration. It could be made differently. Lets’take logic and tools available.
info about bumpiness or any shaking quality of road could be shared only after comparing several user crossings of same section of road. These indices must be compared and filtered out bounces which are not corresponding with most of cases. But if after share appears additional “shake” - user could be asked for explanation like “what was that?”
waze must be able to detect device type, model, and using this info make these devices more or less trustable. After comparing graphs of shaking, different device models could be sorted by their sensitivity, and precision.
also 2 different cases must be taken in account: constant shaking, like on country road, pavement, etc; and sudden or rare, permanent and short-term obstacles like holes, “drempels”, grabage, transition between road surface materials, etc.
Off course solution is not too simple. Its some work with research, analyzing, testing. But it can be done and I think - quite easy for waze dev team. I am stil sure that this feature could be very useful, and even life saving, because some holes or drempels may be missed in fog or other conditions with limited visibility. And imagine how useful it could be for road provider or clerk to monitor problematic spots form REAL and actual data! Another gain form waze.
Haha, Iam sure not a developer and dont ever become a developer
Well in the way you explain it to me, it is possible.
But (sorry) I think they can better invest in better navigation in all the country’s before implent this sort of features.
As I understand, navigation quality depends on maps corrected by users and also number of users reporting. In country like mine and other with small road providing budgets, and percentage of gravel roads, info about road quality and dangers is vital. Navigation, so far, is decent. Ok - it could be made in next version, but when it will work - waze will be even more genius.
People generally drive slower over rough roads. Waze already learns average speeds. Taking accelerometer readings would be difficult at best. Two cars going over the same road, one being a high end luxury far and one being a classic car… are going to give two very different readings.
Why not let Waze do what it does, learning average speeds? I don’t know any mapping solution that reports rough roads and frankly… I think there are other things that Waze can and should prioritize.
Who told that such things are easy? Waze is not easy. But You can win only if You have more and more unique features. Would I download Waze if it had all same features as other navigators do? - Not. So don’t please look at others and think what else waze could be useful for. Waze is not only about navigating, but giving useful info about road You are willing to take.
My argument against Your’s: At different conditions wazers could drive at same spead, esp. where speeds are limited, or there are other (permanent/non-permanent) reasons for slowing down. Or for example - country road is flat and smooth, but dusty or slipery. In such case You (probably) still will be limiting Your speed, but not spoiling car or waking Your child. Other argument is that characteristics of different cars are different and in bad conditions speeds can be very different and not telling about condition of road. Agree?
I would not waste my time here if this feature could not be useful at least for me.
I agree that different cars will act differently on same bad road, but for that we have techniques of filtering, interpolation and other methods. Maybe it seems more difficult then it really is after exploring a bit.
Maybe some mobile application developer could contribute with prototyping such module wich could be tested on different cars on same bad roads, analyzing these differences, problems, cases/scenarios. Unfortunately I am not coder but I am experienced in leading projects and generating ideas for solution. It could be some parallel project, maybe even interesting for students and researchers and then, after it ready and trust-able, implemented in waze application and system.
One additional idea: if waze feels that device is frequently accelerating and rotating, it could ask if device is mounted. Note that waze must take in account accelerations which are hard(but not impossible) to imitate by human - sharp, rapid, short, vibrant. And also, in account could be taken data recorded at certain minimum speed.
Keep in mind, almost all of your posts right now include some form of “ask the user what happened” or “ask the user if road is bumpy or if it was an accident”. The problem is, the more they pay attention to their phone or interface with the app - even via TTS - the less they are focusing on driving SAFELY. Something that every decision waze makes, should consider very seriously.
I’m not even a fan of the 'we detected a slowdown, are you in traffic" dialog. But at least that one only pops up when you are well below the average speed of the segment.
Ok this problem is small and dealable. We can also avoid to ask questions and use only multiple repetitive expressions on acceleration/rotation graph.
Yesterday goggled about similar ideas. And look! - such data could be used for automatic suspension regulation - preventive preparation of vehicle for problematic conditions on road. Fantastic!
Why me and other users must use another application for that purpose if waze could take care of that?
The map in my city would just end up covered in pot-hole reports. And on the cobbled streets the app would be screaming at me!
This has been suggested before but I don’t see it as workable, even the best phone accelerometers would struggle let alone the weaker ones. I also don’t really see the need. As suggested above, speeds along these roads should already account for the road condition.
Screaming? So You don’t want to be warned about cobbled surface? Even in foreign city/town?
Switch of that feature and enjoy joggling!
Application could warn only about highest level problems on road. You see, in turn we would release users from imputing Alerts about situations which phone can notice it self.
Your city? How many cities/towns are in the world and how many of them have wise council deciders as Your city has? You don’t have an idea! I can tel by my town. We have potholes around but budget for road repair this year is 2 and more less then before. I imagine You driving around and shiting at every 100m. We are speaking in global terms here. Not everywhere is Britain where one London’s skyscraper has budget of some small or poor country. People may travel around and they would feel very comfortable if they would be warned about conditions which could have relative value for locals. Pothole in my country maybe is crater or wheel-braker for You. Intelligent registrator of bumps and holes could make it more objective. Still some brainstorming, pre-work must be done to figure out best solution which couldn’t be annoying or useless, but make ride even more informative and comfortable… for those who need that…as option.
Also there would be possible to figure out algorithm of registering severe accidents for example if phone feels very hard acceleration, but user is not responding to phones questions after folowing stopping of car. We could warn local community that PROBABLY accident took place. Also, I am not telling that this is simple or it must be made simple. For sure there must be certain sequence of events to be at least 80% sure that this is related with accident.
Would it even save some lives or health problems? - Tell me!
potholes that just wobble the car should not be reported. Those that are wheel-breakers you’re likely to avoid and report manually so anything automatic wouldn’t help.
There is some merit in this one perhaps, more so on remote roads
There is some merit in this one perhaps, more so on remote roads
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Again I disagree. Again you are suggesting a User have to interact with the device. And again, Waze already has a mechanism in place for it. If there is a hard stop and the User doesn’t touch his phone… Waze is going to see that the averagecspeed for that segment just dropped drastically, and create a jam. WhY does this need to prompt the User for anything OR require extra code/development/and QA time for a feature we already have.
Every single thing mentioned in this thread so far is already handled by Waze learning average speeds!
As for portholes… come on now… locals are going to go around them… non-Locals will likely drive around them also if they are paying attention to the road instead of pressing even more pop ups in their nav app.
I personally vote NO for every feature that has been suggested in this thread. Waze already handles it, and the have better things to prioritize.
You see no merit at all in the auto reporting of an accident on a quiet rural where no one else might come across it?
Waze most definitely does not already handle that!
If someone running waze (for an accelerometer to notice it) has an accident then yes, waze will already detect the traffic flow is running slower than the average, and create a jam.
Yeah?! Right! And How about helping? How about not only warn but make impact on road providers, and make other effects unrelated with Your personal, “little world” interests? You will collect cents from little cheaper gas, but not help to someone when accident, not just soft tire or running out of oil happens around? But if such pop-up appears… You could save someone for real. It could also be too far to closest police or ambulance and city “jams”, dense traffic. Don’t want to inform that road is not only slippery, cobbled, dusty, but real killer for car or trouble some for sleeping baby? I am not talking about holes only. And please take in account development at different countries - absolutely new, reconstructed roads can change to moon surface quite frequently and You indeed will be soon tired to warn about all hazards there. Some situations could be felt by phone and registred…esp. if conditions are relatively permanent.
I really don’t wish You to get into situation when You will just wish if such features would be available!
I Don’t understand Your worries about extra codes/development if device resources grows every year and I’m sure that also waze enterprise is not getting smaller or less wealthy. Name these better things! Cheapest grocery? Cleanest toilet? - And You’ll refuse to push one button to confirm that “This wasn’t impact. Everything is ok! Don’t send alarm!” and only after powerful (de)acceleration of device and complete stop of vehicle?
We are generating another feature here: First aid sequence wizard/helper. Waze users could use it at very stressful and first experience situation without searching in web or other aid application.
Try to play all possible scenarios and figure out how waze could be more helpful and if it’s really so bothering and impossible to implement. I repeat again that some of bothering or “unnecessary” functions could be disabled. But real social users could appreciate these features.
but You could not be developer, because I read only pessimistic opinion.