Road Trip Using Waze

I am going on a road trip this weekend w/ some friends to the bottom of the Earth (South Texas).  Normally I am not that big of a fan of road trips, I guess I outgrew that a few years back.  I guess for the most part I am just not that much fun anymore.  However, something about this trip has me a little excited. 

As someone who sits behind a desk for the most part of everyday, I don’t do a lot of commuting, and the only time I travel is when I am heading to and from meetings.  There is a social application called Waze that I have been wanting to test out for a while now.

Waze is a free social mobile app that enables drivers to build and use live maps, real-time traffic updates and turn-by-turn navigation for an optimal commute. Waze is 100% powered by users and the more you drive the better it gets. I have played w/ the app a little bit just driving around town and have been able to report speed traps, backed up traffic, and even accidents just by having their app open.

I recently learned that Waze also acts as a turn by turn navigation system, I am looking forward to testing their service versus the GPS navigation system that we presently have.  I was talking w/ Keith Crawford last night on our podcast, The Social Radar, about the Waze app and he and I both agreed that they have probably one of the coolest applications going right now.  I look forward to reporting back how my weekend road trip went w/ Waze. 

Now, here’s the only thing.  My wife complains that I spend too much time Twittering and all of that, I am sure that some of you have caught heat about this before too.  Well, I am going to have to try to use Waze covertly on this trip so that I am not accused of spending too much time on my iPhone.  It’s going to be tough, wish me luck…  If you want to know more about Waze, here’s a guided tour I pulled from their website.  (also, I have been in communication w/ Daniel from Waze about someone from their group being a guest on one of our upcoming podcasts, stay tuned)