Waze, the community-focused driving navigation app, has added railroad crossing safety alerts to better tell drivers about approaching danger zones.
The feature is going live today in the US, Canada France, Belgium, Italy, Israel, Brazil, Mexico, the UK, and other countries. The company said the feature is ‘unique to Waze’ and claims to be the first sat nav app to alert people to approaching crossings.
Much of the work has been undertaken by Waze’s volunteer community of map editors, underlining the crowdsourced foundations of the platform.
Waze said the addition of the new feature was spurred on by recommendations from the US senate and the US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to help curb the number of drivers dying at accidents at railroad crossings.
Drivers will be automatically and clearly alerted to an approaching railroad crossing in the iOS and Android versions of Waze.
“The Railroad Crossing feature is a result of a cross-industry, cross-sector collaboration, both internally within Waze and the community, working together to help fellow drivers map out all highway-railroad intersections,” said Dani Simons, Head of Public Sector Partnerships, Waze. “This feature exemplifies Waze’s commitment to building for its Driving app, being the first to implement features and emphasises our focus on safety.”
Author: Henry Burrell, Phones Editor
Henry is Tech Advisor’s Phones Editor, ensuring he and the team covers and reviews every smartphone worth knowing about for readers and viewers all over the world. He spends a lot of time moving between different handsets and shouting at WhatsApp to support multiple devices at once.