I just wish Waze had 2 things:
Could you just run it on an old/used phone off of your main phone in hotspot mode?
I don’t know if it’s still true, but the marketing for Waze used to claim that it learn your routes. Like you, I find that to be a total lie!
I use it every day on my communte, and ignore its suggestions in a few key places. People on the forums claim that I need to drive the slower route to allow it to “learn”. I will go that way every now and then,mainly when I have a lapse in judgement and think that “Waze knows best”, only to find out that yep, the other way is longer and Waze is underclocking it by 5-10 minutes.
It seems to me like Waze learns. For instance I have a meeting in a different building every Thursday. When I get in my car in the mornings It suggests that I go to my regular office Monday through Wednesday and Friday, but on Thursday it’s suggests that I go to the office where my meeting occurs. Also on the route home I often take an exit that isn’t optimal because of traffic; I weave through a neighborhood. After a couple days of doing this Waze started suggesting that. Maybe I’m. projecting but it feels like the it’s improving its suggestions.
I use Waze pretty much exclusively and it frequently knows where I’m going (I assume based on time of day and my starting point). I also ignore it at times because getting off the freeway to save myself 2 minutes isn’t worth the hassle and I’m not sure that I’d really save those 2 minutes if I happen to catch the light at the intersection I’ll have to go thru. Only occasionally will it have me going some odd route that it claims is better but I know isn’t (due to construction or something). I assume it just hasn’t had enough time to have enough data for that route to make adjustments.
Back home and to update this: Yes, Waze was indeed going to route me through miles of underwater highway on the way down, and I think the Waze rep who was on here admitted that and explained that he was going to update it. I got back yesterday late (got home at 2 am) and for the way back, Waze recognized the closed highway and routed me correctly home. FWIW, Google Maps still routes me through the flooded highways, even though they are VERY clearly marked closed, and you couldn’t drive on them if you wanted. I’m not sure why Google Maps doesn’t recognize this; they’ve been closed for weeks, are still closed, and in fact it’s big news in the area.
Any time that I have spent helping Google improve their maps has been time wasted.
Whatever human workflow Google may have originally set up to make use of the information submitted by users to report closures, it seems to be non-functional now. I have manually reported a number of long-term closures using their tools, and months later those maps have not been corrected, nor has any response been sent for the corrections I sent.
The workflow and decision-making in adjudicating Google map updates is mystifying and opaque. There’s a local splash pad that has a spelling error. It’s spelled “Spalsh Pad”. That’s very obviously a mistake. I’ve submitted a spelling correction 3 times, and each time, it’s been rejected. There’s no explanation, nor is there any way to get one. It’s still a “spalsh pad” to this day.
I’ve noticed that no matter what the product, Google tends to ignore all user input and feedback.
I sent Waze a report about local road closures (at certain times of day to to school traffic). They responded and implemented the change within a month.
My only interaction with Google Maps: They incorrectly used to guide people to the front of the building that my employers own, where our office is. We needed to guide them down a side street instead, behind the building and into the parking lot. It wasn’t easy to find how to submit a correction on the website, but once we submitted it, it took about 3 days and they got back to us saying the submission was approved. Now everyone using Google maps is guided correctly down the side street behind the building and into the parking lot.
Where they arrive and are carried along the corridor on a conveyor belt in extreme comfort, past murals depicting Mediterranean scenes, towards the rotating knives.
What year was that, @Rock8man? Our multiple uses of (presumably) the same submission process in 2017 & 2018 resulted in zero response and no action to fix the glaring errors.
That was in late 2018 I believe, or early 2019.
I know. No wonder half their products end up in the trash.
I haven’t manually reported anything proactively, but everytime I deviate from Google’s suggested directions, the app follows up asking me why I went a different way and I’m able to put in some info there. But I haven’t ran into a significant road closure or anything recently either.
Arise! About to make an 18 hour drive after closing on our house today, from NW Iowa, to Alabama. We’ve done this drive often, and we prefer to stay on the main interstates (south to KC, East to St Louis, south through Nashville.) But Waze will only show the route cutting the corners through Arkansa, Memphis, etc. We’ve been that way and there are a lot of smaller highways and a lot less amenities on the way, and since we’re doing this drive without stopping we want to go the other route.
In Google Maps it shows three routes, including the one we prefer, and you can simply select it. In Waze, we only get this option. When I choose “Routes” it says calculating alternate routs but then only shows the same one. The routes (on Google Maps) show the times to only be 5 minutes difference. There are no tolls or such on the preferred route. Is there anyway short of telling Waze to drive to St Louis and then changing it there to get Waze to show the other route?
I’d be curious about the answer too. I only used Waze briefly for about a week, but the main reason I didn’t like it is that it only gave me one bad route (that I only knew was bad thanks to experience, and knowing the city and having driven that way many times), instead of Google Maps giving me three routes, only one of which was the bad Waze route.
Google Maps is better for longer road trips, Waze is better for commuting around one city. Use Google.
Will Google maps provide all of the alerts (i.e. police, object in road, etc.) that Waze provides?