Waze won’t add a significant feature, and Google Maps can’t fill the gap
Waze’s accident reporting system makes every trip more predictable by providing drivers with information about what’s happening on the road before they reach a certain point.
Photo: Bogdan Popa/Automatic Evolution
This system gives drivers more time to act accordingly – in the event of an accident, they can slow down in advance, reducing the chances of hard braking just before a collision.
Speed traps have long been a key Waze feature, with app users relying on reports to figure out the location of radars on their route. Users can mark visible, hidden and other side of road speed traps. Recently, the “Other Side” option has disappeared on some devices, with users believing that this is a sign that Waze wants to simplify the report by keeping only the visible and hidden settings.
The Google-owned company has remained tight-lipped about its plans for the “other side” option, but we now know for sure that it has no plans to enhance speed trap reporting with moving radar flags.
A feature request that received more than 1,800 votes calls for Waze to add support for reporting on police radars while in motion, eventually allowing the app to identify the entire segment of road where they are most likely to encounter a speed trap. In the current version, Waze allows users to report static radar. If you see multiple police reports in the same section of road, it usually means there is likely a moving speed trap moving up and down a specific area.
Marking the radar as “moving” makes perfect sense for an application whose engine relies on accurate traffic reports. However, Waze has no interest in improving speed traps in this direction. The company recently revealed that such an update is not planned because it “does not fit into our roadmap.”
Photo: Bogdan Popa/Automatic Evolution
Unfortunately, Waze not adding this option for speed traps leaves users with no alternative. Many apps have already added incident reporting, including Apple in Apple Maps, but none serve as a complete replacement for Waze.
Google Maps can’t fill that gap either, as the app only supports limited incident reporting, and sometimes borrows traffic data from Waze. Google Maps is focused on navigation, so incident reports remain the only thing Waze cares about.
In the meantime, Waze has several other improvements to focus on, including Coolwalk integration on Android Auto. The current version feels very slow, making switching from Coolwalk view to full screen mode very slow at times. Waze is also experiencing other issues with Android Auto, including blank maps and GPS issues, so it should focus on reliability improvements in the short term.
The most popular Waze alternatives right now are Google Maps, Apple Maps, Coyote, and navigation apps from Sygic, TomTom, and HERE, all of which include incident reporting.
