14 DAY TRIAL // Waze, the provider of driver-generated maps and real-time road information, announced on Tuesday that it had released a new version of its popular application. According to the company, the new flavor of its free navigation app is available on the Apple App Store and at the Android Market, as well as on its website for the Symbian and Windows Mobile phone users out there.
“We find that users are very tuned in and excited about the idea of improving the map through gaming,” says Noam Bardin, waze’s CEO. “They can spend hours searching for roads that have not been driven yet, in order to gain points for munching the dots on the road, while simultaneously working to improve the map for the driving community in their area. It’s an extremely effective way to increase the quality of our maps, while also keeping our users fully engaged.”
The new flavor of the application comes around with a series of new capabilities for enthusiasts. Users will enjoy new upgraded ‘road goodies’ with the waze game, including cherries, hammers, and small gift packages that offer bonus points. The 'goodies' will be placed where the maps have issues, enabling users to drive around to those directions so as to munch them. The app will use the GPS data received from the drive to update its maps and solve the issues.
The maps delivered through waze are crowdsourced and they are updated much faster than those provided by map industry giants. Moreover, waze does not rely on users to edit the map and update it, but offers anyone the possibility to build a map through the game-like environment, while driving around with the free navigation app installed and running 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,” the company states.
Along with the announcement regarding the new version of waze, the company also said that it would be conducting a ‘Holiday High Points Challenge’ from November 25 to November 30. The company plans on offering three users who get the most points from munching ‘road goodies’ Amazon gift card prizes in the amounts of $500, $300, and $200, respectively. More info on the challenge is available here.