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Wazers on the map

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Hey all,

When do the Wazer icons appear on the map in my mobile device, and do they update their location periodically? I'm just wondering when my icon is on the map and how often my position is updated. I frequently pass wazer icons but they are long gone so I have no idea when they were actually at that location or not.

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Post by AlanOfTheBerg
stevecody wrote:Thanks. That makes sense.

I think I'll get my wife to turn Waze on while we're out driving and she can track my Wazer and see how often I'm updated.
I've done this before, and depending on speed, it can be miles different. The view of Wazers in the app is also limited to something like 40, so depending on density, you will only see a fraction of actual wazers. This feature is to give a sense of community and be an actual representation of everyone's true location. That would take up way more of everyone's data plan that it already does, impact the Waze servers sending this data, and would significantly slowdown the app if it was trying to update the position of 2000 wazers near you.
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Post by AlanOfTheBerg
Real time would be near impossible and completely hose the entire Waze network. Millions of people would opt-in and then we'd have network gridlock with the servers trying to keep user location sent out every second. Your phone would also run at a crawl speed as it tried to keep hundreds of local Wazers updated in real time on the map.

No thanks.
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Post by AlanOfTheBerg
keepitmovin wrote:ok...so what is the point of showing them when they are not really where it shows they are? maybe the icons should appear as ghosts.
Just the sense of community is one. Also, you can still tap on someone and ping them. If they didn't show on the map at all, you couldn't do that. And for those who don't care/don't want to see them, or those who are bothered by the tardiness of locations ;) , they can decide not to show the Wazers.
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Post by AlanOfTheBerg
erc775 wrote:I am curious as to why there is the option to go invisible? The delay is not welcomed at all for me personally and I would love to see Wazers in real time. Also it doesn't load all of the Wazers on the map anyway.
Looks like I need to add a "why the delay in Wazer location" question to the FAQ... :)

There are some main reasons: privacy. All social networks allow various levels of privacy. The location delay is just one of them. There will likely be future options to let friends see you in more real time, just like the Share Drive feature right now. However, real-time visibility to everyone would also significantly, and negatively impact the performance of both your smartphone/device as well as saturate the waze outbound network traffic from the servers, sending real-time location of hundreds of Wazers to each of hundreds of thousands of apps active at any given moment. I don't think Waze is prepared for that kind of onslaught.
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Post by chapelheel66
I agree with keepitmovin. I think this is something Waze should try and rethink in terms of implementation.

Rather than building a sense of community, I think having wazers on the map in its current form does just the opposite because it is a letdown to know that the people you think are there aren't really there.

If the wazer I see was 2-3 miles away 2-3 minutes ago, and if they are traveling in the opposite direction from me (at, say, 60 mph), aren't they something like 6 miles away from me at the time I see the icon? That's the length of my entire commute. There's a good chance that if I message them, they are already out of the car.

I understand the practical concerns mentioned, and I'm not griping about wazers being on the map (I know I can turn that off). However, I would like to see that "feature" be more useful, so I think Waze should be thinking of different approaches. For one, how about showing what direction the wazer was moving in at the time, with a tiny little arrow or compass symbol or something? I think that would help with me thinking that someone is not really in my vicinity anymore.

By the way Alan, I think I saw your waze icon on I-10 on Saturday (or maybe it was I-75). I just remember thinking your real name must be Alan DeBerg. :-)
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Post by dmcconachie
Wazers positions on the map are delayed by anything up to 5 minutes and aren't always accurate either for privacy reasons.
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Post by dmcconachie
Ignore those speeds. I think there's a bug where they only show 10mph now. But even when they didn't it was so vague as to be useless anyway.
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Post by figuringout
Btw, is it possible to figure out what route a certain wazer took using the wazer icons, even if the information will be old? There was a big jam recently on the freeway in my area, and I was wondering which wazers stayed on, and which ones took an alternate route -- would love to do this the next time.
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Post by jdeyoung
I guess I find the "sense of community" aspect a fine and noble ideal. But at the same time, if I was judging "sense of community" on my drive to/from work by the number of wazers I see on my screen, I'd say it was a pretty sparse community. I rarely see but a handful along my 35 mile route into Chicago even though I get the message of 2000-3000 wazers near me when waze (re)starts along the way. Mind you, I'm really looking for good traffic data to gauge whether my trip is going to be norma-lish or not and don't really mind not seeing other wazers. I'd probably opt-out of showing them on the map if it got too cluttered anyways. Something I just thought of tho, does the number of wazers shown on the map vary according to whether auto-zoom is enabled or not?
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Post by Jonnyhuk2
Hi, do you only see slow moving wazers on the client map or is that a speed bug?

I ask as whenever I tap on a wazer to bring up their info, they're always doing "under 10mph" or "around 25mph" even when they're on a fast road with a 70mph limit during off-peak times. I can't believe not a single wazer on the map isn't going above 50mph!

Does Waze not bother showing wazers who aren't held up in slow traffic?

It's just as important to know when a road is clear (as confirmed by other wazers driving down there just before you) as it is to know when a road is busy. But if Waze hides faster moving drivers, you can't be sure if the road is clear or if no wazer has been there yet to report the problem!

My morning commute is on busy main roads but you don't see many, if any, wazers on the map. I used to use Trapster, that would highlight roads where a fellow user had recently been, hence you knew the road was clear. We could do with something similar with waze, like a confirmation that the road is indeed clear.
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