waze Introduction: The First Driver Generated Live Maps and Road Information”

Waze helps commuters answer the question, “which way should I go today?” To use waze, drivers download a free application to their GPS-enabled smartphone. This application provides free traffic, navigation and community-based alerts. As they drive, drivers passively share speed and direction information with the waze community, enabling the waze system to create real-time maps and traffic built on the aggregate data of all waze users and share this map back to all wazers. In addition, wazers may actively share information with the community such as traffic cams, speed traps, cheap gas, weather hazards, and more. wazer’s can also log into the web site and manually update the shared map to reflect changes and fix errors. waze’s mobile application will include a set of features to help drivers make the right decision about which route to take, every time, including:

• “Live” street maps which will update with road closures or other road changes
• Real-time traffic – for highway and city streets – instantly communicated by other waze users who are actually on the road
• Scrolling traffic and road condition updates
• Driver-contributed information about speed traps, traffic, and other roadside hazards
• Ability to post information directly to Twitter and share real-time photos

The service features constantly updated road maps, and updated real-time traffic and alerts including data on the fastest route to wherever the drivers are travelling.

Waze is free for all its users because everything, including the map, is driver-generated.