25 October 2021

Secret Things You Can Do When Using Waze

Waze is one of the most popular navigation apps out there. It doesn’t get its roadside information from satellites, but instead by allowing its users/drivers to submit road data themselves. This gives the app a more personal touch that others don’t tend to have.

Set & Go: Are you going to be doing a certain taxi route regularly? Whether you’re doing a school drop-off, or have regular clients, “Set & Go” means you don’t have to enter your destination/route every time you need to set off. You just need to hit “Search” and select your route below.

Finding petrol and food: Needing to fill up on the job? You don’t need to search manually for local petrol stations, all you need to do is tap the bar at the bottom of the navigation screen and select the petrol icon. Once you do that, a list of all the local petrol stations will appear, as well as the prices for fuel at each station. When it comes to food, the same feature works when hitting the restaurant icon in the search bar.

Recording your own voice directions: Ever wondered what it’d sound like to hear you give yourself directions on the phone? It’s a rather bizarre fantasy, but Waze makes that possible! Waze allows you to record your own directions for future journeys, which will certainly make the next time you use satellite navigation a lot more enjoyable.

Listening to music: It’s really easy to listen to music whilst driving with Waze. All you have to do is select the music icon on the top right corner, and then select which music app you would like to listen to.

Planned drives: If a passenger has scheduled to drive with you, Waze’s “planned drive” feature will help ensure you get to the passenger on time. Waze will take into account potential hazards such as traffic jams, road closures and delays, and alert you about when you should leave.

Speedometer: Waze has a speedometer feature that will calculate how fast or slow you’re driving, as well as the speed limit on the road you’re currently driving on. It’ll send alerts if it detects you’ve gone over the speed limit, or are at risk of going over it. No more unexpected speeding tickets! However, speaking of speeding….

Speed camera and police detection: Waze will alert you of the presence of speed cameras in the area. You shouldn’t be speeding anyway since it’s illegal and extremely dangerous, but the alerts are still useful for letting you know where speed cameras may be hidden along the roads. Waze will also alert you if police have been reported to be in the area.

Taxi-specific routes: Waze should be noted for being the only app that gives the best routes specifically for taxi drivers (or at least as far as we’re aware). This will likely come in handy for drivers as most other mapping applications will only accommodate speed for the average cars, whilst taxi drivers have the advantage of being able to drive along most bus lanes to avoid traffic.

Avoiding difficult junctions: There’s numerous difficult junctions within the UK network, and they can often be a nightmare to drive through (looking at you, Switch Island junction!) This feature allows you to avoid such junctions. It may make for a longer journey, but you’ll much more likely make it there in one piece. Click here to view our list of the worst junctions in the country (link will be here).

Google Assistant integration: Considering Waze is owned by Google, we’d be surprised if Google Assistant integration were omitted. However, through this feature, drivers can access the features of Waze hands-free whilst driving.

 

(Image Credit: Waze Maps)