Free GPS with live traffic

[Watcher]

This Waze app initially seems great but you have to admit, the comment posted at the bottom of the page has a point.

Trent says:
August 8, 2009 at 10:41 AM
This is stupid and won’t really work unless people are always on their iPhones reporting their traffic conditions, increasing the chances of more accidents! Another cavet, not everyone has an iPhone so “user reported” traffic conditions will not be up to the minute and accurate wherever you are. This is a big fail all around! It depends on user generated interaction - ON THE ROAD!!! Watch out Police! You’ll be pulling over quite a few people using this app in no time!

[MrEous]

Ummm...the native Maps app on the iPhone already shows traffic in metro cities.

(just traffic, not the conditions and doesn't show cops...)

[artap99]

Originally Posted by Watcher

This Waze app initially seems great but you have to admit, the comment posted at the bottom of the page has a point.

Trent says:
August 8, 2009 at 10:41 AM
This is stupid and won’t really work unless people are always on their iPhones reporting their traffic conditions, increasing the chances of more accidents! Another cavet, not everyone has an iPhone so “user reported” traffic conditions will not be up to the minute and accurate wherever you are. This is a big fail all around! It depends on user generated interaction - ON THE ROAD!!! Watch out Police! You’ll be pulling over quite a few people using this app in no time!

I used it the other day and it did a great job of telling me about traffic. If it isn't popular enough in your area to show you at least some traffic, then chances are you wouldn't get a live traffic report from any other GPS application.

[primsa]

Having used it now for a couple of trips this is what I found.

1. You get what you pay for.
2. The routing is slow.
3. The routing get you there but it make you do strange things like get off the expressway and get right back on.
4. Re-routing is very slow and continues to try to get you back on the original route no matter how many times you ignore it.
5. It does not save your settings.
6. It jumps fromn the road your on to adjacent roads.
7. Slow to get initial location.

The traffic seems good and should get better if others start using it.
Right now it's worth the price. Maybe it will get better.

[Davidgr]

Originally Posted by Watcher

This Waze app initially seems great but you have to admit, the comment posted at the bottom of the page has a point.

Trent says:
August 8, 2009 at 10:41 AM
This is stupid and won’t really work unless people are always on their iPhones reporting their traffic conditions, increasing the chances of more accidents! Another cavet, not everyone has an iPhone so “user reported” traffic conditions will not be up to the minute and accurate wherever you are. This is a big fail all around! It depends on user generated interaction - ON THE ROAD!!! Watch out Police! You’ll be pulling over quite a few people using this app in no time!

Wrong! The app can judge traffic conditions without user input. If it knows that you're on a highway and you (and others with the app) are moving slowly, then it can tell that there is a traffic jam. It works by using the GPS and checking to see how quickly you move from point A to point B. It's actually pretty ingenious.

User input is used to enter accident info which I agree with user August 8 can be dangerous when driving.

I also agree with other comments that the routing is slow and sometimes strange. However, this is version 1 of the app. I think it has real promise (especially since it's free) and hope that some of the bugs will be addressed in future versions. For now, I'm keeping it.

[Hawk]

I downloaded this just to play with since it's free. Technically, I use Google Maps w/ traffic every morning on the way to work, as well as trapster running in the background. Gets me to work, and keeps me from getting pulled over.
If this can do it too, great -especially for free. If it can't, no harm, again, it was free.