- Waze is reportedly testing traffic light support
- A popular Google Maps feature could soon go live
- The feature is currently only being tested in Israel for now
Waze has reportedly introduced a feature that many users have been asking for – and which Google Maps has been offering since 2022.
Support for traffic lights and stop signs has been helping Google Maps users anticipate upcoming turns and better understand the right path to take for more than three years, but it looks like Waze is finally catching up,
According to Android Authority, which itself received information from GeekTime, Waze is testing traffic lights on its maps in Israel, where the app was founded and where many developers still live and work today, despite the company’s acquisition by Google in 2013.
The report suggests that the feature is still in its early stages and that the number of traffic lights displayed at any one time is currently limited, to avoid cluttering the map to the point of being distracting.
Android Authority claims that during active navigation, the map displays a maximum of three traffic lights at a time. Although this changes when users are not navigating, with all nearby traffic lights being displayed to those who are simply browsing the map or driving without navigation.
Waze confirmed in May that data from traffic lights, stop signs and other important road signs would be introduced into its mapping services after asking its users to vote in favor of the new features.
Google is getting ahead
As previously mentioned, Google Maps added traffic lights, stop signs, and other road furniture to its maps years ago, as they provide some of the most important reference points when arriving at an intersection or other complex traffic system.
They allow drivers to more effectively plan their position in the correct lane for an upcoming turn and it’s something that Apple Maps, a close rival, has also offered for some time now.
Given that Waze is now owned by Google, it wouldn’t be a stretch to think that the former could use already existing traffic light data to roll out the feature beyond Israel in the very near future.
In fact, the two services are becoming more and more similar over time, given that the tech giant has effectively “borrowed” many of the features that made Waze so popular in the first place.
But Google arguably now has the upper hand, as it also integrates its Google Places data, as well as live information on fuel prices and EV charger availability.
Add to that the deployment of Google Gemini in vehicles and it is quickly becoming one of the most powerful ways to safely interact with navigation on the go, with the ability to ask complex questions about a destination, reserve tables at a restaurant and receive recommendations from a large community of users.
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