Continue at crossroads

Honestly, the former (with the addition of a “the next turn is in a couple of miles” type comment if I know it is going to be a while before I need to give them the next instruction), because that’s how I was taught to drive, and it’s how I believe everyone ought to be able to drive. Satnavs are an amazing tool, but they should NEVER, EVER, be treated as anything other than an advice giver, a magic box that can, if it so chooses and if it’s actually working correctly as opposed to having gone off in an electronic tizzy because it thinks you’re driving across an unpaved field half a mile away from where you really are, give the driver a nudge in the right direction. Definitely not, under ANY circumstances, should we be expecting or even encouraging drivers to assume that their satnav will tell them what to do at every point along their journey where guidance might be required.

And honestly, if that is what driving instructors are genuinely teaching their students these days (I know they do include satnav use as part of lessons and the test, but I was under the impression it was just by way of making sure people understood the essentials of how to use them), then it’d be an utter disgrace. If we’re not teaching new drivers how to read the road ahead of them and are instead instilling in them from day one the mistaken belief that the satnav will tell them what to do, then it’d explain a lot about the instances of dodgy driving I see all too often from younger drivers…

Now, that said, if I knew that a crossroads was coming up where they needed to slow/stop but where the sightlines were poor, or the signage/road markings faded, then I may well give a prompt to the driver to warn them. But note “to warn them” - however I worded it, I’d be making it absolutely bloody clear that they’d need to be slowing down as they approached, not simply telling them “oh BTW, there’s a crossroad coming up, go straight on when we get to it”.

Until such time as Waze gives us the ability to warn users in that same way (1), tweaking the map data so that it gives users the exact same instruction as they might also receive when approaching the same junction along the major route (2) means we can be absolutely certain that, sooner or later, someone will misinterpret that instruction as implying they’ve got priority, causing an accident, and ending up as this weeks latest “because my satnav told me to” story…

I wouldn’t feel comfortable making a change to the map data which I believed could make an accident significantly more likely to occur, so if it did become policy to add continue TIOs to even some, let alone all, crossroads, then I’d simply stop editing crossroads until the policy was revoked.

(1) which I think would be a really bad idea, as it would open up another can of worms debate about the wider legal liabilities and responsibilities in the event of incorrectly mapped junctions of all types where such instructions were used.

(2) because if we’re so concerned that users might come grinding to a halt at a crossroads, totally baffled by the sudden choice of possible routes ahead of them in the absence of any explicit instruction from Waze, then logically we’d have to provide a continue TIO for all of the “straight on” routes through the junction, not just those that cross over the major road.

IMO it’s not contradictory to suggest that giving a potentially misleading instruction is dangerous whilst also expecting drivers to be paying attention to the road ahead, if the act of giving that instruction could then encourage drivers to stop paying attention to the road ahead…

Just my opinion…I’m in agreement with Chris and Chris on this(Twister-UK & atrophicshiner)

Waze (like any other Sat Nav) is just a driving aid. It’s ultimately the drivers responsibility to adhere to the road markings and signage. If the sat nav told you to drive off a cliff, would you?

However, having said that there are occasions where a continue/straight on is useful but IMO these need to be reviewed on a case by case basis and only set whereby road conditions/signage/markings etc are poor. These should be the exception and used sparingly.

Oh, and it’s not just Waze that behaves like this, other sat navs don’t give voice instructions at cross roads either. I use a Sygic based sat nav for work, and that doesn’t

I’d like to think I’m the type of driver who isn’t going to follow my sat nav over a cliff or onto railway tracks or down a one way street etc. But it is true that you do come to trust your sat nav to instruct you, and when it doesn’t it can come as a surprise. I sympathise with the guy who raised a UR here a few months ago https://www.waze.com/en-GB/editor?env=row&lon=-1.01648&lat=52.78907&s=1732247551&zoom=5&segments=330586845
who said he nearly had a major accident driving in the dark…and blamed Waze. Of course, Waze is not at fault, there are clear give way signs.
…but I struggle to see how Waze saying “in 100m, continue straight” at this junction is more dangerous than saying nothing at all? IMO, if Waze gives an instruction in advance, the driver will be more aware that he/she needs to do something soon, and will be more likely to observe the signage.

Because either:

If, as some are suggesting, users are requesting continue TIOs because they don’t know which way to go at a crossroads when the route is straight on, then all of the straight on routes through the crossroads would then presumably need a TIO for consistency, and at that point there’s the risk that users who spend most of their time following routes through the major axis of crossroads will get so used to hearing/seeing the instruction in those cases that, if they then find themselves following a route through a minor axis of a crossroads, they’ll incorrectly associate the instruction as being an indication that they’re on the major axis

or

If, as I and others are suggesting, users are requesting TIOs because they’d like Waze to warn them about the upcoming crossroads when approaching along the minor axis, there’s a risk that due to the instruction being completely neutral (i.e. whilst it doesn’t explicitly state that the user does have priority at the junction, neither does it explicitly state that they don’t), users who hadn’t felt the need to request TIOs at such junctions might then not understand why they’re starting to see/hear them, and incorrectly assume that the instruction is giving them a positive reinforcement to continue/go straight on at the upcoming junction - i.e. to proceed without stopping/slowing - rather than merely indicating the direction they need to follow.

Yes, some users will see/hear the instruction and start paying more attention to the road ahead, but others undoubtedly will take the instruction as an excuse to go into autopilot. And IMO, it’s preferable to not add the instruction and just accept that some users will then get it wrong entirely through their own inability to read the road ahead, than to add the instruction and risk having other users get it wrong because their reading of the road ahead was being affected by the instruction Waze was now giving them.

I’ve not read all of the comments on this post, so my point may have already been covered. The fact is, I am new to Waze, having been a TomTom user for quite a few years, until buying my present car which has integral satnav. In my experience, none of the satnav systems that I have used previously, have ever instructed me to go straight on at a crossroads. The on screen map shows you where you should be going.