Waze is a free mobile navigation application that allows drivers to build and use live maps, real-time traffic updates and turn-by-turn navigation to improve their daily commute. Waze also has a social element that gives drivers the ability to actively update one other on traffic, police traps, construction, and speed cams (as Trapster does).
Crowdsourced maps have shortened the months-long update cycles of the map industry giants, and waze has taken this concept one step further, to an even faster rate of map building and updating. Waze empowers anyone to build maps within a game-like environment, passively, as they drive around with the company's free navigation app open on their smartphone.
While users drive, smart algorithms are used to analyze their GPS points and other driver-generated data, which is then converted into a grid of the roads, including turning and driving directions plus real-time traffic information. Users can also take an active role, filing traffic and hazard reports with a few easy clicks when not driving.
On November 24, 2009, Waze announced a version of its navigation app that includes fun gaming elements in addition to smart algorithms, so that waze maps all over the world are updated even quicker. The consumer application is available on the Apple AppStore and the Android Market Place and can be downloaded from the waze web site for Symbian and Windows Mobile devices.
The new version adds more capabilities to waze's already popular munching game that encourages users to validate road driving directions as they drive around. The game will now be upgraded to munch road goodies - cherries, hammers and small gift packages worth bonus points - that will be placed in areas where the waze system has identified map problems. The highest scoring road goodies will be placed in locations with the most severe map issues, and as users drive around to munch these goodies, waze's system will utilize the driver's GPS data to analyze and automatically solve the identified problems.