Test of Text-to-Speech (TTS) Abbreviations in Waze Clients

[ohiostmusicman]

I still want to hear Samuel L Jackson give directions---"I said take a mother f***in right"

When it reroutes to avoid traffic: "I'm tired of these motherf***in' cars on this motherf***in' road!"

[orbitc]

Sorry, no input on the first one, but I'll take up this one for you:

2) On some of the ramps I've seen, the ramp name is "Exit 70A-B:...", but it is read as "exit 70ayybee" without any break between the ayy and bee. If I add a space before and after the dash Waze says "Exit 70ayy to bee. What do you guys recommend in such a situation?

In most such situations, the "Exit 70A-B" part of the ramp should be left unnamed, allowing TTS to use the appropriate "Exit 70A" or "Exit 70B" ramp name from the upcoming offramp. There may be some instances where the "Exit 70A-B" might be needed, though -- can you provide a Permalink to the interchange in question here?

Hi Spil, as far as the first one we moved that topic to TTS forum. We are waiting to hear from them. On our tests we found out that putting the letters in quotes help (either single ' ' or double quotes " ")

For the second one; I don't want to step anybodys toes but I have one for you. I don't think this is the same one Wajo357 mentioned though.

[orbitc]

Sorry, no input on the first one, but I'll take up this one for you:

2) On some of the ramps I've seen, the ramp name is "Exit 70A-B:...", but it is read as "exit 70ayybee" without any break between the ayy and bee. If I add a space before and after the dash Waze says "Exit 70ayy to bee. What do you guys recommend in such a situation?

In most such situations, the "Exit 70A-B" part of the ramp should be left unnamed, allowing TTS to use the appropriate "Exit 70A" or "Exit 70B" ramp name from the upcoming offramp. There may be some instances where the "Exit 70A-B" might be needed, though -- can you provide a Permalink to the interchange in question here?

Permalink here: https://www.waze.com/editor/?zoom=6&lat ... s=57801554

Thanks Joey, I hope you didn't mind. Did you see my example? I think it is the same difference.

[orbitc]

1) Most avenues in Brooklyn NY are letters, like Ave M . However, Waze reads Ave N, E, W, and S as the direction, not the letter. A few of us have tested that encapsulating the letters with either single or double quotes gets Waze to say the letter and not the direction. So what do you guys recommend? Single quotes? double quotes? All avenues? Just problematic avenues? Add alternate name with no quotes?

East/West streets in downtown Washington DC are also letters, like "K St." In the past, encapsulating the letters with either single or double quotes would not get waze to say the letter and not the direction (only lower case encapsulated in single quotes gave the letter). Maybe things have changed since I last tried this or maybe it matters whether the single letter starts the name.

On my test here putting single or double quotes helped.
In both situations;
Waze said: Avenue enn when I put Avenue "N" or Avenue 'N' for the Avenue "Avenue N" in NY and not Avenue north.

Maybe, it's changed?

[orbitc]

1) Most avenues in Brooklyn NY are letters, like Ave M . However, Waze reads Ave N, E, W, and S as the direction, not the letter. A few of us have tested that encapsulating the letters with either single or double quotes gets Waze to say the letter and not the direction. So what do you guys recommend? Single quotes? double quotes? All avenues? Just problematic avenues? Add alternate name with no quotes?

East/West streets in downtown Washington DC are also letters, like "K St." In the past, encapsulating the letters with either single or double quotes would not get waze to say the letter and not the direction (only lower case encapsulated in single quotes gave the letter). Maybe things have changed since I last tried this or maybe it matters whether the single letter starts the name.

Just a thought: Is it possible that K comes before the st? unlike what we have here is: Avenue N.

[orbitc]

Single letters to be pronounced as letters when a capitalized letter is surrounded by double quotes was the suggestion made to Waze back in October 2012.

When I have not retested all the permutations, it looks like from those who have tested the letters, N, E, S, and W, that Waze has changed functionality so that upper or lower case letters surrounded by single or double quotes will now say the letter and not the cardinal direction.

I'll amend the list once I can test more permutations.

Sounds good. So now that your tests are done, here come the questions concerning Brooklyn, NY:

1) Should we change Ave N, E, W, S?
2) If yes, would you prefer single or double quotes?
3) Would that screw up navigation search if someone just enters in 1304 Ave S, Brooklyn NY, since it is now only Ave "S"? Would adding an alternate name of Ave S help?
4) Should we just blanket all of the letters in Brooklyn with the quotes specified in 2?
5) I assume we should lock the roads with the changes, correct?

Thanks!

Sincerely,
Joey

If I may persuade GizmoGuy411, I would tink, it would be nice if all change to single quote and keep Avenue as is. For example: Avenue 'N'

[orbitc]

Both David and Carel's points valid. It would definitely be better if Waze Dev. would tweak this on their end.
I know that Waze Champs are also aware and they actually working with us to find a solution and doing testing etc. GizmoGuy411 and jasonh300 are being very helpful as well.

Having said that, IMO, the immediate solution for both of you for now to decide to use either 'N' or "N"
For example: N4 N would be 'N'4 N or "N"4 N.

I know they don't look pretty but, I think, until Waze Dev update anything internally, this would the way to go.

In addition, we are still iron it out Avenue N issue.

Thanks

[orbitc]

Should we start fixing those with single digit letters? or wait till you finish the next test?
Also, Should we change all or just the N,W, S, E letters?

[orbitc]

If we change only those 4 letters, we have not many to do. We'll do the ones we know and correct as we see them.
Personally, I prefer single quotes, but if GizmoGuy recommended to Waze double then we will go with that.
I guess, just as long as we are consistent it shouldn't matter that much.

[orbitc]

I agree with Alan. Few of us tested these with few different combination. The Best option, IMO, should be either with single quotes or double quotes.