Photo: Bogdan Popa/autoevolution
Waze and Google Maps dominate the Android Auto navigation space, though alternatives like Sygic and TomTom rapidly gain traction on Google's playground.
Despite looking similar, Waze and Google Maps have different purposes, as the first is primarily aimed at fighting traffic and finding alternate routes. The latter offers a more straightforward navigation experience, sometimes borrowing data from Waze while providing users with additional features like offline maps.
Waze has several extras on Android Auto, including a Drive Now menu that fires up automatically when the app launches.
The idea that powers this feature is as simple as it could be. Drive Now displays the latest and most common destinations, allowing users to quickly select a new address to navigate.
The feature isn't everybody's cup of tea, with a long thread on Waze's forums calling for the Google-owned company to remove Drive Now for a simple reason: it exposes the most recent destinations, letting others see home addresses.
The request makes sense, especially for Uber drivers who don't want others to see this information. Furthermore, someone says they just want to navigate with Waze on the screen, but once the application loads on Android Auto, closing the Drive Now menu is a major pain in the neck because their vehicle uses a knob for infotainment.
Others explain that the menu blocks a significant part of the screen, so they can't see the map when launching the app. Closing the dialog every time they launch Waze is frustrating for some, so an option to disable it from automatically loading is the best way to go.
The Google-owned company has ignored this feedback so far, and I believe it wouldn't do anything about it anyway. The Drive Now feature is an essential part of the Waze experience, and most people enjoy having their common destinations at a one-tap distance.
Giving users more control is often the correct approach, but Waze decided to enforce the Drive Now interface on everybody running the app on Android Auto.
Waze collects traffic data even when the application runs on the screen without navigation enabled. The parent company explains this is the easiest way for users to help improve the navigation engine. Waze can retrieve road information and estimate traffic conditions based purely on how you drive across a region.
As a result, enforcing the Drive Now option on Android Auto doesn't make much sense, though it makes setting up navigation more straightforward for those who typically use Waze for turn-by-turn guidance. Time will tell if the parent company decides to introduce an option to let users turn off the Drive Now menu, but for now, it's clear that such an idea isn't even on the table. The only workaround is to remove all locations, turning this entire menu into a useless Waze feature.
Waze has several extras on Android Auto, including a Drive Now menu that fires up automatically when the app launches.
The idea that powers this feature is as simple as it could be. Drive Now displays the latest and most common destinations, allowing users to quickly select a new address to navigate.
The feature isn't everybody's cup of tea, with a long thread on Waze's forums calling for the Google-owned company to remove Drive Now for a simple reason: it exposes the most recent destinations, letting others see home addresses.
The request makes sense, especially for Uber drivers who don't want others to see this information. Furthermore, someone says they just want to navigate with Waze on the screen, but once the application loads on Android Auto, closing the Drive Now menu is a major pain in the neck because their vehicle uses a knob for infotainment.
Others explain that the menu blocks a significant part of the screen, so they can't see the map when launching the app. Closing the dialog every time they launch Waze is frustrating for some, so an option to disable it from automatically loading is the best way to go.
The Google-owned company has ignored this feedback so far, and I believe it wouldn't do anything about it anyway. The Drive Now feature is an essential part of the Waze experience, and most people enjoy having their common destinations at a one-tap distance.
Giving users more control is often the correct approach, but Waze decided to enforce the Drive Now interface on everybody running the app on Android Auto.
Waze collects traffic data even when the application runs on the screen without navigation enabled. The parent company explains this is the easiest way for users to help improve the navigation engine. Waze can retrieve road information and estimate traffic conditions based purely on how you drive across a region.
As a result, enforcing the Drive Now option on Android Auto doesn't make much sense, though it makes setting up navigation more straightforward for those who typically use Waze for turn-by-turn guidance. Time will tell if the parent company decides to introduce an option to let users turn off the Drive Now menu, but for now, it's clear that such an idea isn't even on the table. The only workaround is to remove all locations, turning this entire menu into a useless Waze feature.
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