These Five New Waze Features Are Rolling Out Right Now.
Waze users are starting Monday with a major update. This morning, the company announced five new features for the app in a blog post, focusing on improved artificial intelligence and customization. While the app is known for finding the fastest route possible (with police alerts along the way), the new update can prioritize your personal driving habits over optimal estimated arrival times. Here’s what’s new:
Waze now has a mode for motorcycle riders.
If you ride a motorcycle and don’t use Waze, you might want to give it a try. One of the app’s newest features is “Motorcycle Mode,” which uses artificial intelligence to optimize routes by taking into account shortcuts and restrictions that may apply to motorcyclists. The new feature is also designed to display information about road conditions that are particularly problematic for motorcyclists, such as potholes, raised crosswalks, speed bumps, narrow bridges, and shoulders that close quickly.
Waze says the new feature is powered by both real-time traffic data from drivers and the work of its team of motorcycle map editors. The initial rollout is fairly limited, as the feature is only launching in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, and the Philippines. However, Waze says it plans to expand to other countries in the future, hopefully including the United States.
New personalized navigation feature
Waze has launched a new feature designed to encourage more frequent use of the app. Starting today, Waze will suggest new routes based on your previous driving history, while also incorporating its own algorithmic recommendations. If you prefer to avoid highways and take back roads, or vice versa, Waze will presumably take this into account and begin suggesting routes that suit your preferred driving style.
If you want to choose the fastest route Waze suggests, regardless of your driving history, you can do that too. Waze advises that you can select alternative routes or disable this new personalized navigation feature entirely if you prefer.
How Waze’s “Less Talkative” Mode Works
“Less Talk” mode might not have the most apt name, but it certainly gets the point across. The new feature reduces the number of voice prompts that can interrupt music or podcasts, and if they do interrupt, Waze tries to reduce them. The company says you’ll still receive the usual “important reminders” about things like hazards, turns, and lane changes, but only when necessary.
I fully support the idea of more navigation apps (like Apple Maps and Google Maps) emulating the “less intrusive” mode. Unless I’m in a completely new place, I usually drive with notifications completely disabled so that nothing interrupts my music. While I’m sure I’d be annoyed by any such prompts, such as muting or pausing the music, I might leave this mode enabled if the interruptions were truly infrequent (and quick).
The Interactive Reporting feature supports informal map updating.
Waze’s “Conversational Messaging” feature lets you report things like traffic slowdowns using your voice. The idea is to make reporting hands-free, so you don’t have to fiddle with the app to send updates. Now, this support has been expanded: you can send map updates using your voice.
For example, if you’re driving along your route and come across a closed road, you could write, “Road closed here.” Waze says it will forward your message to its editors, who will verify the information and update the map if they deem it accurate.
Use Gemini to find your way to your goal.
Waze is a Google product, so it’s no surprise that the company has integrated some Gemini features into it. The company is currently testing Gemini integration into search: if you decide to participate in the testing, you’ll be able to use Gemini to search queries like “find an open coffee shop,” “find parking near this restaurant,” or “find the cheapest gas station in my area.” As with all AI-powered products, I’ll need to see how this one performs before I can confidently say how useful it is.
Again, this feature is still in testing, meaning you’ll need to sign up for the Waze beta on iOS or Android to use it. However, if you’re ready to become a beta tester, you can try it out today.