I would suggest a feature that would enable users to create their own Routes and save them. For example “Work to Home” where I plot out the start and destination as well as which roads I want to take.
I was thinking that this feature would be available online with the map editor.
It’s a bit annoying that Waze thinks I should drive through town even though it’s congested with heavy traffic when there’s a good highway going around town; and yes I know that Waze learns but sometimes I don’t have the time to train it, I just want it to direct me along the roads I want to take.
So just drive along those roads then!?
The whole point of waze is that once it learns the lay of the land in your area that it woks out the best way. I actually don’t see the benefit of defining your route and not accepting alternative suggestions.
As for “training it”, it will learn just with you having the app open without a route plugged in. It only takes a few users in your area for this to become quite useful quite quickly!
Well, since you failed to come up with a reason yourself why this feature would be helpful, let me give you one.
One of the reasons I would like the feature is that I might not know how to drive to a specific destination, because I haven’t driven there before. Thus I want to be able to plan/plot where and how I want to drive to reach my destination online, instead of being at the whim of the Waze path finding algorithm, and save those presets so I can access them on my phone.
And while we’re on the topic of custom routes. Google Navigation offers a way to drag & drop the planned route so that the driver can customize which path he/she takes to reach their destination.
If you know the route then just use it, after a while waze will accept that as your preferred route.
If you don’t know the area I’m not sure why you would want to dictate the route!?
Where I do agree is that it would be nice to have an online “pre-plan” feature with the possibility to set waypoints or even plug in a set of waypoints and let waze determine the best route AND order!
“Where I do agree is that it would be nice to have an online “pre-plan” feature with the possibility to set waypoints or even plug in a set of waypoints and let waze determine the best route AND order!”
That’s sort of what I’ve been trying to suggest. Depending on how many waypoints you use you can have a 100% pre-planned route because there is only one way for Waze to plot a route through them, or you can put out fewer waypoints and let Waze determine the best route and order; as you said.
If I’ve never driven somewhere, I doubt I’d take the time to pre-plan it. This is along the lines of the question Darren posed, “If you don’t know the area I’m not sure why you would want to dictate the route!?” Why would I think I can pick a better route if I have no idea about what traffic patters or streets are like in the areas I’m likely to transit?
There is, sorta, kinda, half-assed, support for this, but it’s a real pain and it doesn’t automate going from point to point, but this does work with the current client.
What you can do is scroll around the map on the client and drop location pins in the reverse order you wish to drive them and save the location without giving it a name.
At that point you can select the top saved location, have Waze route to it, and once you get there, or very near, delete the top saved location and route to the new top saved location. I’ve used this method to fill in my edit area where there has been small gaps and it works well enough, but the setup is a pain.
@AlanOfTheBerg: I’ve already answered that question in my post above, even Darren came up with a better feature/functionality along the same routes.
Just because you haven’t driven in an area doesn’t mean that you don’t know the area, from a pedestrian standpoint, or places that you’d like to avoid or prefer driving through. How about driving through another area of the city to avoid a construction site? Or that you want to take the highway around the city but you want to exit the freeway at a certain point. There are countless of examples where the ability to put out waypoints are beneficial.
There was a time long ago when I spent hours devouring maps trying to plan a route, both to places known and unknown. I still know how to read a map, but concur with AlanoftheBerg that there’s uncertain value in ‘forced routing’, a phrase which seems a bit oxymoronic.
What you stated above makes sense for “most use cases” but not all… For instance I ride a motorcycle.
I would love for there to be a way for me to map a custom route on the live map and “save” it for later use on my device. During the navigation of this “custom route” Waze should just direct you along your path and not try to redirect you, or maybe ask you first if you want to stray from your custom route.
This would be a VERY NICE feature because even Google Voice does not support this yet. For instance if I wanted to go to Western Mass but take Rt2 rather than I90 I could create the custom route and save it for later use on my device. All along I don’t know where I am yet I was able to hit all of the twisties in the back roads.
While they offer that you still have to print the route out because as of yet I have not found a way to “import” those routes into the Android Navigation app.
OK, now you have me thinking about the ultimate motorcycle app. Instead of a destination, you put in the time allotted and your budget for food. You would also need to submit a picture of your chicken strips so it can adjust the mileage to your speed!!! It would then pick the twistiest road that you have not driven on recently. In a group context, it would weight each riders history so the highest percent of riders would be happy. I’m not sure how to do the scenery part, maybe you rate the ride afterwards. It would also need to know the range of all bikes (hopefully no peanut tanks) so it could do gas stops also. I actually used my Garmin with a handle bar mount to lead a group. It could not navigate the huge loop but it did give me a heads up on the curves coming up and made me look like a more aggressive rider than I am. The Garmin eventually broke its mouse button probably due to the vibration. Ride safe and keep the shiny side up.
I am not solely thinking about motorcycles though, leaf peepers may want to put in a route their friend told them was nice. Then they can go see the foliage on that route up in VT or NH, etc. Upon leaving their home they know what road they want to take to get there they plot it and set off. Waze knows its a custom route so it does not try to re-route them (unless they did something foolish like try to go the wrong way down a one way) rather it just directs them along the path.
Abso-fn’-lutely the feature I’m desperately waiting for :). And I’d say it’ll be very useful as me e.g. drive everyday myself & my gf to work (2 different places in the same town), so why not to plan a route with two waypoints but only one actual end? :). Also others could use it, e.g. mums driving kids to school and then somewhere else etc. etc. People from one city district often commute together in one car, though they have different arrival points
