Google says there's no Waze forward, carpool app axed

Google is shutting down its Waze carpooling service apparently due to poor demand from workers commuting into the office – although road traffic has bounced back to levels from the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.  Waze, which began as a navigation map service, was acquired by Google in 2013 for a reported $966 million. The biz …

[sarusa]

Oh phew

Don't scare me with the title like that! Waze is actually a useful app, and it's owned by Google, so of course I live in fear the whole thing could get axed any second.

The carpool bit of it I'll be happy to have no longer pop up whenever I accidentally swipe sideways.

[Snake]

Re: Oh phew

For me, Google generally = "No thank you"; no way I'm using Waze, deleted the app ages ago and haven't looked back.

[jmch]

Re: Oh phew

Can you recommend a good non-Google alternative?

[Efer Brick]

Re: Oh phew

https://www.sygic.com/ looks cook, need to pay for it though.

[Roj Blake]

Re: Oh phew

Magic Earth is passable, if you don't mind Stephen Hawking telling you where to go

[Updraft102]

Re: Oh phew

Here WeGo is good too. I've never used Google Maps, so I don't know how it compares, but it does the job, and if I am trying to go to a business, it usually finds it just by typing the name into the destination field (where Magic Earth seems to have a more limited, curated list).

[YetAnotherXyzzy]

Re: Oh phew

For route planning and navigation, I like OsmAnd. Works offline too.

For crowdsourced real time locations of police speed traps and stop-and-search sites, Waze seems to be the only game in town.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Oh phew

stop and search? WTF is that? Is that in the US? If so... WTF?

[YetAnotherXyzzy]

Re: Oh phew

This is in Latin America, where it is common. Police set up on the side of the road in a way that forces all vehicles to slow down through a chokepoint. If they think you look suspicious, or (more frequently) like someone who can be shaken down for some money, you get stopped. So folks here use Waze to report police presence.

[Trigonoceps occipitalis]

Re: Oh phew

Map Factor Navigator

(No affiliation etc.)

[Korev]

Re: Oh phew

For me, Google generally = "No thank you"; no way I'm using Waze, deleted the app ages ago and haven't looked back.

You meant "No thank you, no Waze I'm using that"?

[Ian Johnston]

Re: Oh phew

A colleague sang the praises of Waze to me so I installed it and gave it a go. It was without doubt the worst, least intuitive UI I have ever encountered. After an hour of fiddling with it, including a re-install in case something had gone wrong, I still hadn't found any way to enter a route, so I gave up.

By contrast, my TomTom satnav (one of the ones they said were end-of-life and therefore no longer eligible for map updates for life shortly before the GPS date rollover buggered some functionality) is so easy to use that I have never actually looked at the manual.

[Roland6]

Re: Oh phew

>I still hadn't found any way to enter a route, so I gave up.

It's not a route planner, you just enter your destination and Waze will give the option of a route or two.

As for the UI, yes it could be better, but that applies to many OS's and App's overly influenced by design school purists and their unthinking adherents...

[Ian Johnston]

Re: Oh phew

"I couldn't find any way to enter a destination" is what I meant. I'm on Android and my colleague is an iPhone user, so perhaps that's the difference.

[Roland6]

Re: Oh phew

n Android open Waze and in the middle of the first screen is a search box containing the text "Where to?", enter your destination, select a destination from the results list, this takes you to a map screen allowing you to confirm the location, if this is right touch the big blue button labelled "GO"...

Hence why I was thinking you were wanting a richer route setting interface - like you get in Google maps and other journey planning apps/websites.

[Updraft102]

Re: Oh phew

I bought a lifetime license on the TomTom app for an Android tablet I bought many years ago. I guess they expected me to die in less than three years, as the app was discontinued (along with all map updates). I still use it on that old tablet, old maps and all, but I can't put it on anything newer as it won't work on anything approaching current. Fortunately, the free offerings have gotten a lot better since then.

The replacement TomTom wanted to guide me into was, as you might expect, another subscription model SaaS thing where one pays by the year. They did "graciously" give me a year or so with the new app, which didn't work on my tablet.

[sarusa]

Re: Oh phew

Unfortunately there's no alternative to what Waze does (realtime user sourced reporting of where the police are parked for 'revenue enhancement', and new accidents) that actually works, so I just have to live with the Sword of Googlecles over my head.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Oh phew

It's only a flesh wound.

[4d3fect]

Could have put the last sentence first, you know.

[NeilPost]

As with all acquired things… Waze in it’s entirety will be on the chopping block eventually … subsumed by the Google Maps behemoth.

[4d3fect]

Which is fine.

For my purposes , th only the information I needed out of that article was its last sentence.

[Anonymous Coward]

rendezvous with Manson

I imagine the liability for hooking up strangers was an expensive risk.

[NightFox]

Re: rendezvous with Manson

Yeah, let's look at all the very serious safety-related issues Uber has faced, ignore them and go a step further by removing any controls whatsoever.

Or did I miss something?

[Steve Jackson]

But do you swipe left or right?

[Anonymous Coward]

Just restore speed limits in driving mode please

I waited 6 fucking years for that, it was introduced, and then silently removed.

Just fo the dim:

- This is the display of the speed limit at your current position. If you set a route, then speed limits are displayed, ut that's not what I want.

Luckily my cars inbuilt sat nav - clunky as it is - does just show current speedlimits.

[Gene Cash]

Re: Just restore speed limits in driving mode please

Google Maps itself is similarly retarded. Unless you're navigating to somewhere, it doesn't display speed limits.

Or speed. Which is a issue because my bikes have 3 differently screwed up speedometers and one that's spot-on.

So the bike with the worst speedometer (Energica) has THREE speed messages on the CANBUS. One from the front wheel, which is spot-on, and used by the odometer. One from the GPS, and one that's just 12% high, displayed on the dash. And yes, >10% is illegal, so I'm fighting with the dealer who says there's nothing can be done, and actually is too nice of a guy to just immediately sue. (yes, I know a nice motorcycle dealership is a non-existent unicorn)

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Just restore speed limits in driving mode please

I didn't know about the speed thing. Generally I'm happy to use my cars speedo. That 2mph over reading is a nice margin for when downhills try to pull you over 30,

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Just restore speed limits in driving mode please

The trouble is, I often finds it's wrong - and usually in favour of showing a higher limit than the correct one. It often shows a speed limit of 60 on UK roads where it's actually 40 or 50.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Just restore speed limits in driving mode please

Have you tried looking at the road signs instead of a fucking app?

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Just restore speed limits in driving mode please

Of course.

However in the UK, it's entirely possible to join a road and not see the speed limit sign (if it was there) that enforces a lower speed limit.

And even if you have a dashcam video of the journey you were taking that got you flashed, good luck with that in court.

Having been on a Speed Awareness Course. I was impressed by the instructors honesty that "shit happens" and people are prosecuted for speeding when there has been a failure of signage.

Sp - with the caveat that it's not a replacement for actively watching the road and clocking what the speed limit is, I'll still take that extra help of a stanav solution, thank you very much.

[Ian Johnston]

Re: Just restore speed limits in driving mode please

However in the UK, it's entirely possible to join a road and not see the speed limit sign (if it was there) that enforces a lower speed limit.

And in some places there are so many changes of speed limit that an attentive driver on a busy road can easily miss one. Between Taunton and Glastonbury, for example, over a distance of 30 miles there are (iirc) twenty six changes of speed limit.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Just restore speed limits in driving mode please

I realised long ago they are really just a dishonest way to reduce the speed limit on busy roads. After all, if the traffic in front has to do 30 because they are tailing cars that are in the 30 zone, then even if your bit of road is 70, you are still doing 30 my friend.

I've taken to staying at 30 all along such stretches now.

[David Hicklin]

Re: Just restore speed limits in driving mode please

I was impressed by the instructors honesty that "shit happens" and people are prosecuted for speeding when there has been a failure of signage.

Not quite my case of a failure of signage for my 2 courses, removing signs where it went from 30 - 40 for the last 30+ years caught me out both times, almost like muscle training, you have done it so long and automatically speed up.

[Roland6]

Re: Just restore speed limits in driving mode please

I've found th eomission of the end of speed restriction signs to be quite common.

This last year I had cause to regularly use the M1-M25-M3 after 9pm when the overnight roadworks were happening, frequently they omitted the end of roadworks/speed restriction signs, with the result the first speed sign I encountered after roadworks on the M3 was when I exited the M1...

[YetAnotherXyzzy]

Re: Just restore speed limits in driving mode please

OsmAnd can show the speed limit at your current position. And since it uses OpenStreetMap data, you can easily update missing or incorrect speed limits.

[John Brown (no body)]

Re: Just restore speed limits in driving mode please

"Luckily my cars inbuilt sat nav - clunky as it is - does just show current speedlimits."

Out of curiosity, how often are you somewhere where you don't know the current speed limit based on road type and signage and what country are you in? Personally, here in the UK, I find that pretty rare. In fact, if anything, there are times where my Garmin SatNav shows a + sign in the speed limit icon because for some reason *it* doesn't know the limit, even though by reading the road signs, *I* do know the limit.

[heyrick]

Google bought it...

Now a death by a thousand cuts.

[Anonymous Coward]

I was always a bit puzzled that they bought Waze and then had two separate apps (Google maps being the other one) doing largely the same thing without integrating the strengths of each.

The odd thing is that I never even knew it acquired the carpool feature. I guess a rare example of where they didn't force it down our throats *enough*.

[Anonymous Coward]

integrating the strengths of each

Or working to the lowest common denominator.

(See also "Just Eat" and their crippling of the Meal2Go platform which - nearly 10 years on - was still superior to the dogs breakfast they came up with).

[Swarthy]

That's because Google didn't buy Waze for its features or implementation, but rather for the crowd-sourced traffic/events notification. I have seen many things on GMaps "reported by Waze". I use Waze because it's UI is Way better than GMaps; but I intend to checkout Magic Earth and osmAnd, as recommended above.

Better than Google Maps doesn't exactly imply "good", just... less bad.

[Matthew "The Worst Writer on the Internet" Saroff]

Good

How do I get rid of the damn popups is literally the most common question on the support forums for Waze.

[Roland6]

Re: Good

>How do I get rid of the damn popups

Never see them, buts that's probably because I don't log in and thus use it in "Guest" mode...

[elitejedimaster]

I for one will be happy to see the carpool stuff removed. I hated how it forced its way onto my screen when I have absolutely no use for it.

[Anonymous Coward]

Magical mystery tour

Now with fewer “friends”…