Waze use case - the good, bad and ugly
While using waze for a few days via the android client I have noticed my usage patterns and figured I would post as to why that is so. There are far to few users in my area to pay to much attention to reports or even chit chat and most data such as police and traffic are hours old if available at all. That leaves the game mechanics along with mapping and navigation functionality as potential reasons to use waze.
In reality the game mechanics are the driving force for using or contributing any data to waze. The client itself while functional lacks the polished user interface, performance and integration of Google Maps. Serious mapping errors in places render navigation somewhat useless and I find myself having to spend far to much time trying to record new roads than paying attention to the road. Turning the update request layer on in cartouche is almost humorous for my area. However one of the largest problems I face even when not actively using the client is the raw location calculations of the client. When I am driving off road or even in parking lots waze continually places my location on the nearest road, often resulting in traffic notifications and false traffic reports if I do not happen to get to the notifications fast enough. Not only is this a distraction hazard the client has shown me driving on roads hundreds of feet away or in the wrong direction due to its own inability to calculate that people drive elsewhere than public roads 100% of the time. Something as simple as taking an off ramp or even making a turn can result in wildly inaccurate locations.
While I understand that things such as map errors can be corrected by users, I cant help but think I am providing an immense amount of data to waze for almost no gain other than a game. The concept is great however execution is lacking. I decided to try waze after hearing the CEO in a tech podcast and while comparing waze with Google maps and talking about how the crowd sourced aspect added value over the Google offering. That simply is not the case, If I need reliable navigation or simple accurate location information I cannot rely on Waze.
Does anyone else have these same issues and is waze addressing any of these actively?
In reality the game mechanics are the driving force for using or contributing any data to waze. The client itself while functional lacks the polished user interface, performance and integration of Google Maps. Serious mapping errors in places render navigation somewhat useless and I find myself having to spend far to much time trying to record new roads than paying attention to the road. Turning the update request layer on in cartouche is almost humorous for my area. However one of the largest problems I face even when not actively using the client is the raw location calculations of the client. When I am driving off road or even in parking lots waze continually places my location on the nearest road, often resulting in traffic notifications and false traffic reports if I do not happen to get to the notifications fast enough. Not only is this a distraction hazard the client has shown me driving on roads hundreds of feet away or in the wrong direction due to its own inability to calculate that people drive elsewhere than public roads 100% of the time. Something as simple as taking an off ramp or even making a turn can result in wildly inaccurate locations.
While I understand that things such as map errors can be corrected by users, I cant help but think I am providing an immense amount of data to waze for almost no gain other than a game. The concept is great however execution is lacking. I decided to try waze after hearing the CEO in a tech podcast and while comparing waze with Google maps and talking about how the crowd sourced aspect added value over the Google offering. That simply is not the case, If I need reliable navigation or simple accurate location information I cannot rely on Waze.
Does anyone else have these same issues and is waze addressing any of these actively?
Re: Waze use case - the good, bad and ugly