Waze Updates ETA Screen to Show Traffic Forecasts and Live Estimates

By Edward Leano, Christian Post Contributor Monday, March 05, 2018

Waze, the popular third-party driving and navigation app for mobile, has come out with a new update on Saturday, March 3. The change bumps up the app to version 4.35 for iOS and now features an improved information screen for the Estimated Time of Arrival or ETA, making it easier to plan out trips from the start.

The new ETA screen has a set of new tweaks that should prove handy for those driving in traffic. Aside from providing an estimate on how long a drive will take to the destination, users can also scroll through a sort of timeline to see the traffic forecast for that hour and minute — a feature that can potentially help drivers avoid some of the worst rush hour snarls, as 9 to 5 Mac noted.

The new screen also makes it easier to plan out a trip by estimating an ETA every time a user sets a time for departure. That way, users can combine the traffic forecast for that hour with their schedule and come up with the best time to leave the house, one that avoids the worst times for traffic if possible.

Setting a departure time using the new ETA screen now also prompts the Waze app to set a sort of alarm, by sending the user a notification when the time to leave approaches. Waze has also received some performance improvements and some unspecified "minor bug fixes," according to its version history notes in the Apple App Store.

The ETA provided by Waze is still the best guess, though, as a blogger recently established by experimenting with Waze, Google Maps and Apple Maps for 120 of his daily trips. Artur Grabowski, who is also a senior manager for Adobe, found out that among the three apps, Google Maps still got him to his destination the fastest.