Perhaps the worst part about Waze
Can we talk about where Waze fails epically: Closure reporting! Can we finally get closure reports that actually work intuitively?
You hit “Report Closure”, and if you take too long because you can’t safely flag the closed segment or if you already passed it enough so that it’s not selectable on the map, the app “saves”it for you to complete later.
But when later comes and you tap the little road barrier to complete the report, Closure reporting doesn’t give you the GPS coordinates and road segments of where you initialized the report; it gives you your current whereabouts. This defeats the purpose of that button and the “Later” feature.
I asked AI which explained Waze treats a closure report as a Map edit, not as a hazard report. Which I think is overkill in the case of a closure being a temporary blockage because of construction or police. But if they already know your GPS and heading when you hit the button, there no actual reason it shouldn’t be treated like a temporary hazard and work correctly.
And in general, I also think it would help to be able to “backtrack” on your traveled route to report a closure that you just drove too far past before you hit the report button.
I feel like closure reporting is fully broken. I’ve been driving with Waze for over 10 years and I don’t remember this feature ever working right.
Forget lane guidance, EV routing, or driving with the Terminator. It seems like no work has been done to fix Closure reporting, which ought to be a priority because it could save other drivers from frustration and hours of soul crushing traffic daily.
How can we crowd shame them into finally fixing it?