AlanOfTheBerg wrote:

sketch wrote:I agree with some other posters that the final instruction comes too late, far too late at freeway speeds.

My experience has been the opposite: freeway speeds announcements seem just fine but surface street announcements are way too early for the final instruction.

I didn't think it was a big problem during testing at home, but I drove about 1200 miles over the last couple days—in unfamiliar territory, they come too late. That instruction should be early enough that you can start braking at that moment for your turn, or get over a lane if you're in the wrong one.

The Waze release candidate had the same TTS scheme as the current version—except for the first instruction, which came just after the last turn instead of at up to 4.3 miles. I tested the Waze release candidate alongside a Garmin on the route. The Waze release candidate and the Garmin had essentially the same TTS scheme, with one fundamental difference: the Garmin's second and final instructions were more flexible. At city speeds, Garmin and Waze were pretty much the same. At freeway speeds, though, where Waze warns at ½ mile, Garmin warns at 1.1 mile; where Waze warns at about 400 feet, Garmin warns closer to 800 feet. I found the Garmin's instructions to be perfectly timed.

That's why the name is included in the final instruction—so you know where exactly to turn, based on the street sign and/or the map display. The instruction would be way too late to be useful if it actually came AT the street.


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relayer35 wrote:Also getting no TTS. Tried deleting and re-installing, it didn't help. Also tried switching from Samantha to Tom and had no voice at all. Occasionally, it will say a street name here and there, but that's it. Hope it gets fixed soon.

I said this a couple pages up—don't switch voices or reinstall, and after a couple days hopefully it should build up the cache, and you should get a couple more names on your drive each day. It's a server problem, I think.


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Waze has always been social. People have been requesting a non-Facebook, Waze-native way to add friends for years. Now you have one.

You can "skip that step" if you don't want to enter your phone number.


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BTW, it seems that the street name problem was fixed.

This is an informational post for other users.

So, the prompt scheme is currently as follows:
FIRST: "In [x minutes|y miles], [exit|turn|stay] [left|right] [on|to] [name]"
SECOND: "In [half|a quarter of] a mile, [exit|turn|stay] [left|right]"
FINAL: "[Exit|Turn|Stay] [left|right] [on|to] [name]"

The first prompt is given ~five seconds after the previous movement (turn/exit) is completed, unless the previous movement was onto a ramp/series of ramps, in which case it waits to prompt until you clear the ramp/series of ramps.

A lot of users here complained that the "4.3 miles" prompt was "unpredictable". It's not, it's just not transparent. 7 km = 4.3 mi. We were all hearing the "4.3 miles" prompt not by design, but because past 4.3 mi Waze gives time-based prompts, and the time-based prompts are downloaded as full phrases from the TTS server (e.g., "Continue straight for 17 minutes to Exit 123: Straight Rd."). Since the full-phrase downloads were failing, Waze kept trying and trying until you got close enough for the fall-back "in 4.3 miles, exit" prompt with no street name.

This happened occasionally in beta testing, but usually it would take a few minutes for Waze to successfully get the time-based first prompt, and give it with 23 minutes to go instead of 27. My theory is that the influx of new users overloaded the broken TTS server even more, making it nearly impossible to connect and get the phrases.

It seems to be working perfectly today, which is really refreshing. It's been a while.

---
Now that it's working, I do still think certain things need to be improved. I've already sent these concerns directly to staff, so I will give the summary version here.

(1) The second prompt needs to give the street name. It's a big problem when there is a long time between the first and second prompts. It's not like before where the second prompt followed the first by 3/4 mi at most – now it might be three hours or more since hearing the name of the street or exit, and there's no sense in waiting to remind us of the name until the moment you're making the turn or exit. Especially since...

(2) The timing of the second and final prompts is poor, especially at high speeds. Both come too late, especially the final prompt. The final prompt should still give you enough time to actually act; instead, you'd better already be in the correct lane and on the brakes, or else you'll miss the turn or exit. I almost did on the freeway drive I did the other day, and found myself second-guessing because of it. The final prompt should come early enough to allow me to change one last lane on the freeway or to slow down for a turn. Likewise, the second prompt, at 0.5 mi, is definitely not early enough on the freeway to change multiple lanes in high-traffic situations, especially in fast-paced heavy city traffic. 1/4 mile is fine for city speeds, but the second prompt should be given a full mile away at freeway speeds, perhaps with 3/4 mile around 55 mph and 1/2 mile around 40 mph.

I ran Waze alongside a consumer GPS unit on my road trip the other day, and found the timing on it to be much, much better. The new Waze prompt scheme is essentially identical to the scheme on that GPS unit, except that (1) the other unit always used distance, not time, (2) the other unit would give the second prompt at 1.1 mi on the freeway, and (3) the other unit would give the final prompt considerably earlier, at perhaps ~700 ft instead of ~400 ft. It made a huge difference. I like that Waze uses time for far-away first prompts, but for the others, the other unit takes the cake. Waze could learn something from that.

calasanzio wrote:My commute is 70 miles. After the last update (3.8.0) Waze propose me a new itinerary of 77 miles, much longer in time and distance compared to the traditional one. The first time I thought there was slow traffic or an accident on the traditional route, but no.
Now everyday Waze propose me the longest (time and distance) route

Routing is not handled by the app, but by the routing server. This was likely caused by a change to the map, not because of the app update.


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AlanOfTheBerg wrote:

bz2012 wrote:In WAZE, those buttons only effect the 'ringer volume' for some strange reason. (someone reported that DURING a WAZE voice announcement, the buttons would work, but how do you time things right to hit those buttons during the announcement?)

No need to time it. I've written this I think 20 times in various threads: You can also adjust the device volume when you activate voice command. (Previously in this thread: viewtopic.php?f=3&t=96661&p=816615&hili ... el#p816615)

Or just turn off "Change with Buttons" under "RINGER AND ALERTS" in the iOS Sounds settings menu. My ringer is either on or off; I would much rather be able to change the media volume (incl. Waze) at any time.

tire_iron wrote:Have you guys seen this thread - viewtopic.php?f=3&t=92965&p=834488#p834488

Basically, Waze does not alert for police or red light cameras if the phone is locked (e.g. when using voice navigation in my car with the screen turned off). Other people have the same problem, so using waze with the screen off is a very legitimate use case.

Sometimes, if I unlock the screen on my iPhone 5s right when I'm approaching police, Waze would alert on screen unlock - but without unlocking, it doesn't alert.

This is a long-time bug, but it is planned to be fixed soon.

normka wrote:

georgeoftaylors wrote:I was wondering if anyone else was experiencing this problem with alternate routes?
When I select the map view of additional routes, the map automatically zooms so far in that you can't see the routes. If you scroll out, it will display the routes temporarily until you take your finger off the screen, then it auto zooms too far in again. Trying to email tech support about this but couldn't get the link to work .
Thanks

The same thing happens on my iPhone. I note that it works OK if the distance is about 200 miles but if it is 300 miles, the routes are momentarily displayed then the app auto zooms in.

This changed sometime around or just before version 3.7.8. For some reason, zoom levels higher than a certain point were removed. I think it's a shame, because it makes it impossible to see your full route on longer drives.

ditchi56 wrote:Most app screens are quite small, and the Waze panel is already fairly cluttered.The permanent "add friends" icon is a most unwelcome addition. Unlike the other icons which are in the centre area (centre on location, face north/direction, zoom out, zoom in), it is there permanently and blocks the view of any road behind. Please give us a way of suppressing it (or just get rid of it).

I agree, when I upgraded the first thing I tried doing was finding a way to disable that "add friends" icon. I hope they do that in the next update, or even have the ability to move it to another area on the screen. It could also be more transparent. The other thing I REALLY do not like about this update is the removal of the nicknames.

I do not like the new version with the extra button that clutters up the screen "Drive Socially" nor the fact that after the app started and I was driving down the road, it prompted me for the user name that I wanted to be displayed. My map was unusable during my drive until I reached work.
Maybe I am in the minority, but I use waze to see where construction delays will be and where the police are. I don't want to network with others, nor share my location. Please advise if this can be shut off.
Also, is there a way to keep the navigation from always wanting to direct me somewhere when I get in my car. I get in at lunch and it wants to know if I am on my way home. I can be out of state on a Saturday morning and it may want to direct to work or to home. I would love to have this feature also be able to be turned off, but still have the ability to have my favorites in there.