August 2021

Hello Editors!

It's time for the monthly Editors Newsletter!

Thank you for all your contributions and enjoy the FULL VERSION below :)

Waze Communities Team.

Meeting Neha Parikh, Waze's New CEO

A BIG thank you to our dear community members for joining the special office hours with Neha, Waze's new CEO. We're touched by your warm welcome to Neha, and for all your thought-provoking questions. It was wonderful to hear from her, and get a sense of what the future holds. Yes, we're as excited as you are about the future of Waze with our new CEO! In case you missed it, click here to watch the recording.

Roadshields Launch: Updates

We're super excited to announce that the much-awaited Roadshields feature has launched! It is now open to 95% of users worldwide on Android and gradually rolling out for iOS. The newly redesigned Roadshields appear now on the Waze map on mobile and in cars to all users worldwide. This would not have been possible without your mapping the correct shields, turn guidance and TTS override. The feature redesigned the whole instruction bar to better reflect reality, adding images for shields and exit signs instead of text and offering a better hierarchy of street names and directions. This will help users navigate smoothly and understand their next turn at a glance.

What's Up Next? As promised last time, expect the capability to add shields on alternate street names and not only primary streets; ability to increase the font size of the numbers in the shields automatically as per community feedback.

Waze Community-Powered Crisis Help

Thank you dear Waze Community for helping keep drivers safe in emergencies. We value the information you share with us about shelters and road closures during a crisis. In addition, during emergencies, we can also activate evacuation zones based on authoritative data, thus informing users that their destination is in an evacuation zone. In July, with your help and of our partners, we were able to add around 250 closures, 50 shelters, and multiple evacuation zones to the map. This helped nearly 3 Million Waze users affected by floods and wildfires in the US, Europe and Asia. Watch our very own Daliah Dombrowski's interview with the Black News Channel about how the Waze community helps people keep safe in emergency situations.

More Routing Information to Better Plan Your Drives

We’re excited to share that after a period of testing by our Beta Community, Wazers will start seeing a brand new trip preview screen. From now on, you will be able to see alternate routes, traffic conditions, and toll prices indication, prior to your drive in a visual way. Now you can view all options to understand Waze recommendations and choose the best route for you. This experience will reach everyone in the next couple of months so make sure you have the latest version of Waze and follow the release notes. Click here to read more.

Big thanks to our Beta Community for providing a lot of useful feedback throughout the testing period! Come join the Beta community so that you can test-drive Waze features too.

Faster Route Updates Now Available to All

We're very happy to share that Wazers will now get every reroute suggestion and ETA updates significantly faster! We worked on improving the mechanism to make sure that you are on the best route and receive fresh and accurate ETAs.

Even More Waze Updates

Check out the latest Waze updates:

  • We have revamped the Waze Map Editor header to align it with our brand identity. Hope you like the new look which brings you a consistent Waze experience no matter what platform you use - be it WME, Waze Forum, Wazeopedia, Partners Hub or other Waze entities. Follow the WME forum for the latest Map Editor news.

  • We've enabled dedicated settings for Red Light cameras along with speed cameras which now gives you the flexibility to choose whether you want to get the red light camera notifications or not, while still continuing to get the speed camera ones.

  • From now on, you will get a TTS notification when you leave an Average Speed Enforcement zone so that you know that you have exited the zone and can pick up your speed without having to look at the screen.

Meet a Top Contributor - José from Uruguay

José Carlos, AKA jcnina, started his Wazer journey with his Nokia N97 in 2011. A presentation by the Uruguayan Coordinator inspired him to take up map editing passionately, and he has been an active map editor since 2014. One of his first contributions to help fellow Wazers was to report road closures due to street races and later due to floods.

José, now a Global Champ and Beta Leader, is a very active member of his local community. He is happy to share his knowledge and experience with anyone who wants to learn more about map editing. His tip to new editors is, "be aware of all the changes and edit the live map accordingly to ensure the best routes".

José, we appreciate your contribution to help others. Thank you for all you do:)



Community support for new restrictions in Europe

Check out the what's happening in Europe:

  • A BIG thank you to the UK Waze Community for adding Clean Air Zones (CAZ ) to the Waze map in Birmingham and Bath. Users will now receive an alert if they are in the CAZ zone to help them avoid charges and ultimately reduce their carbon footprint by finding optimal routes. It will also enable users to indicate in-app whether their vehicle is CAZ compliant. Read about it here.

  • Another BIG shout out to our Belgian editors for adding a new permit for segment restriction in Belgium: BE:1150 Haut-Ixelles and Hoog Elsene. This will help Wazers get the best routes into or through this zone.


Find a McDonald's Near You, Thanks to the Brazilian Community!

A huge thank you to our Brazilian community for helping map the location of McDonald's stores in Brazil. Thanks to your incredible work to come together to add, edit or remove 500 McDonald’s locations in no time, drivers can now easily reach these locations without having to look out for a billboard — as Waze has already found it for you :)


Who's Famous? You're Famous!

We're delighted to see our dear Editors DrSlump34, Kpouer, Sebiseba from France make the news! Thank you for sharing your experience as map editors, and for highlighting the amazing contribution of the editors community - all done on a voluntary basis. Click here to read.

Don't miss out on how our dear Map Editor Juan Lopez plans his dream drives with Waze. Juan, we wish you many more fun drives with Waze! Read about it here.

Being Creative With Waze

When KellyUIO from Ecuador, who teaches graphic design, asked her students to prepare a video on Waze for their final assessment, they met the challenge! Check out one of the imaginative and fun videos. Thank you to all for your colorful Wazey videos, and KellyUIO for inspiring your students' creativity.

We want to hear from you :)

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