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Comment by willio58 | Hacker News Reader

Any time I try to use waze it gives the most insane route recommendations. Would they shave 1 or 2 minutes off my commute? Sure! But will I be tasked with crossing several 5 or 6 lane stroads in doing so? You bet! It's like what do you value more, saving like 4 or 5 minutes of driving a day or your life?

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Yeah Waze needs a "UPS" setting where it doesn't take you straight across stroads and heavily favors turning right, while not routing you straight through everyone's residential neighborhoods.

Google does this to me too, sends me on some really annoying route because it's slightly faster.

I also wonder if they kind of "round robin" routes so not to cause traffic?

I can imagine a future where map routes are optimized to give subscribers to Google services priority while allocating free users to alternate ones to free up traffic.

I think it pays to learn how to drive and ride without Google maps, it's amazing how many people I know who are completely dependent on Google maps for navigation.

For me it’s depended on where I am at the time. In LA it would do exactly that, having me cross many lanes in heavy traffic, but elsewhere it was fine.

My theory is that Waze must model what maneuvers are possible/easy based on other drivers in the area. So if you live in an area with more aggressive drivers it assumes those maneuvers are easier to do.

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