Waze Will Now Warn Drivers About Crash Dangers Using Historical Data

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Traffic navigation app Waze is adding a new feature to its toolbox today. It's called crash history alerts, and it's meant to warn drivers about dangerous hotspots, based on a combination of historical data plus road and traffic data. Originally an independent startup, in 2013 Google purchased the Israeli company for $1.15 billion, perhaps beating Apple to the punch. [...] One feature of Waze that was unique for a long time was its ability to crowdsource traffic information. Users add live traffic information to the app as they drive, like a car stopped by the side of the road or a crash. Waze now leverages that data, together with geographic information, including road layout and elevation, plus typical traffic levels, to determine whether a particular stretch of road has a high crash rate. Should that be the case, the app will warn the driver. However, Waze says that to minimize distractions, it won't show these alerts on regularly traveled roads and will limit alerts on unfamiliar roads to prevent driver overload.

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