Waze, a user-driven collaborative mobile traffic mapping and sensor service, today added voice notifications and input concerning traffic hazards to its iPhone app. The company said the feature would soon be added to its apps on other platforms.
Waze hopes that the addition of a read/write voice interface will both lower barriers to input and create sensory interruption at essential times – when a driver nears a hazard. Waze is a well-funded startup, says it has 2.2 million users and is in the process of moving its headquarters from Israel to Palo Alto. It’s one of the most user-friendly iterations of a larger trend of everyday devices turning into instruments of data capture. The narrator in the video above is Di-Ann Eisnor, previously co-founder of trailblazing DIY mapping startup Platial.
