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Waze Police Alerts Broken Down for Some, Inconsistency Defeating the Purpose

One of the things that have always made Waze much more advanced than its competition is the community-based reporting system.
Police report on Waze 7 photos
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Waze on CarPlayWaze on CarPlayWaze on CarPlayWaze on CarPlayWaze on CarPlayWaze on CarPlay
This means users running the app can report things they see on the road, such as speed traps, accidents, and traffic jams, therefore helping others know what to expect in advance.

In the last few weeks, however, some drivers relying on Waze for navigation have spotted continuously increasing inconsistency, especially in terms of police reports and speed traps. A discussion on the Waze forums includes more information about the whole thing, with users explaining they’re no longer getting any alert when approaching the location where a speed trap has previously been reported.

I’ve also experienced something similar in Waze on CarPlay, though in my case, the whole thing only happened sporadically, so I’m not sure it’s something the Google-owned company has to fix.

More specifically, the police trap shows up on the Waze map as I approach the location where the report has been sent. However, Waze fails to send a speed trap warning, so in theory, unless I keep an eye on the screen to notice the police icon, there’s no way to know there’s a police car ahead.

Users in the linked discussion thread claim they sometimes get the warnings and sometimes they don’t, and this inconsistency is obviously defeating the purpose of the app in the first place.

At this point, it’s not exactly clear what’s happening, but the good news is that this doesn’t seem to be a widespread problem hitting everybody out there. And more importantly, it doesn’t seem to happen every time Waze is running, though as I said, this inconsistency makes it harder and harder to rely on the app for such warnings, given you don’t always know when the problem happens.

As usual, just make sure you’re running the latest Waze version, as additional polishing on this front could be included in the coming updates.
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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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