Waze receives talking incident reports and school zones

Google has announced two new features for its Waze mobile app for iPhone and Android: conversational reporting and school map zones.

According to Google, Waze has one of the most passionate mapping communities in the world, with drivers actively reporting traffic incidents and editors adding important local information to the map, such as new roads and sharp turns. Over the years, we’ve released updates to help drivers drive more safely and confidently, and today we’ve added two new features to keep drivers informed about their journeys.

With the new Conversational Reporting feature, you can report incidents naturally. This ensures safer driving; you can report by voice while keeping your eyes on the road and your hands on the steering wheel. Previously, reporting traffic jams, potholes, construction work and similar roads required your attention and listening to the interface.

Click the new “Report” button and speak naturally, as if you were talking to a real person. Sentences such as: “Looks like there are cars stuck up ahead!” will do its job. Waze will ask additional questions, such as can you describe what you see? if he needs more information. Waze will understand what you say and quickly add a real-time report to the map without you having to use a specific voice command or press additional buttons, the company said. These natural language capabilities leverage Google Gemini’s large language models.

Another new feature in Waze is School Zones, which allows editors to add busy areas, such as zones, to the map to help drivers take extra precautions. Waze will notify you when you arrive at a school, when it’s open, and we have information for that school zone.

Unfortunately, new features are not immediately available. Conversational reports will be available in beta to Waze testers in English on Android and iOS this week. In the coming months, the beta will add more languages ​​and expand its availability. For School Zones, the feature will be rolled out in phases on Android and iOS worldwide later this year.

Waze is well known for its crowdsourcing traffic reporting capabilities. Even Google Maps took years to add an incident report button to quickly report police presence, speed cameras, car accidents and the like.

Source: Google