The Problem With Waze
You have undoubtedly heard of Waze, but if you haven’t, here’s the skinny.
It’s an application for smartphones that’s like a social network for people sharing the road.
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When you sign in, you’ll see your avatar moving along a road map in real time. You can let your fellow Wazers know about construction, accidents, police presence or what have you.
Exploring the roads will earn you points that can then be exchanged for different statuses and privileges. You can also add Waze friends so that you can be informed of their comings and goings.
The slogan for Waze, which is owned by Google, is “Outsmarting traffic, together.” But in reality, the application is used as a navigation tool, like Google Maps.
The rub
The problem with Waze is that the app requires users to share what’s happening on the road. Waze encourages drivers to get a special support that allows you to hang your phone and use it hands-free. However, constantly pressing the icons to report what you see is a huge distraction that runs counter to the spirit of the law against using mobile telephones while driving.
At the end of the day, Waze is a good idea, but one that illustrates the limits of using technology while driving. Society is eager to ban mobile phones while driving but, paradoxically, we’re putting more and more screens in cars to replace good old-fashioned buttons.
The more we progress—including the advent of autonomous cars—the more likely we are to find ourselves in vehicles that offer entertainment at the wheel. Soon, we won’t pay attention to the road at all, and to paraphrase Einstein, we’ll end up with a generation of idiots.