'Waze' Turns Your Commute Into a Traffic-Free Social Experience

Introduction

I had driven down to Los Angeles to attend my niece’s graduation. I took advantage of my time there to visit some old friends, and got so caught up in my afternoon that I completely forgot I would be facing rush hour traffic. By the time I’d made it to the freeway, my ETA was over an hour after the start of the graduation ceremony. Since I grew up in the area, I thought I’d be able to navigate around the jam. Instead, my native arrogance landed me in even worse bumper-to-bumper traffic. I was desperate. When I downloaded the Waze app and mapped the quickest route, it estimated my arrival time 7 minutes ahead of schedule.

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More Information

I was skeptical, especially when I started zigzagging down side streets, but Waze doesn’t mess around. I arrived with minutes to spare. Needless to say, this app has my full endorsement. Waze is a social approach to navigation. With the power of the Waze community, you can receive up-to-the-minute traffic reports that include anything from upcoming standstills to speed-checking police. Users running the app during their own commute keep the content up-to-date. The more active users, the more accurate the Waze GPS becomes. The traffic app also comes with text-to-speech capabilities, so you can navigate safely. Driving is perhaps one of the few everyday activities left untouched by social integration. Anyone who has suffered the agony of long, solitary drive with little scenery (I’m looking at you, I-5) will welcome the change. In the latest update, Waze has been completely redesigned with a new “minimalist” UI. There is also all new integration with Yelp, foursquare, and Bing that allows users to look up destinations, navigate, and check in.

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