Waze Beacons: the World’s first Scalable, Affordable Solution to Power Navigation in Tunnels

You’re driving in your car, following instructions from your favorite navigation tool, and you head into a tunnel. Without a moment’s notice, you lose GPS signal, and you’ve missed the exit. And as a result, maybe even your flight or appointment. Sigh.

This happens all the time (unfortunately), as you lose GPS satellite signal within underground tunnels, thanks to concrete and environmental factors. Not only are we robbed of our ability to route or find the right underground exit, we’re left without guidance on traffic or oncoming hazards, leaving drivers effectively “blind.”

For Waze Engineer Gil Disatnik, aka the “Waze Mole,” it all started back in the Summer 2014. He got lost while driving from Logan Airport to downtown Boston, Massachusetts, after losing the GPS signal in the city’s main tunnel. But lucky for us, he saw this as an opportunity. With a pre-existing passion for radio and microcontrollers, Gil started tinkering obsessively over how to tackle this challenge and took it on as a side project...on top of his full-time role at Waze.

Gil and his team have since developed the Waze Beacon program: the first scalable, affordable solution in the world to power navigation in tunnels. Installed on tunnel walls, Waze Beacons are cost-effective, battery operated, low-energy “microcontrollers” that have Waze-specific configurations – powered by Eddystone – to transmit messages directly to a smartphone or tablet via Bluetooth, empowering Waze or other navigation providers to offer real-time routes and alerts.

Waze worked with Bluvision to create custom beacon hardware designed to suit moving vehicles and solve historic, tunnel-specific location challenges. This makes Waze the first navigation app to accurately route drivers, in real time, as they navigate through tunnels where Waze Beacons are installed.

How does it work? All the driver needs to do is simply turn on smartphone Bluetooth functionality within Waze Beacons-supported tunnels...and voila, never miss an in-tunnel exit again!

This also means:

• Fewer collisions caused by last-minute lane changes 
• More accurate estimated times of arrival (ETAs) 
• Live updates on traffic 
• A heads up on incidents or accidents from within the tunnel 

In other words, an end to tunnel-blindness!

In an effort to yield safer roads for all drivers, the program is open to Waze Connected Citizens Program municipal partners, other municipalities and private tollway and road organizations. Other navigation services can also use the program technology free of charge, empowering driver tunnel navigation with the same Bluetooth support.

The Waze Beacons Program has four pilot partners including three Waze Connected Citizens municipal partners: PennDOT (Pittsburgh, PA); Sanef (Paris); and Rio de Janeiro COR with partner CET-Rio. The fourth partner is Carmelton (Haifa, Israel). If your organization is interested in joining the program, learn more about how to apply here.

Waze Beacons are currently available in select tunnels throughout Pittsburgh and Haifa, Israel - soon Paris and Rio de Janeiro.

Waze Index Reveals Where in the World are the Best and Worst Places to be a Driver

Where in the world is the best place to be a driver? And where is it...less enjoyable to be behind the wheel?

Today, Waze releases its second annual Driver Satisfaction Index, which analyzes the driving experience of millions of monthly active Waze users in 38 countries and 235 metros to create a single numeric score, from satisfying (10) to miserable (1). While Waze has more than 65 million monthly active users globally in 185 countries, the study focuses on countries and metros with more than 20,000+ monthly active users to ensure data accuracy and fair market comparisons.

Rather than focusing only on a single measurable factor, the Waze Driver Satisfaction Index takes into account six attributes – both qualitative and quantitative – to give you an unbeatable look at what it’s like to drive in a variety of cities and countries around the world.

Key driving factors:

1. Traffic – Density and severity 
2. Quality – Road quality and infrastructure 
3. Road Safety – Density of accidents, road hazards and weather 
4. Driver Services – Access to gas stations and easy parking 
5. Socio Economic – Access to cars and impact of gas prices 
6. Wazeyness - Happiness and helpfulness of the Waze community (as measured by reports “thanked” by other drivers and driver moods selected within the app) 

Now for the big reveal: who are our country victors? For the second consecutive year, the most satisfying place in the world to drive is the Netherlands, thanks to its smooth traffic conditions and solid road quality and infrastructure. Rounding out the top five are France, the United States, the Czech Republic, and Sweden.

And where is it tough to be a driver? El Salvador, the Philippines, Guatemala, Panama, and Indonesia are the least satisfying places to drive globally, largely due to intense traffic and low Wazeyness and socio-economic factors.

As for rankings by metro, France dominated with Valence taking the #1 spot for most satisfying driving experience, due to good-quality roads, low gas prices and traffic, and a helpful Waze community...Nine other French metros also snagged spots in the top ten while last year’s winner, Greensboro, NC, USA, fell to 5th this year.

On the other end of the spectrum, Cebu, Philippines, ranked as least satisfying, or the worst place in the world to be a driver. Following Cebu are Bogor, Indonesia; San Salvador, El Salvador; Denpasa, Indonesia; and Bandung, Indonesia.

For the second year in a row, Greensboro, NC topped the list as the most satisfying drive in the US (#5 globally) and Honolulu, HI was found to have the least satisfying drive in the States (#152 globally).

Want more? Explore the world rankings on our interactive map at waze.com/driverindex and click on different circles to see how countries and metros rank on the global index.

You can download our full data report here.

3 Ways to Win Back-to-School (and Work) Season

It’s back-to-school time, which for many of us means last-minute errands for supplies, after-school activities, and early AM and late PM school pickups. For others, it’s all about getting back into the swing of work as summer draws to a close. Whether you’re getting used to a new school or office route or the same one as last spring, Waze has you covered with three must-have features to get you back in the commuting game and start the school year safe and stress-free.

Speed Limit 
Running late for 1st period? Soccer practice? An early breakfast meeting? The Speed Limit feature helps you avoid tickets and drive safer by letting you know when you’re going over the legal limit. It’s especially helpful during the back-to-school months when some speed limits on school routes change to keep kids safe. No need to be caught off-guard!

Q: How do you enable the Speed Limits Feature?
A: Menu  > Settings  > Speedometer. Toggle ON and adjust speed limit settings and alerts to your preference. A visual alert will appear right on the Waze speedometer.

Planned Drives 
Thanks to Planned Drives, no more stressing about when to leave the house. Simply enter the time and date you need to arrive and Waze will recommend the best time to head out the door. Get ready to be on time to every homeroom, football practice, and important appointment across town…

No matter whether you’re planning for today or later in the week, Planned Drives sends you a reminder close to the event with an updated departure time based on real-time road conditions. Who needs unexpected construction getting in the way of after-school fun? Set it and forget it.

Q: How do you schedule a Planned Drive?
A: Go to Menu  then enter your destination in the search bar. On the Waze ETA panel, click the Waze Planned Drives icon (on the bottom left) and you’re set!

The Planned Drives screen opens and illustrates peak traffic hours along your future route, taking into account expected traffic conditions based on smart algorithms, aggregated traffic history, and predictive analysis.

For extra-credit points: grant Waze access to your Calendar and/or Facebook and your school appointments and Facebook Events will automatically become Planned Drives.

Hands-Free
A car full of kids can be distracting enough. Use Waze’s hands-free, voice-controlled settings to keep your hands on the wheel and your eyes on the carpool line. Hands-Free even allows you to *vocally* report any incidents that pop up along the way so you can continue to help other drivers.

Q: How do you enable Hands-Free?
A: Menu  > Settings  > Voice commands > Toggle on “Enable” (and customize how you’d like activate) How else are you gearing up for #BackToSchool? Share your best back-in-the-grind driving tips with us on Twitter and Facebook!

The Roads of Rio: Waze Findings from Week Three

We’re wrapping up our “Roads of Rio” report with findings and stats from Week 3. A big thanks to our dedicated Waze community for all of their local insights throughout the Games (which we paired with data gleaned from weekly app usage).

From Sunday, August 14th – Saturday, August 20th, here’s what we learned:

• Busiest Day: Wednesday – August 17th saw 7 wrestling event finals, all held consecutively in late morning.
• Busiest Hour: 6:00 PM – As we saw in Week 1, we can attribute this to typical evening commute timing.
• Alerts – Traffic jams, hazards, and accident alerts all decreased in the final week.
• Local Editor Insights - As the Games came to a close, the number of edits made to the Waze map stayed consistent with Week 2, largely focused on road closures.

*Alerts are not absolute - Wazers can report the same incident**Waze is not an official sponsor or in any way affiliated with the Olympic Games; this site is intended to share local traffic insights as normally found within the Waze app.

The Roads of Rio: Week Two Waze Insights

Curious to see how road activity changed from Week 1 to Week 2 in Rio? Waze analyzed its weekly app usage, along with local details from the Waze Map Editor Community – a group of active volunteers who keep Waze maps up-to-date and accurate in Rio – to see how behaviors changed week to week.

During Week 2 (Sunday, August 7th – Saturday, August 13th), here's what we found:

• All Alerts* Increased – Traffic jam, hazard, and accident alerts all increased this week. 
• Busiest Hour: 7:00PM – We can infer that evening commutes, in addition to the later start time of events, caused the change from Week 1 (during which 6:00PM was the busiest hour). 
• Busiest Day: Saturday – Nearly a dozen event finals took place on August 13th, including swimming, tennis, and rowing.
• Local Editor Insights – The number of edits to the map decreased by nearly 50% from Week 1. According to the local community, Rio was more stable during Week 2, and their work was comprised of normal maintenance of closures and answering user update requests.

Check back soon to see what changes in Week 3!
*Alerts are not absolute - Wazers can report the same incident
**Waze is not an official sponsor or in any way affiliated with the Olympic Games; this site is intended to share local traffic insights as normally found within the Waze app.

Waze Announces Global Event Partner Program

Courtesy of Ryan Bethke / Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon Series

Calling all stadium, marathon, and event organizers! Today we’re thrilled to introduce the Waze Global Event Partner Program which will help partners outsmart event-related traffic and better communicate road information with attendees and the broader community.

With more than 50 million monthly active Wazers globally – and more than 4,000 events successfully supported to date – Waze will provide partners with custom access to its traffic management technology and communications channels in exchange for partners’ advanced and real-time road closure and traffic information.

Who’s on board?

We’re kicking the program off with 20 inaugural partners spanning North America, Latin America, Eastern Europe, and Asia, including:

• E15 and its five professional sports team partners: Atlanta Falcons (Georgia Dome), Washington Redskins (FedEx Field), Detroit Lions (Ford Field), Washington Nationals (Nationals Park), and Atlanta Hawks (Phillips Arena).
• Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon Series’ 30 global events, including New York, Montreal, Mexico City, and Madrid.

Example of Rock ‘n’ Roll Marathon Series’ Phoenix in-app communications

Everyone Benefits

Waze believes communities can outsmart traffic together. More than 65 million monthly active Wazers worldwide provide critical insights about real-time conditions through the app, and we believe that we should give back to this community of drivers whenever we can.

By making the program free, we’ve removed cost as a barrier for participating and are providing partners of all size and scale with our comprehensive knowledge and tools to improve their overall event experience.

A few additional reasons why this program a big win for partners, attendees, and the entire Waze community:

• For Partners - The Program can help extend your great experiences to include the roads and parking lots surrounding your events! Together with Waze, you can optimize traffic flow to get attendees into venues or to events more quickly, yielding happier fans and potentially greater revenue from concessions, meet-and-greets, souvenirs, and more.
• For Attendees - Alleviate the frustration of navigating around marathon closures or getting stuck in game-day traffic. Plus, you’ll get better communication of road closures, changes, and traffic delays in real-time from partners!
• For Wazers - Knowing partners’ road closure and traffic information helps our map and routes improve, helping you better navigate real-time conditions.

Want to see if any events are coming up in your area? Visit www.waze.com/events. To learn more and become a partner, visit www.waze.com/eventpartners.

The Roads of Rio: Weekly Waze Insights, Including Opening Ceremonies Traffic!

Did you know Brazil is one of the oldest, largest, and most vibrant Waze communities in the world? In Rio de Janeiro alone, there are more than 800,000 monthly active Wazers who drive nearly 133 million kilometers each month!

For the next four weeks, Waze will provide helpful insights about what's happening on the roads of Rio. To do so, Waze will analyze weekly app usage plus local details from the Waze Map Editor Community, a group of active volunteers who keep Waze maps up-to-date and accurate in Rio.

This week (Sunday, July 31st to Saturday, August 6th), here's what we found:

• Local Insights - Last week, the Waze Community made nearly 30,000 edits to the Waze map. This included opening and closing roads and adding local places. The biggest edit of the week was adding all Olympic-themed houses to the Waze map.
• Busiest Hour: 6:00PM - Most events begin in the evening, and we assume Wazers are either heading to an event or rushing to get home at this time.
• Busiest Day: Wednesday - Waze thought Opening Ceremonies on Friday, August 5th would drive the most activity. However, we can infer the arrival of the Olympic Torch and local protests drove Wednesday's increase in app activity.

Because Waze thought the Opening Ceremonies would drive the most usage, we wanted to dive deeper. To make this happen, Waze teamed up with CARTO, an industry-leading location intelligence technology for analysis and prediction. This allowed Waze to visualize Wazer-generated traffic jam, hazard, and accident alerts 10 kilometers around Maracanã Stadium – the Opening Ceremonies venue – from 12AM Friday to 3AM Saturday. Here are a few things we learned:

• Higienópolis Had Heavy-Alert Activity All Day: From 8AM-9PM, Higienópolis was saturated with traffic jam alerts. Accident and hazard alerts popped up throughout this timeframe, usually correlating with the times jams increased.
• 4PM-8:30PM Showed Highest Activity Across Region: The Opening Ceremonies started 8PM, and Waze traffic jam alerts were at their highest from 4PM-8:30PM. During this time, the area surrounding Maracanã Stadium (Praça da Bandeira, Rio Comprido, and between Maracanã and Tijuca) sees its highest activity all day, likely as attendees head to the stadium and non-participant locals work to avoid event traffic.
• Spike in Alerts at Midnight: Traffic jam alerts started to spike at midnight around Maracanã Stadium – when the Opening Ceremonies ended – and spread throughout the next hour to other regions as traffic moved away from the stadium.

To see activity in real-time, be sure to visit www.waze.com/rio and explore real-time conditions at six critical intersections around the games. Also, be sure to come back next week to see what “The Roads of Rio” look like during week two!

**Waze is not an official sponsor or in any way affiliated with the Olympic Games; this site is intended to share local traffic insights as normally found within the Waze app.