So Frustrating! How Waze Turned a Two-Hour Drive Into a Horrible Adventure

I rely on the app for everything from short drives to long journeys. I'm well aware of its limitations, and I never take what it says for granted.

But despite its flaws, Waze has often proved to be an incredible driving companion. Reports generated based on user data are fantastic and make every second behind the wheel more predictable. Its routes are typically faster than the ones generated by Google Maps. I'm not necessarily interested in this because I don't think that saving two or three minutes is worth the effort of going through complex intersections or entering narrow residential roads.

However, Waze has recently turned a simple two-hour drive into a horrible experience that forced me to close the app and switch to Google Maps for this journey.

Like most of Europe, we've recently had a public holiday here. Given that most people in the country had four days off, highway traffic skyrocketed on the first and the last day of the holiday in opposite directions. Everybody knew the road back home would be a nightmare, considering it was the end of a public holiday. Waze is the most popular navigation app here, so most drivers relied on the app to find a faster way home.

I did the same thing, and despite trying to avoid heavy traffic by leaving later than usual, I still used Waze to know what happened on the road ahead.

It turns out that using Waze was a huge mistake. As if heavy traffic wasn't enough (I barely hit 130 kph or 80 mph for our American friends), considering it was almost midnight, Waze continuously spammed me (and I'm certain the same thing happened to drivers around me) with false warnings. I know these reports are based on user submissions, but given the local userbase, I'm also certain many people around me hit the "Not there" button repeatedly.

I received warnings for all kinds of hazards that didn't make sense, starting with fog, flooded roads, unplowed roads, and objects on the road. Don't forget that I was driving on the highway in May, so you can imagine an unplowed road notification is ridiculous.

The same thing happened again and again and again until I gave up and launched Google Maps. Unfortunately, most people still used Waze, and I could easily see the result in their behavior.

At one point, I got a warning that the "left lane was blocked," and almost every driver in front of me switched to the right lane. Leaving aside the distractions caused by unnecessary notifications for hazards that don't expect and don't make sense, Waze telling drivers on a highway that a lane is blocked immediately impacts traffic.

Waze was part of the problem and partially responsible for the nightmare traffic on the highway. Everybody slowed down the moment they got a notification of a hazard ahead, generating what's generally referred to as a "phantom traffic jam."

We repeatedly stopped completely on the highway. We just sit there for a few seconds before accelerating slowly. It didn't take long, and the same thing happened again. As I was sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic at midnight on the highway, I looked around, and everybody was using Waze. They all had the same warnings on the screen.

You can check out the screenshots I attached (I had plenty of time to take screenshots, considering the highway was turned into a gigantic parking place). I didn't spot a single accident and obviously didn't find any unplowed road, objects on the road, or fog. Most estimates of the time I'd spent in a traffic jam were incorrect, too.

Unfortunately, this horrible experience proves two things.

First, we all rely too much on navigation apps. We take their instructions for granted and do whatever they say. If someone sends a false traffic report, the app can cause massive traffic disruptions, leading to major delays. It's the opposite of what Waze is supposed to do, as the app's goal is to get us to the destination as fast as possible.

Second, Waze isn't flawless. The crowdsourced incident reporting system is a great concept, but the notifications forwarded to drivers could significantly impact traffic if something goes wrong. I repeatedly observed how drivers reacted based on what Waze displayed on the screen. Many people even slowed down when getting the unplowed road notification, leading to the phantom traffic jam I told you about earlier.

Unfortunately, there's no way to prevent this from happening. I temporarily switched to Google Maps for a simpler, cleaner, and quieter navigation experience. It offered the same route as Waze, but I still think traffic reports (when working correctly) are a great bonus that can make a journey significantly safer.

If anything, I was reminded of one thing. No app is perfect, and if you use navigation software in the car, do yourself a favor and never take what it says for granted.

PS: I use the same route once or twice every couple of weeks, and it takes less than two hours to arrive at the destination. This time, it took me 3 hours and a half to get home.