A Cautionary Tale for Waze Users

[G37X Jockey]

Driving home today from a roadtrip west of Hope B.C. and noticed a police icon on my Waze app. I was following 2 rabbits at a good clip, and sure enough got hit, or picked up scatter, from a PL3. A second later Waze gave the audio warning "police reported ahead". If Waze had been backgrounded it wouldn't have been any help at all. Keep an eye on your phones and don't run Waze in the background my friends.

Posted from my SM-A520W using the RDF Mobile App!

 

[Choose Life]

Driving home today from a roadtrip west of Hope B.C. and noticed a police icon on my Waze app. I was following 2 rabbits at a good clip, and sure enough got hit, or picked up scatter, from a PL3. A second later Waze gave the audio warning "police reported ahead". If Waze had been backgrounded it wouldn't have been any help at all. Keep an eye on your phones and don't run Waze in the background my friends.

Posted from my SM-A520W using the RDF Mobile App!

Change your phone
Galaxy S9 reports police reported ahead when backrounded but open and cursor following
Just open every few miles and hit gps center
My phone is in my hand so its not been a problem
Or if running old Waze software
Some functions may work intermittently
And depending how the pin is positioned it may alert police or stay silent

 

[G37X Jockey]

Change your phone
Galaxy S9 reports police reported ahead when backrounded but open and cursor following
Just open every few miles and hit gps center
My phone is in my hand so its not been a problem
Or if running old Waze software
Some functions may work intermittently
And depending how the pin is positioned it may alert police or stay silent

The issue is that the audio warning on the current Waze version can occur within laser targeting range, which makes it useless as a countermeasure in background mode. The Waze screen needs to be visible so that the police icon can be seen since it's on-screen long before the audio alert sounds. If I hadn't seen the police icon approaching my position the audio warning alone would've been too late. Fortunately my ALP'S did their job.

Posted from my SM-A520W using the RDF Mobile App!

 

[InsipidMonkey]

There was a user here who paid to have a custom version of Waze made where you could adjust the alert distance: www.rdforum.org: custom Waze for iOS -- increased alert distances
I believe it is iOS only, however.
If you have an Android, you could always run JBV1 with a V1
In addition to fully customized crowd-sourced alerts, it will now warn you of VASCAR flights in the area (in addition to all of the V1 features).

 

[thebravo]

I always keep it on screen, if I need other screens up front then I grab a second device I always spot pins before I get the alerts and it's important to look at the screen, cause sometimes police around here will drop a vehicle stopped on shoulder or other generic hazard pin just before the spot they setup the trap at so Waze will announce the first pin (hazard pin) but all the folks that drop police pins drop them after the position of the hazard pin and therefor motorists coming along later will not get a voice notification or top banner alert for police, only the hazard. 0.5 miles is not nearly enough alert range for radar or lidar avoidance.

 

[erickonphoenix]

I'll give a hearty second to keeping the Waze screen up and checking it often. Another reason I also run routes on Waze on my daily commute. Yes it's a little annoying getting the audio directions but it's worth being able to tap the route and get a profile of hazards, traffic and police pinned on your route.

 

[meismyname]

I'll give a hearty second to keeping the Waze screen up and checking it often. Another reason I also run routes on Waze on my daily commute. Yes it's a little annoying getting the audio directions but it's worth being able to tap the route and get a profile of hazards, traffic and police pinned on your route.

You can just run waze in alerts only mode so you don't have to hear the directions. That's what I always do, even if I'm going somewhere new.

 

[erickonphoenix]

You can just run waze in alerts only mode so you don't have to hear the directions. That's what I always do, even if I'm going somewhere new.

Alerts only won't forecast upcoming conditions though. Especially in Houston where a traffic accident can bring traffic to a complete stop in minutes. I had an insane traffic save once on I-10 with it. I was able to detect the solid red on Waze and divert to the service road just in time. An 18 wheeler stuck a bridge and a crane truck stopped traffic on the freeway to pull it out. I just sailed on by a quarter mile of stopped cars on the service road.

 

[XDA]

I was a CBer back in the 70's. We could report mobile Bears. You could give direction of travel and mile marker, that report was good for everybody that could hear it. As the Bear moved, so would the reports, but your fellow CBers all knew the Bear was mobile.

Waze hasn't figured out a way to report mobile traffic cops. Unless I missed it.

 

[erickonphoenix]

I was a CBer back in the 70's. We could report mobile Bears. You could give direction of travel and mile marker, that report was good for everybody that could hear it. As the Bear moved, so would the reports, but your fellow CBers all knew the Bear was mobile.

Waze hasn't figured out a way to report mobile traffic cops. Unless I missed it.

nah that's it's achilles heel right now. To tag a mobile cop it would probably need direction indicators so it would be difficult to pin.

 

[meismyname]

Alerts only won't forecast upcoming conditions though. Especially in Houston where a traffic accident can bring traffic to a complete stop in minutes. I had an insane traffic save once on I-10 with it. I was able to detect the solid red on Waze and divert to the service road just in time. An 18 wheeler stuck a bridge and a crane truck stopped traffic on the freeway to pull it out. I just sailed on by a quarter mile of stopped cars on the service road.

It will, but you have to keep an eye on it. It's basically just visual directions only with no audio. I find it a lot more peaceful.

 

[erickonphoenix]

It will, but you have to keep an eye on it. It's basically just visual directions only with no audio. I find it a lot more peaceful.

How do you set that up? I don't see any "off' position in the voice over settings?

 

[Kimberdan]

I have a note8 and run waze one side of the split screen and my maps on the other and leave my V1 Driver in the back ground..
I never run waze in the back ground for just this reason... i have also used the task manager to change my alert distance to 1.8..

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

 

[meismyname]

How do you set that up? I don't see any "off' position in the voice over settings?

Start a route in Waze, and then press the center section of the bottom panel. In the upper right of the window that pops up, you should see an icon with a speaker. Press that, and you should have the choice of on, alerts only, or off. Alerts only is what I use.

 

[TurboDriver]

I run a 3.9.9 version of Waze on all my devices. It still has the police man face with hat when zoomed out instead of just a hard to see blue dot.

Also when zooming out never zoom out past where your arrow (or what ever you use for car) to where it turns into a dot (when moving, it's usually always a dot when stopped) because many alerts will be hidden and not show on screen.

I never rely on alerts, I zoom out a ways and watch for the police symbol.

Posted from my moto x4 using the RDF Mobile App!

 

[erickonphoenix]

Start a route in Waze, and then press the center section of the bottom panel. In the upper right of the window that pops up, you should see an icon with a speaker. Press that, and you should have the choice of on, alerts only, or off. Alerts only is what I use.

Ah ok. I'm pretty good at checking it visually though.

 

[G37X Jockey]

I have a note8 and run waze one side of the split screen and my maps on the other and leave my V1 Driver in the back ground..
I never run waze in the back ground for just this reason... i have also used the task manager to change my alert distance to 1.8..

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

Interesting. Is the task manager a system app or a downloadable app? I didn't know the current version of Waze could be modified like the older versions.

Posted from my SM-A520W using the RDF Mobile App!

 

[Kimberdan]

Interesting. Is the task manager a system app or a downloadable app? I didn't know the current version of Waze could be modified like the older versions.

Posted from my SM-A520W using the RDF Mobile App!

No no...it has to be an older version..i think i have the second version they put out....
You can get the apk file, uninstall waze and reinstall the older version. Down load task manager from google play store and then change what you need to... That is if you want a longer time for notifications.
If you just talking about the split screen thats in the phone itself from samsung.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

 

[DominatingDrew]

I always run Waze in the foreground with a ~$10 mount on my dash board that works great.

It's useful to click on the police icon to see how long ago they were reported. 3 Minutes ago = take very seriously. 30 minutes ago = probably gone, just don't do anything excessive.

Sometimes you get lucky and can tell that there's a Waze user a mile ahead of you with a bunch of new reports popping up. It's like a digital rabbit.

 

[G37X Jockey]

No no...it has to be an older version..i think i have the second version they put out....
You can get the apk file, uninstall waze and reinstall the older version. Down load task manager from google play store and then change what you need to... That is if you want a longer time for notifications.
If you just talking about the split screen thats in the phone itself from samsung.

Sent from my SM-N950U using Tapatalk

Thanks, that's what I thought.