New WME Version, New Bi-Weekly Format!

Hey Everyone and Happy New Year.

We're starting 2015 with a bang! Lots of new stuff to tell you about, including new additions to the blog!

On our list: a new version of WME, great meetups in New York and Mexico, and some new sections in the Bi-Weekly: This week you'll see Unholy's meme, and a spotlight on a major traffic event that rocked the Waze needle enough to make us feel it.

So, here we go...

Major New Editor Version

The new editor version - WME v1.6-415, if you want to get specific - just came out. This is a major upgrade after a relatively long time, and it brings with it many fixes and updates. Some examples:

• New and improved MP and UR user interface
• Improvements to places editing
• Automatically loading the user's language
• Determining roundabouts directions by intersecting segments 

These are just a few of the improvements, you can read about all the changes here. 

The fact that this was such a major update got us of to a rocky start, but bugs were squashed, issues fixed, and all should be good by now. 

Unholy's Bi-Weekly Meme

In this new section, Unholy will express his opinions and views  flex his creative muscles and share a meme about current community events and trends. This time...MapRaids! Enjoy. 

Meetups: NY and Cancun (and the LA MapRaid kickoff!)

The year ended with two impressive meetups. The Regional LATAM meetup took place in lovely Cancun, Mexico with 45 participants from all over Latin America.

The meetup had a nice balance: 50% global champs and 50% local champs. 9 staff members gave presentations about real-time, routing, the editor, the new help tool, localization, growth and future versions of Waze. Much alcohol was consumed, and the Chilean champs boasted custom made T-shirts.

Big junctions will do what?!?

Another regional meetup was held in New York city with a mix of about 30 participants ranging from newbies to champs. Aside from discussing the editor, major traffic events and lots more, the meetup was a kickoff for the (still ongoing) LA MapRaid. We'll tell you all about that next time. (Sneak Peek: it's the biggest raid yet!)

Major Traffic Events: 

Another new section! Right now, one of our main focus areas is major traffic events. These are events that affect a large number of users; such as Marathons, the Superbowl, election days, etc.

What do we do about it? We send push notifications to all the relevant users, add closures to the map, publish info in the dedicated website, and sometimes even get our Public Relations team involved.

Here's an example of such an event: The Enchanted Ceara Show is a music festival in Brazil that took place on December 18-19. We sent over 200K push notifications to Brazilian Wazers! Check out the graph below to see the impact on active users:

If you know about upcoming events in your area, let us know by filling out this form.

Wazer Spotlight:  

pnylin, Swedish local champ  

Champing it in Sweden

What do you do when not editing maps?

I’m a taxidriver in Stockholm, Sweden. I use Waze on the job but usually not as a navigating tool. I use Waze to see if there's a jam on a route I thought about taking. 

Which car do you drive?

Right now I have no car but I use Waze when I drive my taxi - a Volvo V70 Bi-Fuel (petrol and biogas/natural gas).

How long have you been a Wazer?

Since September 2011. 

How did you get hooked on Waze?

I looked for a little help beating traffic...

What's your favorite part about the community?

I like to edit the map. I often sit with the computer and add missing roads in different parts of Sweden.

..And the worst part.

New Wazers who do not learn how to edit before they start. Then I have to tell them what they are doing wrong and where they can find information on editing.

What's the funniest Waze story that happened to you?

A customer was late for the airport. I saw in Waze that there was a major accident on the road and drove via a different route than the usual. When we arrived at the terminal, we arrived the same time as his colleague who had gone half an hour earlier.

What's your best Waze tip for newcomers?

As a user, don’t report police cars driving with their sirens on due to an emergency. As an editor, read about how to edit before you start doing it.

What do you listen to when driving your car (aside from the Waze app messages, of course) 

I mostly listen to the radio, or to Swedish artists such as Tomas Ledin, Magnus Uggla or Avicii. A favorite at the moment is Avicii - The Days.

That's it for now! 

As always, suggestions and questions are welcome!

Stay tuned!