I’ve got several instances where there are confirmed house numbers in the existing Waze House Number system, but new users are submitting a “place update” with picture of the same house number, but due to some external factor (poor reception, etc) the submitted place is a few houses away.
How does Waze navigation handle conflicting address location data? I haven’t had a good data set to test out yet, but it seems strange to have an internal House Number system, then a separate House Number Place system (albeit, with pictures?), both of which are navigable.
It seems that a better solution would have been to augment the existing House Number system to allow pictures to be attached and the location to be updated. Instead, what I’m dealing with in CT, is areas with vetted House Numbers having hundreds of these (mostly useless) residential picture place updates.
I would generally just reject the residential place updates unless they posed a clear value (such as a house number in an area where Waze doesn’t have House Numbers and the Google Pins are inaccurate), but then I risk getting an otherwise valuable contributor banned if I reject too many of their well-meaning updates.
Of the 100 or so residential place updates I have reviewed, maybe 2 or 3 were perfectly located to provide optimal directions. Many were in the right general area and probably would have gotten you close, but at least 10-20 were far enough off that you would be routed to the wrong street. And it took f-o-r-e-v-e-r to process those. I’m probably just going to let the residential updates sit until we have clear guidance on how they should be used and how they work with (or against) the existing House Number database. I wouldn’t be upset at all if this feature just disappeared
I can’t claim to know what Waze is smoking on this one. The current implementation is haphazard and confusing for editors. For drivers, there’s nothing confusing about it. But what happens after that is the problem, as you’ve noted. When a picture is added for a residence Place, and the number and street matches an existing HN, then the private residence place should be located at the same spot as the existing house number. As it stands now, it just feels disastrous. They’re collecting data, but it’s accuracy really sucks.
It feels like they were so close - a great solution was totally achievable, but perhaps for technical reasons? they just didn’t get there.
If House Numbers were treated as “Private Place Points”, I think that would be a great implementation. “Private Place Points” could work the same as “Public Place Points”.
If you navigate to a private place point that doesn’t exist (i.e. a house number that is not in the Waze HN database), you would be prompted to take a picture and set the location. You wouldn’t have to worry about setting the house number, street, city, or state because it would be based on your search.
If you navigate to a private place point that does exist but is not yet verified (i.e. a house number that is currently in Waze as an import, but has not been ‘touched’ by an editor), you would be prompted to verify the location and optionally take a picture.
If you navigate to a private place point that does exist and is already verified (i.e. a house number that is in Waze and has been touched by an editor), you would be prompted to confirm that the location is correct and optionally provide a picture. If you believe the location is not correct, you could drag the pin to the proper place, and it would be submitted to WME for moderation.
I’m not a huge fan of photos in general, but there have been several instances recently where I was to fix a HN location based on a photo submitted where Street View data does not yet exist.
There would also have to be some marriage of data between House Numbers and the street address attached to public place points and areas. IMO, place points should have either used the HN data, or they should have the same function as the HN data - a pin location and a stop point (you get to pick either HN or stop point, not both). That way you could have the pin on the location of the business, and a stop point where you have “reached your destination”. Many strip mall type buildings with distant and restrictive entrances combined with nearby inaccessible streets end up having a jumble of place points all near the entrance to make sure drivers aren’t routed to some alley behind the mall.
One tidbit - if a Waze House Number does not exist and someone adds their private residence and includes a house number, it will not only add the private place with picture but it will also add the House number. Therefore, it is important to remember that when you move the place pin to the right location (it’s almost never in the right spot), you also need to move the House Number pin and stop point as well.
For private places, if there is no such house number before the place point request, the House Number is created as soon as the driver creates the place point request.
And if you delete the place point, the house number persists.
So, whether you accept or reject the place point, you need to check the house number.
