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When you are driving on a road with a history of crashes, would you like to be alerted to that information?
Waze, the crowd-sourced navigation app, is reportedly testing a feature that alerts drivers to dangerous roads. This free app has brought us features such as traffic avoidance suggestions, speed camera detection, fun themes, and other helpful tools.
Now, Waze is testing a new feature that may help make our journeys safer.
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Waze’s New Red Roads Feature
Waze is utilizing its database of user-reported crashes in a new feature that helps warn drivers when their trip includes a dangerous road. With this new feature, you can be alerted if your journey includes roads with a history of crashes.
According to Geektime, Waze is testing a feature that alerts drivers to dangerous roads along their trip. Geektime has learned from beta testers how this new feature works to alert drivers of roads with a history of crashes.
With this new dangerous roads feature, Waze will highlight in red the roads along your trip that have a history of user-reported crashes. Waze will also notify drivers of a dangerous road along their trip with an alert about “a history of crashes for X miles/kilometers” along the route. See, Geektime, First Look at Waze’s new red roads feature
When you see a road highlighted in red, you can choose a different route for your trip or proceed along the dangerous route with extra caution.
Find out about another way that Waze can make your trip safer => Waze Update Alerts You to Unplowed Roads
How Waze Is Preventing the Red Roads Feature from Becoming Annoying
If you’re concerned about Waze’s new red roads feature becoming annoying, you shouldn’t be. Two factors can prevent this from happening.
First, you’ll be able to turn off the dangerous red roads feature in Waze settings. This new feature will be turned on by default, but you’ll be able to disable it easily in settings.
Second, Waze won’t notify you about dangerous roads you travel frequently. Waze may be presuming that you’re already aware of the dangers of roads you travel often. Plus, Waze may realize that you probably don’t want to get a dangerous road alert every time you travel on that particularly dangerous road.
What Else You Need to Know About Waze’s New Red Roads Feature
Because its new red roads feature is in its testing phase, Waze may change how it works when the feature is launched. And Waze has not yet indicated when (or if) this feature will become widely available.
Stay tuned to The Wonder of Tech! I will update this article in the event Waze updates its app to launch its red roads feature.
Your Thoughts
Do you like the idea of being alerted to dangerous roads with a history of crashes? Would you avoid those roads or proceed more cautiously? Would you turn off this red roads feature?
Share your thoughts in the Comments section below.
*Driver image (edited) via Shutterstock and PicMonkey Pro
Love The Wonder of Tech keep the good work coming!
Thank you.
Hello Jack! Thank you for your kind words. I will certainly try to keep these articles coming. Happy New Year!
This is really smart. I could have used it the last time Waze was running in the car for the 5 months we were in Panama. Crazy drivers down there. Mad dangerous. Every road could have been red lol.
Hi Ryan, Good point, when you’re in a place with crazy drivers, you would especially want to find the safest roads. I do hope Waze brings this feature to everyone soon!