Photo: autoevolution
One of the essential capabilities of modern navigation apps is voice guidance, as they are able to provide turn-to-turn instructions using nothing but audio commands.
This way, the driver wouldn’t have to look at the screen to figure out which way they need to go, and at the end of the day, this means the distraction is significantly reduced.
But on the other hand, there are moments when the audio guidance is broken down in the most unusual ways. In Google Maps, for instance, the voice navigation sometimes stops working all of a sudden in the middle of the drive, so the driver would have to rely solely on the visual instructions displayed on the screen for the whole thing.
But what’s happening right now for Waze users is a little bit, well, scary.
Jane, arguably the most common choice for navigation, turns into some sort of creepy voice totally randomly and automatically while driving. It’s not entirely clear what’s triggering the unusual voice, but the creepy setting shows up every now and then before returning to the normal voice.
At first glance, there seems to be an issue with the TTS engine, but on the other hand, only Jane appears to be affected. Switching to any other voice, such as Ben or Sarah, fixes the whole thing, so only users who have configured Waze with Jane should notice this unusual behavior.
The glitch was first reported in November, and according to various posts on social media, the Waze dev team is already aware of the problem and trying to figure out what’s happening as we speak. But on the other hand, there’s no ETA as to when a fix could be released, so you’d better not hold your breath for it.
Given voice navigation is an essential part of the experience with Waze for so many users, here are the currently available options (at least until an official fix goes live for the affected devices):
First of all, considering only Jane is affected, you can always switch to Ben or Sarah to bring things back to normal, at least until a fix goes live. You can do this from the configuration screen of the app – on CarPlay and Android Auto you need to make this change on the mobile device.
Second of all, if neither Ben nor Sarah is your cup of tea, you can always switch to Google Maps. However, as we said earlier, there are times when the Google Maps navigation voice goes crazy as well, so no matter what you choose, a small chance of coming across other problems still exists. On the other hand, Google Maps has never turned to a creepy voice, not even for Halloween.
But on the other hand, there are moments when the audio guidance is broken down in the most unusual ways. In Google Maps, for instance, the voice navigation sometimes stops working all of a sudden in the middle of the drive, so the driver would have to rely solely on the visual instructions displayed on the screen for the whole thing.
But what’s happening right now for Waze users is a little bit, well, scary.
Jane, arguably the most common choice for navigation, turns into some sort of creepy voice totally randomly and automatically while driving. It’s not entirely clear what’s triggering the unusual voice, but the creepy setting shows up every now and then before returning to the normal voice.
At first glance, there seems to be an issue with the TTS engine, but on the other hand, only Jane appears to be affected. Switching to any other voice, such as Ben or Sarah, fixes the whole thing, so only users who have configured Waze with Jane should notice this unusual behavior.
The glitch was first reported in November, and according to various posts on social media, the Waze dev team is already aware of the problem and trying to figure out what’s happening as we speak. But on the other hand, there’s no ETA as to when a fix could be released, so you’d better not hold your breath for it.
Given voice navigation is an essential part of the experience with Waze for so many users, here are the currently available options (at least until an official fix goes live for the affected devices):
First of all, considering only Jane is affected, you can always switch to Ben or Sarah to bring things back to normal, at least until a fix goes live. You can do this from the configuration screen of the app – on CarPlay and Android Auto you need to make this change on the mobile device.
Second of all, if neither Ben nor Sarah is your cup of tea, you can always switch to Google Maps. However, as we said earlier, there are times when the Google Maps navigation voice goes crazy as well, so no matter what you choose, a small chance of coming across other problems still exists. On the other hand, Google Maps has never turned to a creepy voice, not even for Halloween.
Google News