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Waze Mysteriously Starts Speaking Metric, Americans Obviously Confused

Like the majority of navigation apps out there, Waze supports both metric and imperial systems for obvious reasons. The app has users both in the States and in Europe, so adapting to each market is something that can only improve the adoption in the long term.
Waze reports on the map 7 photos
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Waze on CarPlayWaze on CarPlayWaze on CarPlayWaze on CarPlayWaze on CarPlayWaze on CarPlay
Setting up Waze to use one of the two modes is all just a matter of clicks. The Google-owned company has added a dedicated option in this regard under Settings > Distance Units. If you want to use miles, just select it from this menu, and that’s pretty much it.

However, several users claim that Waze has mysteriously started speaking metric even when configured to use the imperial system.

It happens mostly with custom voice navigation and only when speaking the navigation guidance, as everything else on the screen is displayed correctly.

In other words, Waze only speaks metric, while the instructions on the display continue to use the imperial system for whatever reason.

Users who posted in this discussion thread on the Google forums claim they haven’t changed anything on their side, and Waze just started to speak metric all of a sudden earlier this week. It’s not clear how widespread the whole thing currently is, but this is obviously a bug that will probably be corrected sooner or later.

In the meantime, there’s not much you can do to convince Waze to use the imperial system in the United States. And of course, it’s not difficult to see how many Americans now find the voice navigation very confusing, especially given they’ve been using the imperial system in Waze since the very beginning.

For what it’s worth, everything appears to be working just fine in Google Maps, so maybe switching apps temporarily is something that could help reduce the confusion created by this glitch.

There’s no ETA as to when a fix could land, but for now, the good news is the whole thing is already under investigation at Waze.
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About the author: Bogdan Popa
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Bogdan keeps an eye on how technology is taking over the car world. His long-term goals are buying an 18-wheeler because he needs more space for his kid’s toys, and convincing Google and Apple that Android Auto and CarPlay deserve at least as much attention as their phones.
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