Paving the Waze for social media

Beri said:
It is cr@p. had it om my phone for a couple of days..... delete delete
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Crap though it may be at the moment - it can only be as good as you (and we) make it. For traffic information it is brilliant.
 
I have been using it on my iPad, it works pretty well. I use the TomTom app with HD traffic at the same time, and between these 2 apps I have a very complete picture of what is going on in the traffic
 
Beri said:
It is cr@p. had it om my phone for a couple of days..... delete delete
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I have been running it for over a year, and on my routes the traffic and routing is spot on. It's the first thing I switch on when I do my daily commute.

EDIT: I'm in JHB. The number of users makes all the difference.
 
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Sounds like a good app. I might give it a try. I take it there is no option for offline maps?
 
Viva said:
Sounds like a good app. I might give it a try. I take it there is no option for offline maps?
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If all you want is an offline map, then rather you Google Navigation and precache map areas you will be using (I cached entire Jhb and surrounds). Waze would be pointless offline due to the constant updated.
 
Viva said:
Sounds like a good app. I might give it a try. I take it there is no option for offline maps?
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Offline maps work, if you ask for routing before you switch off data. Obviously you wont get traffic updates.
 
eitai2001 said:
If all you want is an offline map, then rather you Google Navigation and precache map areas you will be using (I cached entire Jhb and surrounds). Waze would be pointless offline due to the constant updated.
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I was enquiring about the possibility that offline maps could be used in conjunction with online/realtime traffic updates. Seems this is not the case though. I asked because 1MB for 45 minutes of driving (which the author claims) seems extremely few if it includes map data.

I'm quite satisfied with Google Navigation, thanks ;)
 
I prefer Google Navigation for local and cached area's. If I get to a section that is not cached I find Navfree to be a better option than Waze.

Navfree is updated from http://www.openstreetmap.org/ so you have the crowd sourcing from that and the ability to get all of SA's maps free onto your device for offline navigation. Pity it doesn't have the live traffic info yet but with SA's data pricing that seems to be a good thing :)

Problems with Waze is that its only good if loads of people in your area use it, unfortunately this is not the case down here in PE or out in the open road.
 
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Viva said:
I was enquiring about the possibility that offline maps could be used in conjunction with online/realtime traffic updates. Seems this is not the case though. I asked because 1MB for 45 minutes of driving (which the author claims) seems extremely few if it includes map data.

I'm quite satisfied with Google Navigation, thanks ;)
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The only time waze will use that much bandwidth is if it has never seen that area before, it caches the tiles you have driven on. They only apply the updates once a week or so, so you could use it offline quite comfortably if that area is already cached on your phone.
 
"The app is being launched in South Africa by Mix Telematics"
Say what? The app has been available for a looong time. How exactly are they "launching" it?

"Mix Telematics provided the base road grid from its existing positional database"
No this is incorrect. The current map was made entirely by users. I also believe that Waze has stopped importing base maps due to the disaster that occurred when the british base maps were updated, so it is unlikely that their data (if it exists) will even be imported.

"Mix Telematics hopes to generate revenue from advertising and companies such as petrol stations and supermarkets that would like to place their location on the map."
I don't see this working. Why would they want to advertise when they can simply go map their POI's? Waze even searches POI's via google so if their data is on google maps then they are already in the database.

Sounds like Mix Telematics is trying (successfully) to get some free advertising on Mybroadband ...
 
Beri said:
A lot of the major roads in PE is not even on the base map. roads just end in the middle of nowhere.
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Time to start mapping the roads yourself then. Just keep the app running on your daily commute. The More place you drive with the app on the more roads will eventually be added the map. Johannesburg used to have a lot of missing roads too.
 
JBenci said:
Time to start mapping the roads yourself then. Just keep the app running on your daily commute. The More place you drive with the app on the more roads will eventually be added the map. Johannesburg used to have a lot of missing roads too.
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Stuff that, I'll rather use Openstreetmap based applications, seeing that I added most of PE's roads on it already.

Besides fixing up Open Street Maps is more rewarding as it not only benefits my Navfree or Osmand. It also provides data for people that want to update their Garman or Tomtom based devices. Not to even mention all the other map based software that can benefit from it as well.

Edit: Forgot to mention Navfree also have a free GPS navigation app for the iPhone http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/navfree-uk-roi/id391334793?mt=8
 
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Glipsie said:
"The app is being launched in South Africa by Mix Telematics"
Say what? The app has been available for a looong time. How exactly are they "launching" it?

"Mix Telematics provided the base road grid from its existing positional database"
No this is incorrect. The current map was made entirely by users. I also believe that Waze has stopped importing base maps due to the disaster that occurred when the british base maps were updated, so it is unlikely that their data (if it exists) will even be imported.

"Mix Telematics hopes to generate revenue from advertising and companies such as petrol stations and supermarkets that would like to place their location on the map."
I don't see this working. Why would they want to advertise when they can simply go map their POI's? Waze even searches POI's via google so if their data is on google maps then they are already in the database.

Sounds like Mix Telematics is trying (successfully) to get some free advertising on Mybroadband ...
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+1
I was fairly annoyed when I read the part about MiX Telematics providing the base road and that they are launching the app in South Africa. It works because of contributors like you and I who have spent the past year or two mapping the greater Joburg area.
 
Elimentals said:
Stuff that, I'll rather use Openstreetmap based applications, seeing that I added most of PE's roads on it already.

Besides fixing up Open Street Maps is more rewarding as it not only benefits my Navfree or Osmand. It also provides data for people that want to update their Garman or Tomtom based devices. Not to even mention all the other map based software that can benefit from it as well.

Edit: Forgot to mention Navfree also have a free GPS navigation app for the iPhone http://itunes.apple.com/gb/app/navfree-uk-roi/id391334793?mt=8
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Fair enough, if you dont need to know where the traffic jams are. Waze is used avoid traffic on along your route to save you time. If If you don't need traffic information then there are better navigation apps available. Personally, I sit in a lot of traffic daily so this is a huge feature not to have.
 
I have had a rocky experience with Waze.

After I mapped almost our entire town, we were plagued with server down time and updates that did not show for days, and once they show you struggle to edit them making it very, very frustrating to use. On one occasion I lost all my edits after many, many hours of painstakingly mapping out our roads.

What put a stake through the project for me was when I found that the base maps did not overlap properly. When I raised this concern all I got was "meh, we can do nothing about that, that is how we get it from Google."
But in the documents they discourage you from using Google Maps or any other online resource to map your streets, but they use it!?
At this point I just gave up, if they cannot fix a simple map overlay problem then I can do nothing further to contribute to this project, so I moved on.

And one last thing, they push the iPhone version with all the "newly added features" and then we on Android had to wait months for the update on the app, all the while loosing out on the features, points and whatnot... uninstall!
 
Tried the app as well for Android. It works okay and the concept is great given the fact that similar services from TomTom and Garmin cost money. It does make your battery its biatch, though....
 
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