The days of avoiding congestion on your ride home from work have gotten much safer. Israeli start-up Waze, the world’s fastest driving community centered around a mobile app that let’s the community provide news on traffic and navigation issues, has released a new iOS application today. As reported by The Verge, this free GPS and navigation app is now featuring a hands-free way to activate and file reports without jeopardizing your safety while you’re driving.
Waze has received some pretty good press over the past year or so for its usefulness to help make people’s commute less painful. If you were in the Los Angeles area when the I-5 was shut down for a few days, Waze was promoted as one of the apps to help get you around town easily and probably helped shave driving times. And it looks like word is being spread around the major cities around the United States to use the app. I’ve tried using it once or twice, but often when I found myself driving, it didn’t make sense for me to look at the phone while driving. In fact, it’s pretty dangerous to do so and one might feel compelled to use Waze to report an accident while they’re driving–only to hopefully not find themselves a victim or the cause of another one.
The Verge reports that Waze grew impatient with Apple to open up the API for its famed and often-spoofed Siri application for developers to take advantage of, but with no resolution in the near future, they decided to go with Plan B. Using the iPhone’s proximity sensor, users can now activate a voice-controlled interface in its application. Just wave your hand at your iPhone and it should initiate the voice-control, allowing you to quickly navigate, report traffic, and alert the Waze community as to nearby road hazards. One difference, and probably a good one, between Waze’s technique and Siri? You won’t need to touch the screen or push a button to interact with the app. This will help allow drivers to concentrate on driving, but still allow them to contribute to the greater good without being distracted. No word yet on whether this can be done with the Android app, but this is definitely a good move for drivers safety. Oh, and this update to the iPhone will work for those in the US and in Canada.
Oh, and some other nice lil’ tidbits that are with the latest release? Sharing! Yes, that’s right…Waze now comes with sharing features where you can let anyone know via text or email that you’re running late and it’ll include your current location, ETA, and your destination. Looking at their screenshots, it seems that this is a template message where all you have to do is enter in the number and/or email address and it’ll ping whoever you send with your Waze GPS location.
by Key Yeung