Waze Gets an Upgrade to Counter Google Maps | Lane Guidance and More

Urian B., Tech Times 05 August 2021, 02:08 am

Waze is getting an upgrade in order to counter the widely popular Google Maps. The platform is getting new lane guidance and more!

Waze Announces New Features

According to a story by TechRadar, Waze has just announced during their remote event that the new lane guidance assistance is coming to the app. The company also announced that there will be a plethora of some other features to help users get from home to work and vice versa in an easier fashion.

Navigation apps like Apple Maps and Google Maps reportedly make traveling from point A to point B much easier despite not really having any idea where the user is going. The article notes that gone are the days that drivers had to look back and forth at a printed roadmap.

Driver Assistance Features

When drivers, however, are driving in an unfamiliar city, there can still be issues when it comes to them getting around. These include certain things like knowing which lane the driver needs to be in order for them not to miss their turn or have to cut directly across traffic at the last minute.

Google Maps has long featured the lane guidance to help drivers get the correct lane withing the allotted time. Despite actually being owned by the exact same company, however, this was a feature that Waze was missing out on until just recently. A UK org even cautioned about Google Maps potentially leads users into a "possible fatal path."

WazeON with 500 Meter and 1KM Lane Guidance

Lane guidance is said to be something that Waze users have been repeatedly requesting for quite some time now, and finally, users are getting it. For those who update their app to the latest version either from the App Store or Google Play Store, there are very visible Google Maps-style lane indicators located at the top of the screen that show users where they would need to position themselves on the road.

At the WazeOn event that returned in September 2020, the Waze team reportedly announced that lane guidance was coming to both iPhones and Android phones. Lane Guidance will kick in immediately when drivers are within 500 meters from a certain turn in a city and a longer 1km on motorways. This would then give sufficient time for drivers to switch to the right lane.

New Waze Features

The company also announced a number of other features. These would include traffic notifications for when a certain build-up of traffic is occurring on the driver's current route. This comes along with route suggestions for the drivers' most common journeys.

An article by The Verge notes that Waze users can even choose to use the voice of Master Chief from "Halo" to help guide them. There are, of course, other Google Maps alternatives that drivers can use.

This article is owned by Tech Times

Written by Urian B.