I'm probably behind the times, but I just heard of the Waze app. It appears to be a GPS for your smartphone with real-time social networking features (yes, please do not engage in more distracted driving ). The most interesting feature to me is the real-time reporting of police locations (e.g. speed traps) -- not that anyone here would ever need to worry about that . Just curious what experiences there might be around here....

https://www.6speedonline.com/forums/...road-trip.html

http://www.waze.com/

 

I used it when I had an iphone, it's okay. I take the same road to work all the time and I know exactly where the cops hide.

 

It's very distracting and sometimes not the most efficient routes for me. <br />
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I prefer google maps and even the apple maps.

As far as the reports of police of accidents; sometimes they are accurate and sometimes previous reports and I don't see the same issues that Waze reports.

I have so many GPS apps but love Navigon.
It's not free but incorporates, live traffic re-routing(a $10 lifetime add on), Glympse, and google street view.
I love my navigon.

 

OK -- I've tried this thing for almost a week now (mostly commuting to/from work). I'm impressed with it so far. I turn off most of the map alerts other than accidents and police. For example, I don't really care where there are other people using the app on the roads.

My limited experience so far has been pretty good with regards to warning me about police speed traps. There are many false positives -- showing police up ahead that aren't really there when you get there. I suspect this is either due to bad reporting or they've since moved on. However, the false negatives are pretty low. When I've seen police on the side of the road, I've had a warning from the app for most of them (I'd estimate 8 out of 10). That's pretty impressive.

I haven't tried to use this for navigation or other GPS uses -- but so far, it's better than my trial run with a radar/laser detector. That had way too many false alarms and wasn't that useful to me.

I also like the fact that it's free .

 

It kills battery

 

Thanks for the tip. I guess I should get my car charger ready for longer trips. Actually, I'm not sure if it's that useful outside of the cities since it's relying on other users for the reports. It probably works better where there's more traffic around.

 

I think so. U usually know where cops are on local roads so I didn't find it useful. You are more likely getting pulled over or road rage for looking at a phone too

 

No worries -- the phone is on a nice window mount and is effectively functioning as a GPS. The mount I got is doing double duty since it also works for me at the track with the Harry's Lap Timer app.

 

Just as an update -- I'm still trying this app out and continue to be pleased with it. Based on some issues reported by folks earlier, I'm not sure if there's just a newer version out that's better than before, or if there happens to be enough users in the SF Bay Area (at least on my commute route) to make the app more useful to me. For example, while there are some false positives, it's still identifying almost all the cops I ever see on the side of the freeway each day (including a few with their handy lasers). Traffic and accident locations are also more accurate than my Garmin GPS or Google app.

 

I've heard good things about it, but have yet to use it myself. I'll give it a go in the next few weeks and let you know!

 

I have tried Waze now going to work a few times.
It keeps taking me to the clogged freeway where it takes 20 minutes to get to work. But I know surface streets are only about 12-14 min max. But never fails always wants me to get on the freeway.

I don't trust it for finding the quickest route regardless of type of route. I tried changing settings but I want it to use the freeway if its faster not omit it all the time.

It makes distracting sounds that I have no idea what they mean. One time I spent more time looking at the screen to see what was going on, but was driving distracted.

If I can afford a Porsche I can afford the $25 for a complete NAV solution for my phone. Deleted Waze and went back to Navigon. Never fails me!

 

I don't use it for NAV so I can't say how good or bad that is -- I use it primarily as a cheap (i.e. free) cop detector. It's also pretty good at identifying where accidents are located or traffic slowdowns. Other than that, I pretty much turn off all of the other alerts or icons on the screen and the only warning I get is related to where the cops are.

Since it's dependent on user reports, I don't think this will work as well on city streets or less-traveled roads. However, for the highways in the Bay Area -- it has been great. Like I said earlier, I have yet to see a stationary cop on the highway that I wasn't warned about first (not that I'm driving that fast though ). Just today, there was a semi-hidden motorcycle CHP on 680 Southbound that I had a mile warning about.

 

I've heard about waze. apparently facebook is rumoured to buy them for $1 billion. glad to heard there is some success w/ the speed traps. might have to give it a try.