This past week I was lamenting that newbies to LA didn't have to earn their driving stripes. They no longer had to learn where to go with the Frommer's Guide. They could type in a destination and taking it one more step they now have Waze.
For those of you who don't know what Waze is it's essentially an App that assesses the traffic in multiple routes you might take to get your destination and it takes you home on the safest route. Genius in a city like LA.
But there are some major flaws.
I used it this week a few times and I have to say I found it extremely dangerous.
I typed in my destination, while pulled over and then it gave me voice commands "Let's go!" OK, I thought great.
The screen looks like a video game. While driving it will say things like "Be careful, car pulled over on the shoulder up ahead," then I was thinking who let Waze know there was a car over on the shoulder. I was in dead stopped traffic on the freeway and I looked down at my phone on the middle console. I literally do not do this normally and saw it said it wanted me to rate how bad the traffic was! WTF?
It had me take multiple hairy lefts. Left no one wants to make so I took a right and then turned around. My mind felt scattered and un-focused. I honestly felt out of control. Not worth it, ever.
I might see what Waze has to say before I get in the car but I will be turning it off. I have made it almost 15 years in LA without it and I will survive many more(hopefully) without it. Plus, no traffic, that's so not LA.
Do you use Waze? What do you think of it?