Okay, so this past weekend my wife and I went on a road trip to see Bill Engvall in Texas with some friends. I blogged before we headed out that I was going to use Waze the entire trip, you can read that post here… For the most part I was extremely, extremely impressed w/ Waze during this trip. I did run into a few things that I wanted to mention though about the software.
Before I go into a lot of detail I want to reiterate again that for a free software app, Waze is probably the most impressive thing I have downloaded since owning my iPhone. This whole Geo-Social thing is just getting fired up with apps like Gowalla, Foursquare, and Loopt on the market, and each one getting stronger, I think we are all going to witness some amazing things in 2010 related to Geo-Social applications. Being that these apps are all new, it’s obvious that there are going to be some kinks, or bugs, here and there. In addition to bugs, there are some items of functionality that we might also want right now that are just going to take the developers a little bit of time to put in place, I am a software guy, I totally get it.
Initially I noticed that Waze allowed users to check in using Foursquare but not Gowalla. I would LOVE to see Gowalla added to the mix since it’s my primary Geo-Social app. I am sure that it’s just a matter of time before Gowalla support is added, it’s growing in popularity every day…
Trips Over 200 Miles…
When programming in our trip, we learned that presently Waze will only accommodate for trips under 200 miles. Since our trip was about 300 miles, we just picked a center location and programmed that in and hit the road. I am not for sure if I expected the audible turn by turn directions from a free application but it was certainly nice. I am not for certain but I think the voice on the app telling me which way to turn was a little bit easier to understand than the one on our Garmin. My wife and I debated the voices a few minutes, we had gotten used to our directions girl on the Garmin.
Outside 3G Coverage Areas…
I could hear the audible directions being cued or downloaded to my phone before they actually spoke. While we were in 3G areas it seemed that we got our turn by turn directions in a very timely manner, enough time to make our turns. Outside the 3G central Arkansas area, near the Texas line was a little bit different story however, we almost missed a turn for our off ramp because the audio came in at the last second and I had to cross two lanes of traffic.
Recalculating Routes after Detours…
Once I got into Texas I programmed in our final destination. As soon as our route was calculated I started driving. About halfway into the metro Tyler area we missed a turn and it took a little while for it to recalculate our route, and this was in 3G service area. I am not for sure if this was a fluke or not but I had to pull over and allow it a few minutes to get us back on track. The other times that I ventured off the pre-determined route I noticed that the recalculation time lagged here as well. I am sure that there is a lot involved with downloading, etc., but I bet that the folks at Waze improve this as time goes on. As far as outside the 3G area goes, I am not for sure if there is anything they can do on their end as programmers to adjust for that… and it’s understandable.
Reporting Traffic Jams and Speed Traps…
On more than one occasion we were able to locate speed traps before we happened upon them. We also in turn posted speed traps that we encountered a long the way, 6 of them to be exact. I really like this feature. We also reported some slower traffic areas on our way back.
Directions Near Louisiana…
We decided on our way back to detour through Shreveport, LA to visit some friends and watch the Saints game and enjoy a bowl of Duck Gumbo. As we got close to Shreveport we noticed that some of the turns the app was telling us to make simply weren’t there. This happened a few times, I am not for sure why this was the case, it could have been that the interstate system there is stacked one on top of the other, about 4 high, and maybe it saw us on one of the other roads, but it sure made for some confusion.
Once we got onto flat roads and made our exit everything started functioning normally again.
Reporting Wildlife on the Highway…
On our return trip, we traveled back roads into Hope, AR. On these back roads and even once we got on the Interstate we saw at least 100 deer grazing on the side of the road. Now, anyone that has traveled Arkansas for any length of time knows that this can be extremely hazardous. I think it would be cool if Waze added a section to their Report area that allowed you to report Wildlife hazards in the area so you could keep your eyes open.
In closing, I am still very impressed with this App and i hope to have Diann from Waze on The Cotton Club podcast one of these days very soon…
I had not heard of Waze until I saw your post today. I'm going to try it out around town and on our next road trip. Thanks for the tip!
Let me know what you think, it's a really cool app. Probably the biggest “wow” factor I have seen from a Free app. The turn by turn directions on it are great inside the Central Arkansas 3g network.