I stumbled onto an app for the Android (also available for that other phone… the iPhone!) which promises to help duck around traffic jams with a social network system of people reporting roadwork's, speed patrols and other hazards on the roads. Living here in Sydney can be testing at the best of times when it comes to life on the road. Our silly government put up roads that are half as efficient as they ought to be and as a result roads become parking lots real quick!
Waze promises a social GPS navigation experience with user built maps, user built warnings and user built social experience. I downloaded this in a heartbeat! You start off as a baby “wazer” and the more dots on the road, more traffic reports you upload and basically more interactions you have with the software the higher up the ranks you go. You start by telling the program where you wish to go. Unfortunately, as with most GPS programs, this is where you’ll encounter your first problem. Admittedly the developers website do state that Australia is only a recent addition to the Waze network but for the time being, finding your address can be a nuisance as the roads are still being entered into the program by the users themselves. Once entered though you get to start driving and when it works, the system is great. It tells you that there are speed traps ahead, displays on the screen when you have stopped of locally reported hazards from other users… LIVE! But the navigating is so unreliable at present it’s almost better off at this stage to simply not use this software for that. Simply using it to warn of problems on the road is where this system is currently at it’s most usefulness.
You can have the software report to Twitter or Facebook of your events with the software (eg; Just reported a hazard on Marsh Street. m5 tunnel is closed eastbound. My mood: happy, http://bit.ly/hoJmvr using @waze - Social GPS) or you can check into locations via Four Square from within the app itself.
Here’s my wish with this software. I had so much fun using this app. Seeing other peeps using the software with me in real time is cool. Having little neat touches like a tag left behind in your trail on the map showing your speed at that point or if you’re stuck in slow traffic getting to see your app upload that live to the network. So much at promise with this app it’s cool. Things I disliked immensely with the app was it’s reliance on cutesy games like collecting on screen chocolates for points and dots on the map for Pacman style scores was a little too left of field for me despite the fact I once imagined a GPS program having this feature one day!
Currently I don’t believe that there are enough users on this network here in Sydney to show the programs full potential. Being able to warn the masses about a closed road really gives you a sense of being a good do’er doesn’t go unnoticed! Entering in the updates while driving though should be so so simple. Currently I’d need to bring up the menu screen, click REPORT and then select my type of warning and then click the field to type the message and then hit ENTER and then hit send. TOO MANY CLICKS! Admittedly I do use voice recognition with mixed success but having said that the program does need to cut down on this procedure and stream line it to make it safer to use.
One last problem was that once you’ve reached your destination you need to quickly shut down the program or it will falsely report the road you are on as a stand still as you are not moving.
This app has so much potential and despite all its many current flaws (such as Botany Bay taking up most of the St George area in a virtual tsunami) I believe if this was an add on for current top named GPS programs then we could be onto a winner! Imagine Tom Tom or Navigon where you, the drivers, could contribute to the traffic reports. One day me thinks!
