after reading on facebook again again from new versions for the iPhone and Android I am getting very sad.
I’m in Germany and I started to use waze over 1 year ago. At the time waze was at the beginning and it didn’t work very well because of missing drivers and the mapping system was not that good. I stoped using waze and 5 months ago I started using it again on Android. The App at the current level is working well and it does it job.
BUT…the mapping is AWFUL. There are more users around my area but this has nothing to do with the number of wazers because the are routs which I was driving 1 year ago and the system didn’t get that certain turns are OK and certain parts of the streets are connected. I was driving one route every day in the morning and afternoon (for 4 months) but during the whole time waze did not learn the route. When I turnt on the navigation I got a bad result. At one point it even lost data at a street where I was able to drive before.
That means: WAZE is USELESS for navigation!!!
I asking myself: Why are you developing over and over new versions for the devices when the needed basis is not working at all? For what is a good looking navigation app when the navigation part isn’t working at all? And why having new versions of Android and iPhone when the old ones are good but nothing for WP7?
Some areas have been blessed (and sometimes a curse ) with base maps. This is only done when either a free source, or a commercial partnership is made with a source. This is done to allow waze to use the map data without any restrictions, and also to keep costs down and leave the product free to us users.
That being said. Base maps or no Base maps, the maps are only as good as the community or yourself (you have looked at the waze map editor right?) make them. It’s amazing actually how little time it takes to get major backbone roads into place. This is normally handled by a few dedicated individuals. Then if you as the local user, add in the little roads around the places you visit, you have helped the community out, and things get better.
As I understand does waze fix the map automatically when cars drive over connection points and streets if they are not connected. This does not happen! And if it does not happen automatically then it’s time.
I fixed many times errors in the editor. It never got submitted to the live map over months.
Streets and connections were fine but suddenly it gets set back and what worked before it doesn’t anymore. And not for a short time but for months or better for ever.
And what’s the point about calculating travel time when a drive a route every day over 4 months and it say I need 2h but actually every time it takes me about 1h and 30min. What does happen with the data I provide?
I do not talk about missing community or what so ever, I talk about a reliable system and a system which makes it easy for the community! There is much work to do at the source and not at the apps.
Please post a permalink to some of these errors you’ve corrected in the editor so we can have a look at them. If you corrected them and they worked for a while, they should still be working.
Waze did use to regularly and automatically change a lot of information about segment geometry and allowed turns at intersections, but never connected segments directly. It did use to automatically create roads based on GPS tracks, though.
The problem is that publicity for Waze falsely says it automatically does these things. For example on the Waze Facebook page, whenever someone complains about missing roads or bad route, support answers something like, “Keep driving the route you know and waze will learn!”
That is a basic feature and has worked, in general. However, due to infrastructure issues and reorganization, it isn’t currently happening. But it’s hard to decide when/how often to completely change your answers based on what should be transitory issues. And one can’t go changing PR and website elements constantly due to the same. It will learn, eventually. I’ve seen it happen.
They probably did read your post! However the problem is that they’re not the people you want to answer. When they downloaded Waze, they didn’t download a navigation system, they downloaded a hobby. They love editing, having arguments about how to label motorway ramps and so on. They were completely sincere in offering to sort the particular example you used as an example - that’s what they love doing but of course they missed the point. Your question goes to the heart of the project and its weakest point, the problem of creating a reliable useable map using the Wiki model and an editor(s) that is/are not designed around productivity and efficiency.
I’m with you on this. I’m disappointed with Waze.
I’ve put in a year of hard work, 550,000 points worth (borderline megawazer). I’ve produced a near perfect map of Dublin and surrounding area, covering 1/3 of the population of Ireland. All that has done is push us up from 10 users a week to maybe 100 - nothing like enough to get rerouting around jams or anything like that. In fact, I can sit in my office which backs onto one of our motorways, the M1 and by simply sitting there can make the motorway appear gridlocked! In the year, Waze has not given me back one useful piece of information.
The elders of the community will tell us to be patient, to be grateful that its free, that it did brilliant things during Carmageddon, etc. The simple fact is that it is failing because it is too difficult to produce useable maps. You pave a road. By default it goes in as one-way. You realise that and edit the road to make it two way. The five Km you’ve paved has been created as 30 segments - however, even though you’ve made them two-way, you still have 29 non-return valves that only allow you to move one way. You can bridge the segments (two at a time) or enable all turns on each turn (one at a time) but what percentage of people can be bothered? Simply STUPID. Buy a Sat Nav for €80 and get a service from day one.
Nobody in Waze will answer you or me and eventually we get tired and leave. They’ll let the hobbyists fend us off. I wish more of the disgruntled would join in and grumble. I still think it has great potential but …
Really? I’d imagine after that amount of edits you’d know how this works by now…
Map are community made, like Wikipedia. If you expected a fully working GPS system, go and buy one otherwise stop bitching about the map and do something to fix it, etc. Been said throughout these forums more than enough times. It’s also shown on the Waze website when you select your country “maps in this area are just starting and will be missing bits and be unreliable but it’s a great time to edit and get the map down”. Sorry people but if you can’t read…
Oh BTW it doesn’t need to be said but you should know better than to leave Waze running and creating false reports. But if you say there aren’t many users I’d not be too bothered.
You really are not listening.WE KNOW HOW IT WORKS AND WE ARE SAYING THAT THE WAY IT IS WORKING IS FAILING. How may years can it be ‘just starting’. I’m 51 - will it work before I retire… or die? I’ve 120,000 edits done and its still only good enough to attract a few dozen people. How much effort do you think people are going to put in? There are only 27 people in the world that have put in more effort than me. I’m supporting the original poster in the belief that the Wiki model is not working and may not be suitable for this type of data.
I’ve argued my case pointing examples of the weaknesses - you have put no counter argument. It is you that can’t read dot dot dot.
Of course not but this happened me by accident and it had the effect I pointed out. I’m highlighting it as a weakness as there is no way if we ever get tens of thousands of people (that we need) in a city to use it that they will all be exactly disciplined to avoid these sort of shortcomings. An item that performs perfectly if you observe 127 rules will lose out to one that is about 90% perfect but easy to use.
If you have 10,000 people in a city using Waze, the people speeding by on the freeway will negate the traffic jam caused by the person sitting in their office.
I love the idea of having the instant feedback from other users when commuting. On the other hand it is annoying when I travel to a store that I locate as I did yesterday, and right before I get to the store, Waze tries to turn me in the opposite direction, from the store I am traveling to.
I talked my daughter a few days ago into loading Waze onto her brand new iPhone. She works in downtown Atlanta, GA, and had an appointment 2 days ago after work. Waze tried to make her turn down one way streets against traffic three times, and led her on a merry go round of wrong turns after that. She finally gave up and closed down Waze and opened up Telenav, and got to her destination. She also liked the live aspect of Waze, but obviously, she will not rely on it to get her anywhere, that she doesn’t already know the way to. It’s a shame, really.
I’m sorry you feel that no body from waze will read or respond to your post, and we’ll just let it slide. The feedback from the community - negative and positive feedback - is very important for us, and without it, it will be impossible for us to progress and make a better product.
With that said, in some countries there are only a number of things we can do to make things better. If the community in your country is not strong enough, we can try and make it stronger. Obviously countries with a basemap have an ‘easier’ start over countries without one, but the effort by the pioneers in the countries without the basemap is usually harder and less rewarding.
I don’t think anyone will have to wait till retirement age for waze to work. You’re saying that the current system is not good enough in the sense that working on better maps is simply not enough to bring in enough new people to make the information worthwhile. And again, I say that it’s because your country is still at a very early stage.
Not to look only at ‘big success stories’ such as ‘carmagadon’ or the bay area, you have many countries that started off with some pioneers and do have a low of valuable information for users today: take the Netherlands, Singapore or Hungary as an example. Their communities are growing and reaching critical levels, and in some cities has already reached that level.
It’s a combination of great editors, having a base map or not, and getting enough people joining. In some countries we try and help by bringing more focus to waze, and in other countries (such as Slovakia and Hungary), some of our users take initiative in getting waze meetups and more people joining waze, and we help as much as we can.
If there’s anything you think we can help with in your country, just let us know.
) with base maps. This is only done when either a free source, or a commercial partnership is made with a source. This is done to allow waze to use the map data without any restrictions, and also to keep costs down and leave the product free to us users.