New feature in Waze driving app should please French road safety officials
The sometimes-controversial sat-nav app is launching a long-awaited tool
The new update allows users to report issues using their voice
Diego Thomazini/Shutterstock
Driving app Waze has launched a long-awaited feature that is expected to be praised by French road safety officials - unlike some of the app’s features.
The new feature, which was first announced by Waze’s parent company Google in November 2024, enables drivers to report an event encountered on the road by using only their voice.
Waze is a community-based app, which means it relies on user reports of issues and incidents to accurately display real-time road conditions.
However, until now, drivers have only been able to report issues by touching their phone or Sat Nav display screen while driving.
Drivers can report issues such as:
To do this, drivers need to press the alert ‘+’ button, and then select the type of incident, which can cause them to be distracted from driving for too long.
Officially, only passengers are supposed to touch the screen while the car is moving, as drivers are not allowed to interact with their phones while driving.
In practice, however, many Waze drivers very likely do touch the screen when needed, even when the vehicle is moving.
This could be to report an incident, to check traffic, or to ensure their journey route is still displaying correctly.
Voice recognition
The app now also allows drivers to report an issue using their voice.
Drivers still need to tap a button to activate voice recognition, but the rest can be done handsfree.
You can, for instance, tell the app - in natural English - that there is heavy traffic on the road. Waze could then ask you a follow-up question, such as “can you see road works?” or “has there been an accident?”
The information is interpreted by Google's Gemini AI and integrated into the Waze map accordingly.
In future, the app may introduce the ability for voice recognition to work without the need to press a button at all.
Phone use while driving in France
Using your phone while driving in France is usually an offence punishable by a deduction of three points from your driving licence, and a ‘fourth-class’ fine of €135. However, using Waze as a navigation app is legal, as long as drivers do not touch the screen.
The new feature has been praised by safety officials in France, which is unusual for a Waze update.
Waze also shows the location of speed cameras, warns drivers of upcoming speed changes and checks, re-routes drivers through quiet roads and villages to avoid traffic, shows adverts for nearby facilities, and - as explained above - can also encourage drivers to use their phones while driving.
Read also: New French law will limit driving app warnings for police checks Read more: Waze sends thousands of drivers a day through small village in France
This means that it is not always popular among road safety officials or residents of quiet communes.
For example, in 2012, residents of the small French village of Parmain, Val-d'Oise (Ile-de-France) found that thousands of cars were driving through their streets daily, as a result of Waze directing them that way to avoid rush-hour delays on a nearby motorway.
To beat the congestion, it installed a simple sign reading ‘no-entry, except for residents and services’. This successfully saw vehicle numbers drop to just 20 a day.
"This is a message sent to Waze, to say enough is enough," said mayor Loïc Tallanter, at the time.
