Waze is adding toll prices to its navigation guidance, flagging up just how much trips across North America and Israel will actually cost when paid routes are taken into consideration. The new feature is being added from today in the US, Canada, and Israel, and will be able to show an estimated cost of each potential trip in addition to how long a drive, and how far, they'll involve.
The Google Assistant continues its spread, with Google's much-appreciated Waze app adding support for the voice technology in the name of better avoiding traffic - or reporting it. Waze relies on driver reports of traffic congestion, road issues, and other factors that might affect motorists, but until now it has demanded you take your hands off the wheel in order to submit them.
In October, navigation app Waze launched an in-app audio player with support for a handful of popular audio sources. This feature is designed to provide drivers with direct access to their favorite audio content, minimizing distractions and eliminating the need to toggle between apps. In its most recent update, the company has added Android support for the music streaming service Deezer.
Navigation app Waze is popular in part because of the extra information it provides to drivers, namely alerts about upcoming wrecks, traffic conditions, speed traps, and checkpoints. The latter two alert types have caused friction with law enforcement officials who, in some past instances, have attempted to feed fake alerts to dilute the real warnings. In the latest example of contention over the feature, the New York Police Department has sent Google a cease-and-desist letter.
Waze is expanding its Beacons program to help drivers in New York City stay connected while in a traffic tunnel. Driving a car within one of these concrete tunnels typically results in a connectivity blackout, meaning the navigation app can no longer get a GPS signal. Waze Beacons help deal with this problem using Bluetooth to transmit data to phones as an alternative to a GPS signal.
Waze is gearing up to release an update that brings an embedded audio player to its platform, providing drivers with direct access to their favorite audio streaming service. The company has announced a beta for Waze Audio Player in conjunction with streaming services like Spotify and Pandora, as well as podcast app Stitcher and others. As well, Waze has a new developer tool suite called Audio Kit.
Waze has launched its Carpool feature for all users across the United States, the company has announced. The tool first arrived in New York City and San Francisco, enabling Waze users to pick up someone who needed a ride in exchange for a small bit of cash. Now anyone in the US can take advantage of the feature, helping reduce congestion on roads.
Waze for Apple CarPlay has arrived, bringing one of the most frequently requested navigation apps to the iPhone's car infotainment system. The update follows Apple's softening of the limits around third-party apps and CarPlay, which until recently had seen only the Cupertino company's own Apple Maps available for use.
Google Maps has long been the definitive mapping and directions app on both Android and iOS. One recent challenger to that standard has been Waze, which features crowd-sourced data on driving conditions to keep its information accurate and up-to-date. Waze was such a stand-out service that Google actually acquired it about five years ago. While Waze has never been absolved into Google Maps, like many expected, one of its best features might finally be making the jump.
If the iPhone's CarPlay had one infuriating limitation, it's been Apple's lock-down on third-party apps, but some of the most frequently-requested are finally making an appearance. Announced at the WWDC 2018 keynote today, the good news is that apps like Google Maps and Waze are coming to the dashboard.
Waze's main hook is its crowdsourced navigation offerings, but lately, we've also been seeing it build out a carpooling service. Over the past year, Waze Carpool has slowly spread across California and Texas, and today, the dedicated app that handles its carpool pairings is getting a pretty significant update. In fact, this update is so large that we could almost call this a relaunch.
Ford is at Mobile World Congress and has made an announcement that Ford owners around the world can appreciate. Starting in April 2018, the Waze navigation and traffic app will be available to Ford owners around the world. Waze has more than 100 million active users and is the largest community-based navigation app out there.