You’re cruising down the highway and you see something that you feel other drivers should know about. Speed traps, road closures, stalled vehicles, accidents, you name it. If you’re using Waze, you can easily report those problems to the app which in turn informs other drivers. The only problem is that this isn’t so easy when you’re supposed to be concentrating on the road.
Fortunately Waze is about to make this process easier and safer, thanks to the introduction of a new “Conversational Reporting” feature. It essentially upgrades the existing voice controls for incident reporting by integrating Google Gemini and letting you do it more naturally than you could before.
Waze’s incident reporting commands are only worthwhile if you can remember them all. When you’re paying attention to the road, and potentially focussing on a hazard, you’d be surprised at how quickly that information falls out of your head. The only other option is to find the right icons on your phone or car screen. While this isn’t difficult, it’s also another thing that can easily distract you when you’re driving.
With Conversational Reporting all you’ll need to do is tap the reporting button on screen, then describe what the problem is. Because Gemini can understand more than pre-loaded commands, you don’t have to be absolutely perfect with your report.
Waze may ask you to “describe what you see” for further elaboration, but otherwise the whole process doesn’t require any more input from you. That means you get to keep your eyes on the road and avoid becoming a reportable incident yourself.
Waze will also start letting map editors add school zones on its map, in order to make those areas safer for everyone. Once active on the map, Waze will alert you when you drive near a school — ensuring you know to be extra cautious.
Conversational Reporting will launch to Waze beta’s trusted testers on Android and iOS later this week, but only in English. Other users and languages will have to wait, with a rollout currently slated to happen “in the coming months”. School zone support is scheduled to arrive sometime later this year.
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