I have been using waze on my daily commute since it came out for iPhone (I know… 2 whole days!) but see some pretty great potential for the app. After using it a bit and even updating and Interstate Exchange that was totally boinked, I have a few questions… I know it will take a few days for any map updates I have made to make into the Live Maps/Mobile Tiles and for the points I have accumulated to catch up on the web, etc… Basically, it would help to know what kind of operations the server map updates go through every night. It would help me update the map in a way that allows the server to do the least amount of work; or at least to update in a way consistent with how the dev team intended the map to be used!
What is the best way to contribute to Waze? Will the maps/roads get better/corrected just by driving the routes? or do you have to go into the map update to correct “bad” map data? I guess the root of this question is: If no one takes the time to update the map by hand on the web and say 1000+ people (way more eventually) in my area drive around with waze open on their device; will the maps get better on their own?
All of the Interstates in my area are drawn as two parallel one way roads. The Wiki reads as if Waze prefers these roads to be single two-way roads… can someone clarify? I don’t mind helping change them in my city…
Does Waze learn about roads/routes better if I am “navigating” or just driving around… or is the important thing to just drive around and it learns the same either way. By learning, I mean, of course, making its maps better!
Thats enough for now, this is getting long! I look forward to helping make my city’s Waze better and would love to find out how to contribute even more to the dev!
Start off by driving around with it on. Waze will collect the map data, and fix inaccuracies in the map. If you are in an area where there are no raods, you can “start a new road” from the app on your phone. The more you get acclimated, the more you can do. Read the Wiki, and it will show you how to update the info on the map(editing). Driving around is great for it.
As far as the divided highway…It is set up so divided highways within 30 feet are “merged” as one road. IMO, if a lot of the highways in your area are set up like that, I would just leave them. Check the gps points and make sure they are accurate with the highway. If they are not, I would change them if you wanted too. Otherwise, I think it would be fine. Im sure a dev will tell you more of what they want.
It doesn’t make a difference. In both instances what’s important are your gps traces. So feel free to navigate or just keep it open while driving around. As kasrhp said, the more you drive the better the maps will get…
There is a combination of what the software can do and what you can do to expedite things manually. If the highways are boinked as you indicate, recording the tracks helps, but there is a need for manual intervention to see it all covered (including where on the highway you have not driven) and expedite the correction. So in case of messier places, I would recommend to correct them manually and patch the roads (if parts are missing) using the map editor.
So is that to say that we might be better off recording new streets as we see them, driving around for a while and leaving the map alone at first to see how it goes? Or shall we edit as soon as we see the recorded roads have shown up?
I think it’s a combination. Edit what you see and then drive over it again in recording mode and see if how that improves the overall picture (I.e. the roads updated are connecting to the new recorded and missing segments). The more GPS points, the better the process should behave, given of course there are no bugs. (And we will look into the information you provided and try to recreate (if it is possible) it to better understand the issue).