Ive been using Waze now for around 2/3 weeks, mainly on my daily commute to work. Ive had the learn route option turned on yet my route to work is still suggested as follows:
14 miles and 24 minutes, the route which i go myself (and have been since using waze) is 9.6 miles and 19 minutes. I have the fastest route option turned on.
I recently used Waze on holiday and lost count of the number of time it tried to route me round two sides of a triangle instead of along one side. Fortunately i could see this on the map so ignored it. However this caused its own problems and i received the ‘routing server error’ notice more than 50% of the time. This is fine when your in an area you know but when youre not, its really not helpful?
Am i missing some super setting or is this really how it is?
Firstly, make sure you have ‘Prefer goodie munching’ turned off. This has been known to give erroneous routes for sometime, and Waze are supposed to be removing it (already done in US, but not everywhere else).
I’m not sure why it’s not giving you the optimal route on your daily commute, and it’s hard to comment without seeing the map. Sometimes it takes a few drives for Waze to figure out the route, and a couple drives the ‘wrong’ way might be need it to teach it how slow it is.
It’s also possible that the map is broken, and someone needs to fix it. Can you tell us what route you are trying to take?
Thanks for the response, goody munching is indeed turned off.
Route Waze suggests (Ashtead to Hersham) is down the A24 past ashtead hospital to A243 then A244 to hersham (14 miles)
My route is A24 to Epsom, B280 to the A244 then A244 to Hersham (9.6 miles)
Ive not tried driving my route in reverse as the traffic is normally bad that way on the way home (i near enough drive the route suggested by Waze in the mornings as noted above, but with a slight variation from the A244 down Oaklawn road)
Ive tried looking at the route i drive and cant see anything obvious thats broken, if i route and then just ignore the suggested route and drive mine Waze soon updates to my route (within 30 sec) when i deviate.
Waze probably doesn’t have any average speed data for all or part of your normal route.
When you’re driving to work, ignore the navigation instructions and drive your normal route. Do this for a week or so and it will learn the average speeds on the roads you take. Once that data is available, it should start routing you the way you want to go.
Although it is also very likely that the traffic jam data, ETA, and re-routing functions of Waze are not working as they should. Per Timbones post, check the linked thread.
We can’t always assume that there is not enough data… I have a recent example in the thread that Timbones linked where there is plenty of data but Waze is not correctly using it.
I’m not sure, but the data you collect might not be useable until the map is updated again. This is currently taking a few weeks to happen, but Waze are working on making this more frequent.
No, you don’t need to have the navigation switched on in order to collect useful data or post traffic alerts.
Yes, but if you are just visually looking at traffic on the screen you are not taking advantage of the automated functionality that will provide you with an ETA, the fastest route with traffic factored in, and re-routing around the traffic. In theory the Waze ‘supercomputers’ should be able to due a better job than a human pan and scanning the map and making decisions on which route is faster.
This of course is when the system is working as designed… but that is another topic…
I believe that Waze is paying more attention than we may think. They don’t respond to many posts though.
It’s really not a fair comparison to compare Waze - who offers us all a free application with high-end audio company Sonos who charges $300 - $400 for a single speaker. I own Sonos, it’s great. But I bought apx. $1000 of their product vs. paying nothing for Waze. You can not expect the same level of support for something that you have acquired for nothing.
I have to disagree with you there. Yes while Waze is a free app they are making money from their user base or they wouldnt be doing this. Effectively they are getting something from us for free also. I think its therefore valid to raise things like this and they should take note. An improved Waze means a better user experience leading to more users and in turn i would have thought a greater revenue stream for Waze.
Just because its free doesnt mean its okay to receive a poor customer experience/support at the end of the day constructive feedback will benefit everyone.
Hi, I’m one of the area managers that covers this area. I’ve done a lot of work on the connectivity in the past few weeks. I hope this will improve your routing once the map updates (maybe not the next one but the one after that). Please contact me direct to discuss further if you wish so I can help debug the exact route. I’ve noticed you’ve made a few edits too - thanks for that!
I can assure you that Waze is not making money off of any of this. They want to, but they are not there yet. The only thing they are doing now is burning through their investors money and bringing in a few bucks here and there with some targeted advertising. I’m sure they are not even covering their AWS hosting costs…
The goal of all firms and businesses are to make a profit. (Sorry, I’m in economics). The only reason Waze is operating right now is because their revenue is covering their variable expenses (I would consider AWS a fixed expense, in this type of business, but it can become variable easily). Revenue would also include investor’s funds
