Waze
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Waze is an innovative GPS mobile application for smartphones and tablets that relies on crowdsourcing for its traffic data. The app offers turn-by-turn directions, traffic reports, location of police, gas prices, road closures, and the ability to chat with other users. Now owned by Google, Waze is the world's largest community based-traffic and navigation app. [1]
Contents
History
Waze, formerly known as FreeMap Israel, was first developed as a community project with the intention for users to generate a free map of Israel. [2] The first round of funding came in 2008 from BlueRun Ventures and Magma Venture Partners, with a second round in 2010. After a third round 2011 from Horizons Ventures and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Google bought Waze in 2013. [3]
Acquisition by Google
While Facebook, Apple, and others were interested in purchasing Waze, Google acquired Waze in 2013 for $996, 000, 000. [4] [5] The US Federal Trade Commission investigated the deal as Google was already a player in the mapping market. In the end, the antitrust challenge was not aggressive enough to impact competition, and the case was dropped. [6]
Overview
Waze is available on the Apple and Android App store. After downloading, users make an account by entering an email and choosing a username.
Personalization
In terms of general settings, users are able to change the display of the map, the mode of day or night, and the sound for navigation. The language, units, and events radius can also be changed to the user's liking. The user can change the color scheme, the type of car on the map and the navigation voice. Waze also has the ability to play the navigation through the user's speaker phone or Bluetooth. Users can update their navigation preferences to avoid toll roads, freeways and dirt roads. Waze can also sync with your calendar and Facebook events. And because Waze is a social app, it connects with the user's Facebook and Twitter accounts as well. Users are also able to set a preferred gas station, gas type, and sort by distance, price or brand.
Users can personalize their profile more to their liking. Users can set a Home and Work location for easy one-tap navigation, as well as updates on unusual traffic events. Users can choose a mood for their car which determines the look of your Waze. The options range from "Shy" to "Zombie", and everything in between. There is an option for users to join teams, such as with the local TV stations, so that their contributions are included in the morning traffic update. Users can add their friends and communicate in different ways.
User Interaction
Users are able to communicate in different ways. If they are friends on Waze, they are able to send their ETA, send a Beep Beep, call them, or send a private message. Users can also thank you by giving you a thumbs up on something you reported, as well as send a map chat. It is not required that a user be friends with a user to communicate. Rather, it depends on the other Wazers that are traveling in the same area as you.
How to contribute
Users earn points by contributing to traffic updates. This can be done by reporting the traffic, police, an accident, a hazard on the road, gas prices, chatting, reporting map issue, taking a picture of a place, reporting a camera or a road closure. Each report is worth a different amount of points. See tables below. [7]
| Activity | Points | Unit |
|---|---|---|
| Road reporting | 6 | per report |
| Gas/fuel price reports | 8 | per report |
| Report comments | 3 | per comment |
| Editing the map | 3 | per edit |
| Solving map update requests | 3 | per request solved |
| Adding street names | 3 | per name |
| Adding house numbers | 1 | per segment |
| Adding Place Photo | 6 | per photo |
| Updating Place | 3 | per detail added |
| Forum posts | 2 | per 3 posts |
| Road goodies | 2 | per goodie |
Users can gain points per mile/KM driven with the Waze application is running.
| Activity | Per mile | Per KM |
|---|---|---|
| Normal driving | 5 | 3.2 |
| Road munching | 16 | 10 |
| New road recording (paving) | 64 | 40 |
Waze Levels
Waze keeps scores by the type of contribution made by the user. First time users are labeled as a Waze Baby. Users remain a Waze Baby for their first 100 miles of travel. Upon this accomplishment, users then become a Waze GrownUp. As a GrownUp, users can choose a mood for their Waze. Levels continue to Waze Warrior, where the user is in the top 10% of high scorers in their state, Waze Knight, where the user is in the top 4% of high scorers their state, and Waze Royalty, where the user is in the top 1% of high scorers in their state. Each level accompanied by a symbol: a shield, a sword, and a crown respectively. There is a final option to be a Waze editor by contributing to the development of the map itself. With this accomplishment comes three exclusive moods.
Inbox with advice from Waze
Security Risk
Distracting drivers
Government Interaction
Using Waze to collect data or for public services such as garbage collection
Ethical Implications
Police cannot enforce the law
References
- ↑ Waze.com Retrieved 2016-1-12
- ↑ Wikipedia Retrieved 2016-2-14
- ↑ Index Retrieved 2016-2-14
- ↑ Index Retrieved 2016-2-14
- ↑ Start-Up Israel Retrieved 2016-2-14
- ↑ FTC will not challenge Google's $1 billion Waze acquisition Retrieved 2016-2-14
- ↑ Google Support Waze Help Retrieved 2016-2-15
