Waze, the GPS navigation service, continues to develop independently from Google Maps despite the merger of the two companies’ teams in 2022. Waze has launched a new beta test of the Black Spot Alert feature, which notifies users when they drive on an accident-prone road.
Waze is not dead, despite what we could read in the press in 2022. The Google Maps and Waze teams have merged, nevertheless the GPS navigation service continues to evolve distinctly from Google Maps.
Black Spot Alert alerts you to accident-prone roads
Waze is testing a new function named Black Spot Alert : you will be warned if you are driving on an accident-prone road. The corresponding sections of road will thus be marked in red in the Waze application. Additionally, you should also receive a pop-up notification.
As with other features — such as traffic jam warnings — Waze uses community data to statistically determine crash-prone roads. If accidents are often reported in a given street and if they end up exceeding a threshold value, then the street will be marked as an accident black spot. It’s a wonder this feature wasn’t implemented sooner, because it seems so obvious.
At the moment, the new function appears only in beta version in Israel. Given the seemingly simple implementation, since the data already exists, it is highly likely the function will also appear in other countries.
As a reminder, Google bought Waze in 2013 for $1.1 billion, but the integration with Google is recent. Indeed, Waze joined Google’s Geo team only in 2022. Former Waze CEO Neha Parikh stepped down, but she clarified that Waze should continue to exist as a separate product with its own application and not be integrated with Google Maps.
To follow us, we invite you to download our Android and iOS application. You can read our articles, files, and watch our latest YouTube videos.