{"id":16778,"date":"2016-11-18T13:54:49","date_gmt":"2016-11-18T18:54:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digital.hbs.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/waze-paving-a-brighter-future-together\/"},"modified":"2016-11-20T08:41:18","modified_gmt":"2016-11-20T13:41:18","slug":"waze-paving-the-future-of-digital-mapping","status":"publish","type":"hck-submission","link":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/waze-paving-the-future-of-digital-mapping\/","title":{"rendered":"Waze: Paving the Future of Digital Mapping"},"content":{"rendered":"

What is Waze and how is it different? <\/strong><\/p>\n

Traditional digital maps, made by companies such as TomTom and Google, are difficult and expensive to make, and often contain inaccurate information [1]. The process starts with a base map, usually from government data [2]. The map looks pretty good, but when you look closer, you see many roads aren\u2019t in accurate locations.<\/p>\n

\"inaccurate-map\"<\/a>[1]<\/p>\n

Mapping services manually correct these problems, but new issues constantly arise (such as road closures, new roads, etc.). It takes massive companies like Google and TomTom to build digital maps of the world precisely because it is so hard to do. For drivers, these maps have been their best option for navigating to new places. That all changed with Waze.<\/p>\n

Waze, a digital mapping service founded in Israel in 2006, launched with the goal of saving drivers time by making extremely accurate maps with real-time updates [3]. Instead of laboriously building maps and tightly controlling them like competing services, Waze has leveraged the digital revolution, crowdsourcing data from drivers to make the best digital maps in the world [4]. Tens of millions of drivers input massive amounts of real-time data about everything from nearby cops, to potholes, to car accidents blocking the road, helping other commuters optimize their travel routes and avoid unwanted delays.<\/p>\n