Pronunciation of Route 9W

Map Editors Community United States New Jersey
1

Just a normal Waze user here, but I’ve been annoyed for several years by the app always pronouncing U.S. Route 9W as “Nine West” instead of “Nine Double-You”. I sent in some feedback (via the app) a few years ago, and it got fixed for a specific spot (Exit 4 on the Palisades), but not globally. After the latest app update, it appears my specific fix has disappeared from the code as well. (I sent in some feedback several months ago about this being a general problem, but nothing has changed.)

This obviously affects both NJ & NY west of the Hudson. Does anyone know how to get it fixed. (I’m tired of yelling at Waze every time it says “Nine West”! :wink: )

Thanks!

2

Unfortunately this isn’t going to be a quick fix.

First, a little background on TTS (Text To Speech) in Waze, and how it relates to our problem:

The voice ‘reads’ each segment name to you as it’s ‘written’ in the map data.
We’ll have to find and change every single instance of Nine Double-Yew. Editors can only edit a certain distance around recent drives, so its unlikely any single person can manage the fix.

The voice is supposed to read “W” as West and “W.” as Double-Yew.
From time to time, and again recently, the system has a hiccup. These are usually temporary and you can reset your app’s TTS cache by typing cc@tts in the search bar and hitting enter/check to ‘complete the search’. Eventually your app would update on it’s own. Recently staff attempted to fix another problem in the system and created a new bug. The fix is already in for the TTS ignoring the “.” after letters.

As for what we’ll have to do about it:

  1. I’ll make a little noise in our NJ Editors Chat and get everyone alerted to the problem. I’ll try and keep an eye on things, but I won’t get much of it done myself as I’m AFK for vacation in T-minus-17 hours.
  2. I’ll alert the NY Editors to the issue as well.
  3. Once that specific spot at Exit 4 goes back to Double-Yew (so we’re sure the fix is in) feel free to submit a report from the app in the area of any instance of 9West. That will help draw our attention to any road, ramp, wayfinder or stub segments that need the “.” added.
  4. Consider becoming an editor so you can fix things yourself! You can find information at https://wazeopedia.waze.com/wiki/USA/New_Jersey (and there’s a landing page for NY as well) and our community chats are found at https://discord.gg/GsCCqHg

Reach out here or directly to me via PM any time you like!

-Greg