Photo: Bogdan Popa/autoevolution
I don't know about you, but I mainly use Waze because of the alert system. Thanks to its always-expanding database but also with help from the gigantic user base, Waze offers spot-on traffic alerts, letting us know what's happening on the road ahead.
Police traps, traffic jams, broken traffic lights, accidents, vehicles stopped on the road, and camera alerts are common for frequent Waze users.
On the other hand, if you've been using Waze in an urban environment, you probably know the application already lacks support for several important reports. One of them is the location of speed bumps, especially because these are not properly signaled with road signs every now and then.
I've long been an advocate for speed bump warnings in Waze, especially because my home city is filled with them. Sure enough, I already learned the location of speed bumps on my common trips, but having Waze alert me when I approach another one would come in a lot handier.
The Google-owned company first confirmed that speed bumps were on the roadmap back in 2020. A feature request for the location of speed bumps in Waze was posted no less than eight years ago. However, a reply from a Waze team member in mid-February reveals that the feature is on its way to the application.
No further specifics were provided, but the confirmation indicates the update would go live "in the near future." Obviously, this could mean anything from a few months to next year, so you'd better not hold your breath for such a feature.
Adding the location of speed bumps in a navigation app wouldn't be possible without a humongous user community to keep the data up-to-date. And Waze does have this user base, so in theory, such a feature is totally doable once Waze decides to make it happen.
In the meantime, Waze keeps getting better and better. The company has recently confirmed that another feature is also on the roadmap, as it wants to provide users with an option to report lane closures. Right now, Wazers can mark only full roads as closed to traffic. The new tool would come in handy whenever a road is still open to traffic but comes with restrictions for a specific lane due to roadworks or accidents. Just like in the case of speed bump alerts, there's no ETA regarding its potential release.
With these updates, Waze would become the go-to navigation app for more drivers, especially as Google Maps seems to focus more on world exploration capabilities. The two are both owned by Google, and despite rumors that the search giant could eventually merge them, Google Maps and Waze continue to operate as separate apps on all platforms.
On the other hand, if you've been using Waze in an urban environment, you probably know the application already lacks support for several important reports. One of them is the location of speed bumps, especially because these are not properly signaled with road signs every now and then.
I've long been an advocate for speed bump warnings in Waze, especially because my home city is filled with them. Sure enough, I already learned the location of speed bumps on my common trips, but having Waze alert me when I approach another one would come in a lot handier.
The Google-owned company first confirmed that speed bumps were on the roadmap back in 2020. A feature request for the location of speed bumps in Waze was posted no less than eight years ago. However, a reply from a Waze team member in mid-February reveals that the feature is on its way to the application.
No further specifics were provided, but the confirmation indicates the update would go live "in the near future." Obviously, this could mean anything from a few months to next year, so you'd better not hold your breath for such a feature.
Adding the location of speed bumps in a navigation app wouldn't be possible without a humongous user community to keep the data up-to-date. And Waze does have this user base, so in theory, such a feature is totally doable once Waze decides to make it happen.
In the meantime, Waze keeps getting better and better. The company has recently confirmed that another feature is also on the roadmap, as it wants to provide users with an option to report lane closures. Right now, Wazers can mark only full roads as closed to traffic. The new tool would come in handy whenever a road is still open to traffic but comes with restrictions for a specific lane due to roadworks or accidents. Just like in the case of speed bump alerts, there's no ETA regarding its potential release.
With these updates, Waze would become the go-to navigation app for more drivers, especially as Google Maps seems to focus more on world exploration capabilities. The two are both owned by Google, and despite rumors that the search giant could eventually merge them, Google Maps and Waze continue to operate as separate apps on all platforms.
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