Google’s Waze adds some quality of life navigation features in the coming weeks and months. New options can help you find parking garages (and find out how much they cost), warn you when the speed limit is about to drop, and guide you through intersections.
Waze, in partnership with the Flash parking app, will soon provide information about nearby parking garages. It can show you prices, whether indoor or outdoor, wheelchair accessibility options, valet services and EV charging stations. Waze says you can also reserve a parking spot from the app. The feature will be rolled out in the “coming weeks.”
Flash software averages only 1.5 out of 5 stars App Store and 2.2 out of 5 Play Store. (Many customers complained about its inaccuracy and unreliable scanning at parking kiosks.) Hopefully, Waze’s integration won’t replicate the rough spots seen in its new partner’s app.
The Waze app will also notify you when the speed limit drops. When the feature launches this month, the navigation screen will display a speed limit sign where the road is about to slow down, giving you time to prepare. An alert at the bottom of the screen will calculate how many feet the deceleration is. (The app won’t show that speed limits are about to increase, presumably to discourage people from punching it in and getting to work.)
Waze will soon give you detailed information about your favorite routes to places you travel frequently, like home, work, or the cafes you go to. Starting this month, the app will compare your favorite routes with the fastest routes when you start navigating. It will use live traffic updates to display ETA estimates and help you decide if your favorite route is too backed up to be worth it.
Roundabouts will also be easier to pass. As you approach a roundabout, Waze will help you figure out where to enter, which lanes to use, and where to exit. The feature is coming to Android this month, but iPhone owners will have to wait “until later this year.”
Based on the app’s community-sourced approach, another new feature will alert you to upcoming threats. These include sharp turns, speed bumps and toll booths. This “navigate like a native” feature is coming to Android and iOS this month.
Finally, Waze now lets you know when emergency vehicles are ahead. During navigation, an emergency icon will sit alongside a warning on the virtual road ahead and a countdown (measured in feet) as you approach it. This is the only new feature that Waze says is currently available (in the US, Canada, France, Mexico and France) on Android and iOS. The feature will support more countries soon.
