14 ms·

Waze for Android Auto

180 points by devy 9y ago

Royalaid 9y ago
This is the one thing I have been waiting for from Android Auto. Super happy to see it!
Someone1234 9y ago
Now that it is complete, I'd love to learn more about the work they had to do to port it over. They've been talking about Waze for AA for over a year, so I'm guessing quite a bit of work had to be done to make this possible. In particular did they need to make any design changes to Waze to make it easier to use via the AA interface? Unfortunately my 2016 vehicle only has mirrorlink v1.1+. Which unlike mirrorlink 1.0 doesn't actually mirror your phone, instead it is a proprietary app ecosystem with ten low quality paid for apps, even assuming any smartphone still supported mirrolink (which almost none do). I wish there was just a single open standard in the vehicle industry. Toyota for example is refusing to do AA/Carplay and is starting yet another "standard" called SmartDeviceLink.
- dawnerd 9y ago
  I'm disappointed Toyota went that route. When I was looking for a new car last year, CarPlay was a requirement so had to strike them off. Really wanted to buy another Prius too. It's also keeping me from going tesla too, I'd really love one but I just can't stand manufacturer developed entertainment systems. Ended up with a Passat that supports CarPlay, android auto and mirror link.
  - BoorishBears 9y ago
    Did you look at the Volt?
    - dawnerd 9y ago
      Yeah, it was my runner up. At the time I lived in an apartment where it wouldn't have made sense as they had no charging around
      - compsciphd 9y ago
        I live in an apartment, still like the volt. 1) I grab free charging when I can, 2) it was an extremely cheap 3 year lease (even as a 15k mile a year lease)
        BoorishBears 9y ago
        I guess I lucked out, my workplace and apartment both offer free L2 chargers
  - Someone1234 9y ago
    That's where Ford gets it right. They too are working on SmartDeviceLink, but also offer AA and Carplay so consumers have a choice. Toyota are currently offering nothing usable, and plan to one day only offer SmartDeviceLink. I love Toyota's vehicles (reliability, looks, features, safety, etc). But when our Prius V gets replaced, we won't even consider Toyota as their infotainment units are antiquated, voice recognition terrible, and smartphone connectivity non-existent. Toyota reminds me a lot of Nintendo, in the sense that neither company really grasps how consumer behaviour has changed with smartphones, digital services, and the cloud. Toyota are literally losing sales due to their obstinance on this, all to save a few dollars in navigation upgrades.
    - sangnoir 9y ago
      > I love Toyota's vehicles (reliability, looks, features, safety, etc). But when our Prius V gets replaced, we won't even consider Toyota as their infotainment units are antiquated, voice recognition terrible, and smartphone connectivity non-existent. Have you ever considered getting an aftermarket infotainment unit? Choosing a car by infotainment seems like the tail wagging the dog.
- mbel 9y ago
  > Unfortunately my 2016 vehicle only has mirrorlink v1.1+. Which unlike mirrorlink 1.0 doesn't actually mirror your phone, instead it is a proprietary app ecosystem with ten low quality paid for apps, even assuming any smartphone still supported mirrolink (which almost none do). Both versions of the protocol stream apps rendered by the phone. v1.1 allows to create third party applications for it. Previously apps could be only provided by phone vendor. ML was never supposed to stream the screen of the phone constantly due to potential driver distraction. The devices that did this were probably uncertified and/or buggy. > Toyota for example is refusing to do AA/Carplay and is starting yet another "standard" called SmartDeviceLink. Well they do have a plenty of reason to not like AA/Carplay. Both give total control of head unit experience to Apple or Google. Which is a risky decision when you are dreaming about gradually moving from selling a product to providing related services.
  - JoshTriplett 9y ago
    > Both give total control of head unit experience to Apple or Google. Which is to say they give total control to the device the user already has and uses everywhere else, so that they get a consistent experience. Anything the auto vendor provides will never be able to match that.
    - mbel 9y ago
      Yes, obviously. They both make head unit more appealing to the user. The cost for car vendors here is that they are suddenly dependent on a third party if they want to push any features on top of that experience.
tiffanyh 9y ago
What the difference between Waze & Google Maps. Google owns both and don't they share data on the backend between the two apps (e.g. Traffic data, etc)
- _1 9y ago
  Waze allows users to submit alerts (speed traps, and the like).
- rawb92 9y ago
  Waze is more of a social navigation app. You can add alerts to the map about traffic, accidents, police cameras and so on. It also warns you of speed and speed cameras on the road, which google maps doesn't do.
- xd1936 9y ago
  The routing algorithms are completely different, as well as the map data itself. Waze allows users to edit the map, whereas Google Maps no longer does. Google Maps only allows users to submit/edit _locations on the map_. They do share traffic and accident data, but that's about all. Why do they do it this way? Couldn't tell ya.
  - puzzle 9y ago
    Two different user bases. Also, Google Maps is tuned for simpler directions (e.g. fewer turns), even if that adds an extra minute or two.
- th5 9y ago
  I find waze'S strong point is in dense metro areas where there are many routes to consider, like LA/OC. That's where it shines. Other than that It seems to eat a lot of battery and make my phone run hot so I stick with Google elsewhere.
  - JTon 9y ago
    Agreed. I find Waze has more aggressive rerouting. Maps tends to stick to simple navs at the expensive of a few minutes. Waze will zig-zag me around town. I do find both apps make my phone hot and gulp battery though.
4b11b4 9y ago
I hadn't used Waze in a while but used it twice in the last month. Seems like no one uses it anymore, and it was 2/2 in leading me down a bad, more time consuming path.
- davexunit 9y ago
  I very rarely take Waze's advice about alternate routes after being burned a few times, and I have learned to expect that it's ETA prediction will always be optimistic by about 15-20 minutes in my case. I mostly use it to pick between a few well-known ways to/from work and to get more traffic data than Google Maps will show. The most infuriating thing about Waze is when you hit traffic that it already knew about but only then does it add 5-10 minutes in delay time.
  - dawnerd 9y ago
    Last I used it was a good four years back and it tried to make me take left turns from a small alley into a major high at during rush hour in la. Ended up costing me more time than if I just hopped on the main road to begin with.
    - majormajor 9y ago
      Google Maps has gotten pretty obnoxious about this lately too. LA rush hour is bad enough with crowded enough side streets now that the way to outsmart it in my experience is to be dumber than Google and just take the damn highway after all, with the exception of a few certain areas (like "the highway's moving ok overall but the exit I need will be backed up an extra five minutes so I'm going to got off early" type stuff).
      - dawnerd 9y ago
        Actually just got bit by this this morning. Google said to take 405 - sepulveda because there was "no traffic" towards lax. Turns out that's because sepulveda was basically closed for road work. Ended up almost an hour later than I planned.
nxsynonym 9y ago
I stopped using Waze as soon as they disabled the ability to set Location Tracking to "Only when using". There's no reason it should be all or nothing.
- djrogers 9y ago
  Thankfully Apple has disabled the ability to do that in iOS 11 - all apps have to have the “only when using” option. Hopefully google will follow suit with Android soon.
- Shebanator 9y ago
  I'd prefer they give you a choice, but a big part of the Waze concept was that it was a social thing - you keep it on while driving so other people on the same road know how much traffic there is, you report hazards, etc. If you only use it when you are actively navigating then you aren't a true member of their community. (Note that I'm not advocating here one way or the other, just explaining their concept. I'm well aware of the privacy issues.)
  - Jtsummers 9y ago
    Perhaps, but it absolutely wrecked my battery life when I didn't kill the Waze app the other day after arriving at my destination. I wasn't moving, but my battery went from ~90% to ~40% in the span of a movie: in my pocket, with the display off. I care very slightly about the privacy implications (I'm already letting them track me sometimes so I can't be that concerned). What bothers me is that it continued to drain my battery to the point that my phone would have been dead before I got back to my car to head home.
    - mulmen 9y ago
      I used Waze during my commute a couple months ago. I didn't look at my phone before lunch. When I went to look up what food was in my area that day my phone was already prompting for low power mode. Plugged in to my car my phone battery only maintains charge with Waze running. Google/Apple maps do not seem to have this problem.
davexunit 9y ago
Should I be seeing an update for Waze in the Play store? It says I am up-to-date but I did not have the option to use Waze when I used Android Auto just a couple of hours ago.
- recursion 9y ago
  Me too. I'm on 4.26.0.3 and no update showing in play store. I'm in the UK and hoping I will see it there in the next few hours as I love Waze.
jdc0589 9y ago
Too bad Toyota is still putting frickin Entune in their cars with no Android Auto or CarPlay support. I wouldn't be quite as annoyed by it if the damn navigation wasn't missing the address I need to enter damn near 50% of the time (in major cities too, in a 2016 model year car). One day I noticed they had a mobile app and assumed there'd be some easier way to enter navigation addresses from contacts, google maps, etc.. but no...its barely even functional. But hey, I can check my stocks. so there's that? Edit: I went on a little rant tangent there... Great work Waze team. I can't wait to be able to use this.
- Mayzie 9y ago
  Oh god, don't get me started on Toyota's infotainment system. It is absolutely horrible. Clunky and slow interface, unnecessary restrictions.
  - Someone1234 9y ago
    Don't forget the completely broken speech recognition. I also love how, in our 2014 Prius V, if the Bluetooth gets disconnected and there's another device in range, it won't let me reconnect to the original device until the car is stopped and put into park... Because no vehicle has a front seat passenger?
    - djrogers 9y ago
      > Because no vehicle has a front seat passenger? Which also happens to be the scenario which is most likely to cause this problem!
  - nunez 9y ago
    agreed; they definitely have the worst infotainment system out there. it looks and feels like a 2007 beta product
- jclardy 9y ago
  Mazda owner here. Still waiting for they mythical CarPlay/Android auto update that will supposedly come to 2014 and up models. They are using the same infotainment system in 2017 models so I'm still holding out hope.
taternuts 9y ago
Do they have it for IOS's car play? Though I suppose I don't care all that much since car play is so bad I disable it and just use my phone anyways.
- usaphp 9y ago
  Hmm. What is exatly is so bad about apple car play? I think it does exactly what it has to, provide simple interface for calls and maps
  - taternuts 9y ago
    It's just very limited in what you can do, I think specifically to increase safety for the drivers
- dkrich 9y ago
  Was trying to figure this out myself. After looking at the Car Play website, it doesn't seem like they do, which is annoying. I'm assuming that Apple isn't playing nice with Google and giving users free choice about which nav apps they can use and that Google would release a Google Maps and/or Waze version for Car Play if given the ability. Again, these are assumptions, if anybody can correct me on that, I'd love to hear otherwise. This to me is a big enough deal that I would seriously consider an Android over an iPhone for this reason alone. I never use Apple Maps, it's an inferior product on every level, and I can't understand why Apple seems insistent on the idea that people want to use it. In my experience the only people who use Apple Maps are those who are too lazy to change from the default nav system built into the iPhone or just don't care enough to use a better nav system. It's never people who actively prefer Apple Maps.
  - pat2man 9y ago
    Google Play Music works just fine in CarPlay, but currently Apple only allows music and messaging apps. We don't know why Apple doesn't't allow navigation apps but its not because they are pushing Google out.
  - Thrymr 9y ago
Beamer92 9y ago
Did anybody else find Waze super distracting? I tried it once around Seattle, on/off the freeway and there was just too much. Like, how can we add all the distraction of texting-and-driving, but into a navigation app. Bam! Here's Waze. I couldn't help but think "Get all this stuff off my screen so I can see where I'm going" followed by "If I actually paid attention to or used this app it'd get me killed". I'm sure if I'd stopped and played with the settings I could've got it to a manageable level but I really couldn't see the point. You're driving, the social aspect is a dangerous and unnecessary one. Just get me from Point A to B the best you can. Back to Google Maps.
- dkrich 9y ago
  I use Waze for nav and I don't find it any more/less distracting than Google or Apple Maps. I did turn off all sounds/alerts and never report on things while I'm driving. So basically I just use it for a nav app and nothing else.
- djrogers 9y ago
  Yes! I recently used it for a road trip and was horrified at how much clutter and crap they put on the screen - it's like gamified navigation. A great example - I really really don't need to know how many waze users are behind me, or driving the opposite direction, or hell - even in front of me. I also don't need 3-4 indicators on the screen showing the speed of traffic going the other way on the freeway. I only care about where I'm going and how quickly I can get there.
  - seren 9y ago
    In Options > Display on Map, you can select what is and what is not displayed on the map. The first option allows you to remove other wazers.
    - theWatcher37 9y ago
      Oh no, options! How terrible! /s
  - 9y ago
jcastro 9y ago
I've been beta testing this on my Ford Focus with Android Auto. It's a nice system, but it does make me wish that they made a screenless little android auto device I can leave in the glove box so that I don't have to go through the hassle of plugging my phone all the time and going through the whole dance. I tend to need to charge my phone anyway but for short trips sometimes I don't even bother launching AA, which is a shame. Waze has been pretty good though and it works well in the AA environment, which is purposely limited so you can't get into to much of a distracting flow.
- djrogers 9y ago
  Curious - what is the 'dance' that's required beyond just plugging the phone in? Seems that needing to do anything more than that is bad design on either Android's part or Ford's.
  - jcastro 9y ago
    It is a combination of bad design by both parties and initial setup hassle. I'll try to document what it's like to leave my driveway. After the initial setup, bluetooth pairing, making it a trusted device, etc. - Start car. - I can't plug the phone in right away, because it will miss some kind of internal step, I have to wait for Ford Sync to finish "booting", then plug in my phone and stow it the box where my USB plug is. - Android Auto then launches, unless another app on your phone is prompting you, at which point nothing will happen, you have to dig the phone back out to find out what happened. - AA launches, click mic button on wheel (it's a hw equivalent of ok google): "Play Metallica." Always launch music first because if I launch nav first and then want to play music, it will switch off the map and show you the music controls, which I only want when I'm not navigating. But if you launch them in the right order you'll get nice music notifications on the map. - Click mic button on wheel: "Navigate to whereever", unless of course I don't know where I am going, but if I was clever enough to put the address in my gcal it will already show up on my auto's screen, this is my favorite feature of AA. If I don't know where I am going I need to look it up on my phone, so dig it out, and then the AA app fullscreens a splash screen on the phone, so I need to drag down the notification bar, unfullscreen it, use my phone, relaunch AA again (or just unplug the phone and plug it back in) then stow the phone. - If I put the car in reverse before this the rear backup camera turns on so I can't access the UI at all, so I might have to do steps some of the steps again depending on when I put the car in reverse and if the car was listening. - Car now moves away from house and kicks over from Wifi to LTE and most of the time this works, but occasionally the music will just stop playing so I have to click on the "play" button again the UI. If I'm unlucky Ford Sync will notice that something stopped playing so it will automatically put on the next music source, FM radio. Now there's no way for me to get back into Android Auto without unplugging the phone and plugging it back in. Sometimes(?) there's an android auto icon that shows up in Sync that lets me back in but I haven't determined why sometimes it shows up and sometimes it doesn't. It's not a bad system, it's just still 1.0ish; once you're past all this crap and on the road it's really nice to have all my music and maps available, and of course having the google assistant is much nicer than I anticipated, so I can do things like "good morning" via a voice command and it will play my daily summary.
kkotak 9y ago
Waze always baffled me. No one I know uses it and most never heard of it. Google had pretty sophisticated data/algo of their own when they paid $1+B for this thing. ELI5 - why should any one care about Waze?
- j_s 9y ago
  They gamify user input (mostly from drivers I assume) while they're on the road.
- CharlesW 9y ago
  Waze's primary innovation was to crowdsource near-realtime traffic information. They weren't the first[1], but they were the first to do it on a large scale. Some of it is automatic (e.g. speed, which usually reflects traffic conditions) and some of it is interactive, encouraging users with "points" to fumble with their phones in order to report police sightings, road obstructions, etc. > No one I know uses it and most never heard of it. Intersting — everyone uses it in California, to the point that it strongly affects traffic patterns[2]. Where are you? [1] https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/dash https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/dash [2] http://www.gq.com/story/waze-ruining-los-angels-side-streets http://www.gq.com/story/waze-ruining-los-angels-side-streets
  - kkotak 9y ago
    I'm in Palo Alto and actually had seen their small office on Hamilton. I do know how it works and tried to myself but found it really cumbersome. The only explanation I can see is iPhone users who didn't have the benefit of Google maps a few years back that propelled Waze's use. As for the valuation - if they had even 10M active users, Google paid $100 for each of them, knowing that it was inevitable that they'll eventually get the iPhone users anyways.
- jonknee 9y ago
  Waze is great for commutes or other local driving you don't normally need nav for because the traffic routing is top notch (I've had experiences where it has told me to exit highway immediately and easily saved me an hour because of a terrible wreck that just happened). Also great for identifying speed traps on the highway which is why it's really popular with truckers. It has international appeal as well, the map editing feature has made it a hit in places with less than perfect map data: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/innovations/wp/2014/10/27/why-waze-is-so-incredibly-popular-in-costa-rica/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/innovations/wp/2014/10/2...
surds 9y ago
First time using Apple CarPlay in Honda Civic 2017, and wow! It's a annoying system at this point. Unless I want to use it as a glorified, big interface for podcast control, it is of no use to me. It cannot run mandatory apps like Google Maps, doesn't have Waze and I am not using Apple Maps. Also, I cannot play the podcasts when I am using Google Maps for directions. The Maps app is unable to give voice directions, the podcast acts up and soon one or the other of them is stuck. I gave up and just use a bluetooth based connection to run both of these apps at the same time.
- rconti 9y ago
  I've got CarPlay in my 2016 Golf and it's useless. Why on earth I would want my car to take over the full functionality of my phone is beyond me. The only potential advantage would be running Apple Maps on my in-dash screen if I didn't have a Nav system already, but I do. And frankly, I'd rather just clip my phone to the dash than have all phone controls taken over by my car. From the folks that use Android Auto with the car, many of the frustrations seem the same. It seems slightly better from a functionality standpoint, but less stable. Waze may be the game changer. If only I could buy a cheap android phone and add it to my data plan without paying a ton of money extra each month...
  - SystemOut 9y ago
    So I have none of those frustrations as a 2016 GTI owner. Google Maps is wayyyy better than the built-in nav. If I searched for an address on my phone or even my laptop the address is already in my list of recent addresses in Maps and I don't have to even voice search for it. Although voice searching rocks and I dread having to enter an address in my wife's Odyssey nav interface through their knob interface. Then there is traffic routing which is also way better than what comes with the built-in nav. I can voice search and call a business from the same interface while I'm en-route as well. I do wish that they would add the ability to have a real weather app in the ecosystem. After moving from the west coast to the midwest where they actually have real weather that can be spotty and fast moving it'd be really nice to be able to pull up an up-to-date weather radar view to see what's coming at me. Now, there are the bugs....such as occasionally when I call someone it switches to the speaker on my phone vs. my car which is really annoying. It used to crash on a semi-occasional basis but I haven't seen that since I upgraded to a Pixel. Occasionally I do have to reboot the phone when it fails to connect. That is probably the most annoying one.
SoloForLife 9y ago
Unfortunately it requires proper Android Auto in a car and does not work with the standalone android auto app.
tomerbd 9y ago
do yourself a favor and just stick with google maps navigation.
- nikofeyn 9y ago
  in a dense urban environment, like where i live, waze significantly out performs google maps on a day to day basis. its routing is much better for real time issues and is very quick to react to things happening on the road, including cops, stopped cars, hazards, etc. when i am doing less serious driving (i.e., outside of commuting or running late), my car's navigation or google maps works fine.
tomerbd 9y ago
do yourself a favor and just stick with google maps navigation.
keriati1 9y ago
I use Waze daily to get to work and get back to home. Europe is full with speed traps and total unexpected speed limits. For me Waze is a must have app every time I go somewhere with the car. I can't say I would ditch my iPhone just because of this (or maybe I would?), but I might get an android phone just to use it with Waze in my car if this really works great... Apple CarPlay is total useless so far, even to play music from my iPhone in the car, I rather use the built in media app from VW. Apple maps in Europe is a total joke. Many times it tells me I should drive into a one way street or it would try to take me into pedestrian zones...
crusso 9y ago
After the last decade-plus of having car companies try to force you to buy their updated maps, I refuse to buy another car that doesn't include CarPlay support. I rented a car with CarPlay a couple of months ago and I was surprised at how easy it was to just plug my phone in and get going with it.
cordite 9y ago
I wish more apps had CarPlay (apple) support too.
MBlume 9y ago
Doesn't seem to work through the Android Auto app on my phone

180 points by devy 9y ago

This is the one thing I have been waiting for from Android Auto. Super happy to see it!

Now that it is complete, I'd love to learn more about the work they had to do to port it over. They've been talking about Waze for AA for over a year, so I'm guessing quite a bit of work had to be done to make this possible. In particular did they need to make any design changes to Waze to make it easier to use via the AA interface? Unfortunately my 2016 vehicle only has mirrorlink v1.1+. Which unlike mirrorlink 1.0 doesn't actually mirror your phone, instead it is a proprietary app ecosystem with ten low quality paid for apps, even assuming any smartphone still supported mirrolink (which almost none do). I wish there was just a single open standard in the vehicle industry. Toyota for example is refusing to do AA/Carplay and is starting yet another "standard" called SmartDeviceLink.

dawnerd 9y ago
I'm disappointed Toyota went that route. When I was looking for a new car last year, CarPlay was a requirement so had to strike them off. Really wanted to buy another Prius too. It's also keeping me from going tesla too, I'd really love one but I just can't stand manufacturer developed entertainment systems. Ended up with a Passat that supports CarPlay, android auto and mirror link.
- BoorishBears 9y ago
  Did you look at the Volt?
  - dawnerd 9y ago
    Yeah, it was my runner up. At the time I lived in an apartment where it wouldn't have made sense as they had no charging around
    - compsciphd 9y ago
      I live in an apartment, still like the volt. 1) I grab free charging when I can, 2) it was an extremely cheap 3 year lease (even as a 15k mile a year lease)
      - BoorishBears 9y ago
        I guess I lucked out, my workplace and apartment both offer free L2 chargers
- Someone1234 9y ago
  That's where Ford gets it right. They too are working on SmartDeviceLink, but also offer AA and Carplay so consumers have a choice. Toyota are currently offering nothing usable, and plan to one day only offer SmartDeviceLink. I love Toyota's vehicles (reliability, looks, features, safety, etc). But when our Prius V gets replaced, we won't even consider Toyota as their infotainment units are antiquated, voice recognition terrible, and smartphone connectivity non-existent. Toyota reminds me a lot of Nintendo, in the sense that neither company really grasps how consumer behaviour has changed with smartphones, digital services, and the cloud. Toyota are literally losing sales due to their obstinance on this, all to save a few dollars in navigation upgrades.
  - sangnoir 9y ago
    > I love Toyota's vehicles (reliability, looks, features, safety, etc). But when our Prius V gets replaced, we won't even consider Toyota as their infotainment units are antiquated, voice recognition terrible, and smartphone connectivity non-existent. Have you ever considered getting an aftermarket infotainment unit? Choosing a car by infotainment seems like the tail wagging the dog.
mbel 9y ago
> Unfortunately my 2016 vehicle only has mirrorlink v1.1+. Which unlike mirrorlink 1.0 doesn't actually mirror your phone, instead it is a proprietary app ecosystem with ten low quality paid for apps, even assuming any smartphone still supported mirrolink (which almost none do). Both versions of the protocol stream apps rendered by the phone. v1.1 allows to create third party applications for it. Previously apps could be only provided by phone vendor. ML was never supposed to stream the screen of the phone constantly due to potential driver distraction. The devices that did this were probably uncertified and/or buggy. > Toyota for example is refusing to do AA/Carplay and is starting yet another "standard" called SmartDeviceLink. Well they do have a plenty of reason to not like AA/Carplay. Both give total control of head unit experience to Apple or Google. Which is a risky decision when you are dreaming about gradually moving from selling a product to providing related services.
- JoshTriplett 9y ago
  > Both give total control of head unit experience to Apple or Google. Which is to say they give total control to the device the user already has and uses everywhere else, so that they get a consistent experience. Anything the auto vendor provides will never be able to match that.
  - mbel 9y ago
    Yes, obviously. They both make head unit more appealing to the user. The cost for car vendors here is that they are suddenly dependent on a third party if they want to push any features on top of that experience.

tiffanyh 9y ago

What the difference between Waze & Google Maps. Google owns both and don't they share data on the backend between the two apps (e.g. Traffic data, etc)

_1 9y ago
Waze allows users to submit alerts (speed traps, and the like).
rawb92 9y ago
Waze is more of a social navigation app. You can add alerts to the map about traffic, accidents, police cameras and so on. It also warns you of speed and speed cameras on the road, which google maps doesn't do.
xd1936 9y ago
The routing algorithms are completely different, as well as the map data itself. Waze allows users to edit the map, whereas Google Maps no longer does. Google Maps only allows users to submit/edit _locations on the map_. They do share traffic and accident data, but that's about all. Why do they do it this way? Couldn't tell ya.
- puzzle 9y ago
  Two different user bases. Also, Google Maps is tuned for simpler directions (e.g. fewer turns), even if that adds an extra minute or two.
th5 9y ago
I find waze'S strong point is in dense metro areas where there are many routes to consider, like LA/OC. That's where it shines. Other than that It seems to eat a lot of battery and make my phone run hot so I stick with Google elsewhere.
- JTon 9y ago
  Agreed. I find Waze has more aggressive rerouting. Maps tends to stick to simple navs at the expensive of a few minutes. Waze will zig-zag me around town. I do find both apps make my phone hot and gulp battery though.

4b11b4 9y ago

I hadn't used Waze in a while but used it twice in the last month. Seems like no one uses it anymore, and it was 2/2 in leading me down a bad, more time consuming path.

davexunit 9y ago
I very rarely take Waze's advice about alternate routes after being burned a few times, and I have learned to expect that it's ETA prediction will always be optimistic by about 15-20 minutes in my case. I mostly use it to pick between a few well-known ways to/from work and to get more traffic data than Google Maps will show. The most infuriating thing about Waze is when you hit traffic that it already knew about but only then does it add 5-10 minutes in delay time.
- dawnerd 9y ago
  Last I used it was a good four years back and it tried to make me take left turns from a small alley into a major high at during rush hour in la. Ended up costing me more time than if I just hopped on the main road to begin with.
  - majormajor 9y ago
    Google Maps has gotten pretty obnoxious about this lately too. LA rush hour is bad enough with crowded enough side streets now that the way to outsmart it in my experience is to be dumber than Google and just take the damn highway after all, with the exception of a few certain areas (like "the highway's moving ok overall but the exit I need will be backed up an extra five minutes so I'm going to got off early" type stuff).
    - dawnerd 9y ago
      Actually just got bit by this this morning. Google said to take 405 - sepulveda because there was "no traffic" towards lax. Turns out that's because sepulveda was basically closed for road work. Ended up almost an hour later than I planned.

nxsynonym 9y ago

I stopped using Waze as soon as they disabled the ability to set Location Tracking to "Only when using". There's no reason it should be all or nothing.

djrogers 9y ago
Thankfully Apple has disabled the ability to do that in iOS 11 - all apps have to have the “only when using” option. Hopefully google will follow suit with Android soon.
Shebanator 9y ago
I'd prefer they give you a choice, but a big part of the Waze concept was that it was a social thing - you keep it on while driving so other people on the same road know how much traffic there is, you report hazards, etc. If you only use it when you are actively navigating then you aren't a true member of their community. (Note that I'm not advocating here one way or the other, just explaining their concept. I'm well aware of the privacy issues.)
- Jtsummers 9y ago
  Perhaps, but it absolutely wrecked my battery life when I didn't kill the Waze app the other day after arriving at my destination. I wasn't moving, but my battery went from ~90% to ~40% in the span of a movie: in my pocket, with the display off. I care very slightly about the privacy implications (I'm already letting them track me sometimes so I can't be that concerned). What bothers me is that it continued to drain my battery to the point that my phone would have been dead before I got back to my car to head home.
  - mulmen 9y ago
    I used Waze during my commute a couple months ago. I didn't look at my phone before lunch. When I went to look up what food was in my area that day my phone was already prompting for low power mode. Plugged in to my car my phone battery only maintains charge with Waze running. Google/Apple maps do not seem to have this problem.

davexunit 9y ago

Should I be seeing an update for Waze in the Play store? It says I am up-to-date but I did not have the option to use Waze when I used Android Auto just a couple of hours ago.

recursion 9y ago
Me too. I'm on 4.26.0.3 and no update showing in play store. I'm in the UK and hoping I will see it there in the next few hours as I love Waze.

jdc0589 9y ago

Too bad Toyota is still putting frickin Entune in their cars with no Android Auto or CarPlay support. I wouldn't be quite as annoyed by it if the damn navigation wasn't missing the address I need to enter damn near 50% of the time (in major cities too, in a 2016 model year car). One day I noticed they had a mobile app and assumed there'd be some easier way to enter navigation addresses from contacts, google maps, etc.. but no...its barely even functional. But hey, I can check my stocks. so there's that? Edit: I went on a little rant tangent there... Great work Waze team. I can't wait to be able to use this.

Mayzie 9y ago
Oh god, don't get me started on Toyota's infotainment system. It is absolutely horrible. Clunky and slow interface, unnecessary restrictions.
- Someone1234 9y ago
  Don't forget the completely broken speech recognition. I also love how, in our 2014 Prius V, if the Bluetooth gets disconnected and there's another device in range, it won't let me reconnect to the original device until the car is stopped and put into park... Because no vehicle has a front seat passenger?
  - djrogers 9y ago
    > Because no vehicle has a front seat passenger? Which also happens to be the scenario which is most likely to cause this problem!
- nunez 9y ago
  agreed; they definitely have the worst infotainment system out there. it looks and feels like a 2007 beta product
jclardy 9y ago
Mazda owner here. Still waiting for they mythical CarPlay/Android auto update that will supposedly come to 2014 and up models. They are using the same infotainment system in 2017 models so I'm still holding out hope.

taternuts 9y ago

Do they have it for IOS's car play? Though I suppose I don't care all that much since car play is so bad I disable it and just use my phone anyways.

usaphp 9y ago
Hmm. What is exatly is so bad about apple car play? I think it does exactly what it has to, provide simple interface for calls and maps
- taternuts 9y ago
  It's just very limited in what you can do, I think specifically to increase safety for the drivers
dkrich 9y ago
Was trying to figure this out myself. After looking at the Car Play website, it doesn't seem like they do, which is annoying. I'm assuming that Apple isn't playing nice with Google and giving users free choice about which nav apps they can use and that Google would release a Google Maps and/or Waze version for Car Play if given the ability. Again, these are assumptions, if anybody can correct me on that, I'd love to hear otherwise. This to me is a big enough deal that I would seriously consider an Android over an iPhone for this reason alone. I never use Apple Maps, it's an inferior product on every level, and I can't understand why Apple seems insistent on the idea that people want to use it. In my experience the only people who use Apple Maps are those who are too lazy to change from the default nav system built into the iPhone or just don't care enough to use a better nav system. It's never people who actively prefer Apple Maps.
- pat2man 9y ago
  Google Play Music works just fine in CarPlay, but currently Apple only allows music and messaging apps. We don't know why Apple doesn't't allow navigation apps but its not because they are pushing Google out.
- Thrymr 9y ago

Beamer92 9y ago

Did anybody else find Waze super distracting? I tried it once around Seattle, on/off the freeway and there was just too much. Like, how can we add all the distraction of texting-and-driving, but into a navigation app. Bam! Here's Waze. I couldn't help but think "Get all this stuff off my screen so I can see where I'm going" followed by "If I actually paid attention to or used this app it'd get me killed". I'm sure if I'd stopped and played with the settings I could've got it to a manageable level but I really couldn't see the point. You're driving, the social aspect is a dangerous and unnecessary one. Just get me from Point A to B the best you can. Back to Google Maps.

dkrich 9y ago
I use Waze for nav and I don't find it any more/less distracting than Google or Apple Maps. I did turn off all sounds/alerts and never report on things while I'm driving. So basically I just use it for a nav app and nothing else.
djrogers 9y ago
Yes! I recently used it for a road trip and was horrified at how much clutter and crap they put on the screen - it's like gamified navigation. A great example - I really really don't need to know how many waze users are behind me, or driving the opposite direction, or hell - even in front of me. I also don't need 3-4 indicators on the screen showing the speed of traffic going the other way on the freeway. I only care about where I'm going and how quickly I can get there.
- seren 9y ago
  In Options > Display on Map, you can select what is and what is not displayed on the map. The first option allows you to remove other wazers.
  - theWatcher37 9y ago
    Oh no, options! How terrible! /s
- 9y ago

jcastro 9y ago

I've been beta testing this on my Ford Focus with Android Auto. It's a nice system, but it does make me wish that they made a screenless little android auto device I can leave in the glove box so that I don't have to go through the hassle of plugging my phone all the time and going through the whole dance. I tend to need to charge my phone anyway but for short trips sometimes I don't even bother launching AA, which is a shame. Waze has been pretty good though and it works well in the AA environment, which is purposely limited so you can't get into to much of a distracting flow.

djrogers 9y ago
Curious - what is the 'dance' that's required beyond just plugging the phone in? Seems that needing to do anything more than that is bad design on either Android's part or Ford's.
- jcastro 9y ago
  It is a combination of bad design by both parties and initial setup hassle. I'll try to document what it's like to leave my driveway. After the initial setup, bluetooth pairing, making it a trusted device, etc. - Start car. - I can't plug the phone in right away, because it will miss some kind of internal step, I have to wait for Ford Sync to finish "booting", then plug in my phone and stow it the box where my USB plug is. - Android Auto then launches, unless another app on your phone is prompting you, at which point nothing will happen, you have to dig the phone back out to find out what happened. - AA launches, click mic button on wheel (it's a hw equivalent of ok google): "Play Metallica." Always launch music first because if I launch nav first and then want to play music, it will switch off the map and show you the music controls, which I only want when I'm not navigating. But if you launch them in the right order you'll get nice music notifications on the map. - Click mic button on wheel: "Navigate to whereever", unless of course I don't know where I am going, but if I was clever enough to put the address in my gcal it will already show up on my auto's screen, this is my favorite feature of AA. If I don't know where I am going I need to look it up on my phone, so dig it out, and then the AA app fullscreens a splash screen on the phone, so I need to drag down the notification bar, unfullscreen it, use my phone, relaunch AA again (or just unplug the phone and plug it back in) then stow the phone. - If I put the car in reverse before this the rear backup camera turns on so I can't access the UI at all, so I might have to do steps some of the steps again depending on when I put the car in reverse and if the car was listening. - Car now moves away from house and kicks over from Wifi to LTE and most of the time this works, but occasionally the music will just stop playing so I have to click on the "play" button again the UI. If I'm unlucky Ford Sync will notice that something stopped playing so it will automatically put on the next music source, FM radio. Now there's no way for me to get back into Android Auto without unplugging the phone and plugging it back in. Sometimes(?) there's an android auto icon that shows up in Sync that lets me back in but I haven't determined why sometimes it shows up and sometimes it doesn't. It's not a bad system, it's just still 1.0ish; once you're past all this crap and on the road it's really nice to have all my music and maps available, and of course having the google assistant is much nicer than I anticipated, so I can do things like "good morning" via a voice command and it will play my daily summary.

kkotak 9y ago

Waze always baffled me. No one I know uses it and most never heard of it. Google had pretty sophisticated data/algo of their own when they paid $1+B for this thing. ELI5 - why should any one care about Waze?

j_s 9y ago
They gamify user input (mostly from drivers I assume) while they're on the road.
CharlesW 9y ago
Waze's primary innovation was to crowdsource near-realtime traffic information. They weren't the first[1], but they were the first to do it on a large scale. Some of it is automatic (e.g. speed, which usually reflects traffic conditions) and some of it is interactive, encouraging users with "points" to fumble with their phones in order to report police sightings, road obstructions, etc. > No one I know uses it and most never heard of it. Intersting — everyone uses it in California, to the point that it strongly affects traffic patterns[2]. Where are you? [1] https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/dash https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/dash [2] http://www.gq.com/story/waze-ruining-los-angels-side-streets http://www.gq.com/story/waze-ruining-los-angels-side-streets
- kkotak 9y ago
  I'm in Palo Alto and actually had seen their small office on Hamilton. I do know how it works and tried to myself but found it really cumbersome. The only explanation I can see is iPhone users who didn't have the benefit of Google maps a few years back that propelled Waze's use. As for the valuation - if they had even 10M active users, Google paid $100 for each of them, knowing that it was inevitable that they'll eventually get the iPhone users anyways.
jonknee 9y ago
Waze is great for commutes or other local driving you don't normally need nav for because the traffic routing is top notch (I've had experiences where it has told me to exit highway immediately and easily saved me an hour because of a terrible wreck that just happened). Also great for identifying speed traps on the highway which is why it's really popular with truckers. It has international appeal as well, the map editing feature has made it a hit in places with less than perfect map data: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/innovations/wp/2014/10/27/why-waze-is-so-incredibly-popular-in-costa-rica/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/innovations/wp/2014/10/2...

surds 9y ago

First time using Apple CarPlay in Honda Civic 2017, and wow! It's a annoying system at this point. Unless I want to use it as a glorified, big interface for podcast control, it is of no use to me. It cannot run mandatory apps like Google Maps, doesn't have Waze and I am not using Apple Maps. Also, I cannot play the podcasts when I am using Google Maps for directions. The Maps app is unable to give voice directions, the podcast acts up and soon one or the other of them is stuck. I gave up and just use a bluetooth based connection to run both of these apps at the same time.

rconti 9y ago
I've got CarPlay in my 2016 Golf and it's useless. Why on earth I would want my car to take over the full functionality of my phone is beyond me. The only potential advantage would be running Apple Maps on my in-dash screen if I didn't have a Nav system already, but I do. And frankly, I'd rather just clip my phone to the dash than have all phone controls taken over by my car. From the folks that use Android Auto with the car, many of the frustrations seem the same. It seems slightly better from a functionality standpoint, but less stable. Waze may be the game changer. If only I could buy a cheap android phone and add it to my data plan without paying a ton of money extra each month...
- SystemOut 9y ago
  So I have none of those frustrations as a 2016 GTI owner. Google Maps is wayyyy better than the built-in nav. If I searched for an address on my phone or even my laptop the address is already in my list of recent addresses in Maps and I don't have to even voice search for it. Although voice searching rocks and I dread having to enter an address in my wife's Odyssey nav interface through their knob interface. Then there is traffic routing which is also way better than what comes with the built-in nav. I can voice search and call a business from the same interface while I'm en-route as well. I do wish that they would add the ability to have a real weather app in the ecosystem. After moving from the west coast to the midwest where they actually have real weather that can be spotty and fast moving it'd be really nice to be able to pull up an up-to-date weather radar view to see what's coming at me. Now, there are the bugs....such as occasionally when I call someone it switches to the speaker on my phone vs. my car which is really annoying. It used to crash on a semi-occasional basis but I haven't seen that since I upgraded to a Pixel. Occasionally I do have to reboot the phone when it fails to connect. That is probably the most annoying one.

SoloForLife 9y ago

Unfortunately it requires proper Android Auto in a car and does not work with the standalone android auto app.

tomerbd 9y ago

do yourself a favor and just stick with google maps navigation.

nikofeyn 9y ago
in a dense urban environment, like where i live, waze significantly out performs google maps on a day to day basis. its routing is much better for real time issues and is very quick to react to things happening on the road, including cops, stopped cars, hazards, etc. when i am doing less serious driving (i.e., outside of commuting or running late), my car's navigation or google maps works fine.

tomerbd 9y ago

do yourself a favor and just stick with google maps navigation.

keriati1 9y ago

I use Waze daily to get to work and get back to home. Europe is full with speed traps and total unexpected speed limits. For me Waze is a must have app every time I go somewhere with the car. I can't say I would ditch my iPhone just because of this (or maybe I would?), but I might get an android phone just to use it with Waze in my car if this really works great... Apple CarPlay is total useless so far, even to play music from my iPhone in the car, I rather use the built in media app from VW. Apple maps in Europe is a total joke. Many times it tells me I should drive into a one way street or it would try to take me into pedestrian zones...

crusso 9y ago

After the last decade-plus of having car companies try to force you to buy their updated maps, I refuse to buy another car that doesn't include CarPlay support. I rented a car with CarPlay a couple of months ago and I was surprised at how easy it was to just plug my phone in and get going with it.

cordite 9y ago

I wish more apps had CarPlay (apple) support too.

MBlume 9y ago

Doesn't seem to work through the Android Auto app on my phone