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Google Maps and Waze

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Re: Google Maps and Waze

#101

Post by dcohenp »

SeanKilleen wrote: post #28
lpolovets wrote: post #18

What do others think about the safety of using Waze? One thing that I have noticed is that the app encourages me to interact with it as I'm driving in order to add data to the system. It's a little hypocritical of me to complain about this because sometimes I text or check email while driving, which I know I should not do, but it still feels weird that Waze actually encourages me to read the screen and interact with…

Waze actually has several features in place to make it safer: * Waze is designed only to be used by a passenger. Any field that requires typing, etc. warns you if you're moving and makes you acknowledge that you are a passenger to continue. * Waze has a hands-free capability where you can wave your hand in front of the phone and interact with Waze via voice. It actually works pretty well. * The UI is designed with bi…

I'm an avid user, and my main complaint is, precisely, the UI. Sure, some of the main functions (e.g. traffic report) can be done fairly easily with one hand, but almost everything else is terrible:

- Choosing a navigation destination (slide, pick one from the list, wait not this list - my favorites, search - wait, that doesn't do what I think it does, scroll scroll scroll...)

- Closing those damn popups with the tiny X that is almost impossible to hit (at least on my 3.5" iPhone)

- Pretty much anything involving panning around the map or zooming in/out. It's like the gesture experience is way worse than anything else on iOS, and you definitely feel it.

And some others I can't think of right now. So if one good thing comes from this acquisition [1], I hope it's a massive UI overhaul.

[1]: I'm dreading it, and I fear what will actually happen is the integration of the social network into Google+, and the death of the product itself, somehow subsumed into Google Maps.

Re: Google Maps and Waze

#102

Post by TheFullStack »

lpolovets wrote: post #18

What do others think about the safety of using Waze? One thing that I have noticed is that the app encourages me to interact with it as I'm driving in order to add data to the system. It's a little hypocritical of me to complain about this because sometimes I text or check email while driving, which I know I should not do, but it still feels weird that Waze actually encourages me to read the screen and interact with…

As a long time user of Waze, I have begun to notice that their ads are becoming increasingly annoying and distracting. For example, it will give me a pop up covering the screen asking me if I want to go to Taco Bell. While I am a huge fan of Waze, by deviating too far from being just a GPS makes it a bit frustrating at times. If they are looking to monetize the platform, there are surely other ways besides covering up the map!

Re: Google Maps and Waze

#103

Post by mikeash »

mililani wrote: post #95
mikeash wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about it requires a lot of attention to use? I use it daily and it's set-and-forget for the most part.

Are you serious? You don't think fumbling around trying to tell people where hazards, traffic, police, bla blah is an attention getting process? What about the whole reward nonsense like giving people the thumbs up. Or, what about when you're warned of a hazard and then asked to verify if it's still there or not. I honestly can't see how a driver can do all that and not have their attention to the road/driving impede…

You don't actually have to do any of that to use the app.

Re: Google Maps and Waze

#104

Post by rdouble »

mikeash wrote: post #103
mililani wrote: post #95

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are you serious? You don't think fumbling around trying to tell people where hazards, traffic, police, bla blah is an attention getting process? What about the whole reward nonsense like giving people the thumbs up. Or, what about when you're warned of a hazard and then asked to verify if it's still there or not. I honestly can't see how a driver can do all that and not have their attention to the road/driving impede…

You don't actually have to do any of that to use the app.

A lot of other people need to be doing it, though. Without the crowdsourced info there's no point in using it instead of Google Maps.

Re: Google Maps and Waze

#105

Post by MartinCron »

lkrubner wrote: post #82
amalcon wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

sometimes I text or check email while driving, which I know I should not do I don't mean to pick on you here. You are clearly aware, but it still needs to be said: Please do not email, text, or even talk on a cell phone while driving. Driving is the most dangerous task that is socially acceptable for nonprofessionals to perform. It is very irresponsible to make such a task any more difficult than it needs to be.

"Please do not email, text, or even talk on a cell phone while driving." I knew of a woman whose husband was killed while driving to work. In the opposite lane, on a narrow road, was a young woman who, while driving, was trying to put cream cheese onto her bagel, so she could enjoy eating it while driving. She unknowingly veered across the center line and the 2 cars collided, almost directly head on. The guy was kill…

If someone posts about doing food preparation while driving I'm sure they'll get called out on that, too.

Re: Google Maps and Waze

#106

Post by mikeash »

rdouble wrote: post #104
mikeash wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't actually have to do any of that to use the app.

A lot of other people need to be doing it, though. Without the crowdsourced info there's no point in using it instead of Google Maps.

The only thing in that list that really needs to be done is reporting hazards and traffic and such, and you only need to do that a very small amount of the time. You don't need to give thumbs ups or verify hazards or anything like that, and you only really need to report hazards a small percentage of the time.

Re: Google Maps and Waze

#107

Post by yen223 »

TomatoTomato wrote: post #100
PebblesRox wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One reason I've heard is that when you're on the phone with someone, they don't know what's going on in the car whereas if you're talking with the person next to you and you suddenly need to focus all of your attention on the road, they can stop talking rather than adding to your distraction. Plus they provide a second set of eyes. I don't know how accurate and reliable that theory is, but it makes sense to me. I als…

It's no more distracting than talk radio or some blaring annoying commercial which doesn't stop talking if I need to focus. When you have a handsfree device, just say "Hold on" and do what you need to do. You can always ask them to repeat themselves I you don't hear.

People usually don't talk back to the radio though. Thinking up a response to your conversational partner is where the distraction occurs.

Re: Google Maps and Waze

#110

Post by URSpider94 »

I think people have missed a key value of Waze -- their crowd-sourced mappping infrastructure. They have essentially created from scratch a navigation database that competes with the big two players in the field -- TeleAtlas and Navteq -- with update cycles of a week or less for new user-submitted data. This system would be amazingly powerful in developing countries where the map set is incomplete or full of errors.

That alone makes them worth a good fraction of $1b.

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