There’s only one problem with that model: Roads less-traveled end up with inaccurate data. That’s why Waze offers a points-based approach, rewarding drivers who log a lot of miles or who venture onto rarely driven roadways with status and sometimes real-life gifts.

The drivers with the most points get preference in Waze’s algorithm. “Everyone can edit a road they’ve driven on but the more points you have and the more you have contributed to the community, the more  rights you have over editing within your town,” said Waze’s Melissa Marie.

Wazers can even communicate with each other — ideal for group road trips or fleets of vehicles, so long as they do their communicating while parked.

The resulting app looks a lot like a real-world Pac-Man that entices drivers to take the long way home and grab point-enhancing virtual fruits and candies along the way.

We tried out Waze on a trip around the Boston area and found it quite useful as a phone-based GPS even though there were few other Wazers sharing the roadways with us. ETAs changed accurately, based on travel speeds reported by Wazers up ahead and an alert even popped up about a speed trap up ahead.

There were a few quirks: We pulled off the highway and stopped at a Trader Joe’s to grab a loaf of bread, leaving the phone on and the Waze app open. Upon returning to the car, we found that Waze had sensed that the car was not moving and issued an alert that traffic was at a standstill in the immediate vicinity of the Trader Joe’s. Luckily, we were able to flag the report as irrelevant.

Then, there’s the problem that plagues all crowdsourced nav apps that require some driver input to report an accident or traffic jam: The driver’s attention is called away from driving and to a tiny cellphone screen.

Marie says that the primary time when users are entering data is while stopped — stuck in traffic, for example — but we certainly wouldn’t want to be driving a brand new R8 in front of anyone using his or her phone in bumper-to-bumper traffic. Plus, we’d have to use our phone to report an accident to other Wazers.

We’re hoping Waze teams up with an automaker in order to have a more seamless user interface, perhaps one that even includes voice commands. According to Marie, that’s a possibility. “We are very excited about the new strategies of OEMs including app stores and integration of real-time data,” she said, adding that the company hopes to “play an important role in the evolution of this sector.”

Image: Waze

Authors: Keith Barry

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