Users complain that Waze has lost its way as the app sends them the wrong way
Waze users have noticed that there has been a change in the navigation app since December. Typically, Waze users are given the fastest routes thanks to the crowdsourced information received from the Waze community that adds travel information that other navigation apps might not have access to. This allows Waze to suggest routes that are faster as it works the real-time traffic info from its members into the computerized directions generated by its routing engine.
Since December, some Waze users have noticed that the routes they are being told to take have been running longer than usual. Autoevolution's Bogdan Popa wrote that he takes the same route every day driving his kid to kindergarten, a three mile drive. All of a sudden, Waze suggested routes for this drive that were out of the ordinary. For example, Popa said that the app would at first tell him to drive in the opposite direction and then make a U-turn after a couple of miles. All this did was add two unnecessary miles to the length of the drive.
Waze pushed out an update in the middle of January and this seemed to fix the problem until now. Complaints are popping up on social media sites from drivers who are Waze users, like this one: "Waze used to be spot on, always. About 2 to 3 months ago, it seemed to lose its mind. Routing me miles and miles out of the way. I live in a sub that's a big circle with one "spoke" as the way out and it is literally telling me to drive the long way around to exit. Insane doesn't describe it. I've triple-checked all my settings and nothing strange there. Is it just me or is something up?"
"We just used Waze to map from South Lake Tahoe to Canyon Lake, CA. It routed us some very out of the way route around Lake Topaz and Mono Lake on the 95, avoiding the 395 near Mammoth. It added hours to our drive. We checked for closures on 395, there are none. If I mapped to Bishop it took me through the direct 395 route past Mammoth, so we decided to ignore the weird roundabout way and keep the map going. It continually told us to u-turn and take the long route until we were close to June Lake. Something is majorly wrong with this app. Never seen anything like this."-Cynthia Nadolny, Waze user
On Google's Waze support page, another user notes that after the last few updates, Waze has recommended longer and out-of-the-way routes. He writes, "Almost pointless routes. Not sure what changed but it is not good at all. Been using since day one so I can easily recognize this is an issue that needs to be fixed."
It seems that the mid-January algorithm update did not really help. Recent posts on Google's Waze support page from this month complained that the app sent them driving right into heavy traffic. One complaint came from someone driving from London to Manchester and the directions they were given had them drive right into "gridlock traffic." Another driver was sent into a traffic jam on a Fort Lauderdale, Florida highway where he was stuck for about 20 minutes. When he got home, he found out that there had been an accident in that spot three hours before. He wanted to know why Waze sent him that way when there were other alternatives available.
Waze has a large and loyal community. However, at the end of the day, that loyalty will disappear if the routing issue cannot be fixed.
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