"waze" car navigation app& looks like a road information social network, but it’s kind of deep.

At first glance, it looks like a normal car navigation app, but…

I was a little curious about this iPhone app. It seems to be a social networking service related to cars, so I installed it anyway, but it seems to be quite deep.

Basically, it seems to be a car navigation system that uses Google Maps. Moreover, although it is a google map, it is very easy to see while driving because it can be displayed in the map like an overhead view.

The route search seems to use the route search of Google Maps.

However, unfortunately, the Japanese correspondence is still not good, so the search by Japanese can be done, but the accuracy seems not to be good. There are times when the search location cannot be found.

Automatically switches wide area details according to speed

In fact, the Waze seems to have all sorts of profound and clever features built into it.

The first thing I thought was clever when I first used it was that the map’s wide area of detail automatically switches according to your speed.

When I’m stopped or on a public road, it usually shows a map with details like this

For example, if you’re driving faster, like when you enter an expressway, it automatically switches to a map of a wider area.

This switching is smoother and more comfortable than expected. There are several car navigation systems and car navigation apps in the world, but I don’t remember many that have the ability to switch between such detailed areas of the map properly, automatically, and smoothly.

Therefore, there is still a place that is still insufficient in a language and a function to use it in Japan, but is it not application that can be used considerably as a simple car navigation?

Run for points and your avatar will grow according to your points!

Up to this point, I was talking about the value of using it simply as a car navigation system, but in fact, it seems that this « waze » is not only that.

First of all, the driving distance itself is a point. You start out as a « baby wazer », but after you’ve driven a certain number of miles, you’ll level up to the next avatar.

This kind of point system is somewhat similar to « foursquare » which is a representative of location information application. However, I’m not sure if there are any elements that correspond to « badges » or « meyers » in foursquare.

The interesting thing about foursquare is that it’s not just a location-based social network, but it also has this kind of gameplay. By the way, you can also set up a connection with foursquare. I guess that’s all you need.

Role as a GPS logger

It seems that this waze naturally becomes a « GPS logger » while you are using it. The log information will be automatically uploaded to the server through the internet. The log information is automatically uploaded to the server through the Internet, and can be downloaded to a kml file for Google Earth.

However, this log is sometimes not uploaded, and the interface of the web version is very hard to see, so it doesn’t seem to be very useful at the moment.

Is it essentially a real-time traffic information social network?

And there’s more to this waze. When you’re driving and your car slows down, a window that posts the traffic conditions of your current location automatically pops up and you can post « something ».

After posting, a window like this will launch.

I didn’t understand what this was at first, but after seeing the guided tour on the waze website again, I understood a little more about what it was all about.

I couldn’t understand half of it because it’s in English, but apparently it’s a system that allows waze users to get real-time traffic information in a social network-like way by posting « something » in a window that automatically appears through this app when they are in traffic or have a problem while driving their car. It seems to be such a system that users can grasp real-time traffic information by using it like a social network.

I didn’t know this kind of idea existed. I was very surprised.

There are so many possibilities, I can’t even begin to grasp them all.

So I don’t know much about it even though I’ve been using it briefly, and even though I’ve seen the guided tour, I’ve only understood it vaguely… I thought it was an app that made me feel the depth of something, the future.

However, there are very few users in Japan at the moment, and considering the fact that the number of people who drive cars itself is decreasing, there are very high barriers to the realization of the social networking worldview envisioned by waze in Japan.

In any case, there are many things that seem to be looking ahead to the future, so I can’t explain them well because my current understanding doesn’t allow me to grasp their full scope and possibilities…

こんな中途半端なレビューで申し訳ないのですが、もう少し使いながらこのアプリについて勉強してみたいと思います。