Google's Waze adds motorcycle-specific routing with pothole and hazard warnings
The Google-owned navigation app Waze is finally getting motorcycle-specific routing, hazard warnings and smarter ETAs.
For years, motorcycle riders using Waze have effectively been treated like car drivers on two wheels. The app might have been one of the best around for spotting police vans, traffic jams and roadworks, but when it came to actually understanding what a motorcyclist needs from a sat-nav, it was largely guessing. That looks set to change.
Google, which acquired the app in 2013, has announced a dedicated motorcycle mode for Waze, using AI and data from the app's motorcycle mapping community to build routes specifically for riders rather than simply repurposing those intended for cars. The update promises more accurate journey times and routing that takes into account the quirks and advantages of travelling on two wheels.
According to Waze, the new mode understands that motorcycles can use roads and shortcuts that might not be suitable or accessible to larger vehicles, while also recognising restrictions and route limitations that are unique to bikes in some markets. That should mean fewer occasions where riders are sent the long way around or funnelled onto roads that make little sense on a motorcycle.
Perhaps more importantly for anyone riding Britain's increasingly cratered road network, Waze motorcycle mode will actively warn riders about hazards that matter more on two wheels than four. Potholes, speed bumps, raised pedestrian crossings, shoulder endings and narrow bridges will all feature as route alerts, allowing riders more time to react to hazards that could range from mildly irritating to genuinely dangerous.
The system combines Waze's traditional crowdsourced traffic data with information supplied by dedicated motorcycle map editors, creating what could become one of the more useful rider-focused navigation tools currently available on a smartphone.
There is one catch, however. The initial rollout is limited to Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru and the Philippines, basically all the global markets with significant numbers of powered two-wheelers. Google says additional countries will follow, although there is currently no word on when UK riders will get access – boooo!
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Simon (AKA Toad) has been working within the motorcycle industry for more than twelve years, and a member of the motorcyclist family since birth. Growing up around British-built single and twins, it was inevitable that a life on two wheels was on the cards, from a very early age!
