Waze Won't Add a Critical Feature, Google Maps Can't Fill the Gap

This system gives drivers more time to react accordingly – in the case of an accident, they can slow down in advance, reducing the chances of heavy braking just ahead of the collision.

The speed traps have long been a key Waze feature, as app users rely on reports to know the location of radars on their route. Users can flag visible, hidden, and other side of the road speed traps. Most recently, the "other side" option went missing on some devices, with users believing this is a sign that Waze wants to simplify the report by keeping just the visible and hidden settings.

The Google-owned company has remained tight-lipped on its plans for the "other side" option, but now we know for sure that it doesn't plan to enhance the speed trap reporting with flags for radars in motion.

A feature request with over 1,800 votes calls for Waze to add support for reporting police radars in motion, eventually allowing the application to determine a complete road sector where they are more likely to encounter a speed trap. In the current version, Waze allows users to report a stationary radar. If you see multiple police reports on the same road sector, it typically means it's likely a moving speed trap that moves up and down in a defined region.

Marking a radar as "in motion" makes perfect sense for an application whose engine relies on accurate traffic reports. Still, Waze has no interest in improving speed traps in this direction. The company has recently revealed that such an update is not planned as it "doesn't fit on our roadmap."

Unfortunately, Waze not adding this option for speed traps leaves users with no alternative. Several applications have already added incident reporting, including Apple in Apple Maps, but none serve as a complete replacement for Waze.

Google Maps can't fill the gap either, as the application only supports limited incident reporting, sometimes borrowing traffic data from Waze. Google Maps focuses on navigation, so incident reports remain Waze's thing.

In the meantime, Waze has several other improvements to focus on, including the Coolwalk integration on Android Auto. The current version feels very slow, sometimes making the switch from the Coolwalk view to the full-screen mode extremely laggy. Waze also encounters other problems on Android Auto, including blank maps and GPS issues, so reliability improvements should become a focus in the short term.

The most popular Waze alternatives right now are Google Maps, Apple Maps, Coyote, and the navigation apps from Sygic, TomTom, and HERE, all of which include incident reporting.