I downloaded Waze a couple years ago, but it was only recently that I began using it and fell in love. This seems to be the prevailing pattern among all users: skepticism, then curiosity, then infatuation.
I understand the hesitation. The interface is a bit of mess until you adjust the settings. The logo is kinda spermy. You think traffic is shit no matter what. How could this possibly help?
It helps like you can’t imagine. Waze is crowd sourced, so it’s constantly evolving, getting you where you’re going faster, often providing a different route every time. I love that. Its shortcuts take you through cool neighborhoods you’ve never seen before. It gamifies your drive. You can select from a variety of voices, including Ichabod Crane and actor Terry Crews. Another plus (but in retrospect a negative): I found out that the way I’ve driven home off the 405 Freeway ten-thousand times was longer than it had to be. I’ll kick my own ass, thanks.
And talk about intuitive. You might ask yourself why, if I needed to continue on Beethoven, it took me out of my way for one block:
Oh, and notice the icon on the lower left? Waze encourages you to report cops, so that fellow users can avoid tickets. Suck it, pigs.
Google knew the value of Waze – it paid $1.3 billion dollars for it. But you can download it for free. And the more of us who get on it and use it, the more accurate the navigation and real time driving conditions get reported, the sooner traffic will ease everywhere. You are a hero.
