Ottawa joins the 'Waze for Cities' program

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The city of Ottawa partners with Waze to share its traffic data to help provide drivers with improved real-time updates during their commutes. Ottawa will be offering traffic data related to crashes and construction, allowing drivers to plan their routes better. The city says in a press release that the combination of Waze user submissions and traffic information will help provide more accurate information regarding road conditions.

Waze has partnered with other cities like Toronto and Montreal in Canada and New York and San Francisco in the US for this program. The partnership is also part of Ottawa's Smart City plan, where they plan to use innovation, technology, and leading practices to improve residents' experience when it comes to getting information and accessing services in the city.

Waze and Lincoln want to help you relax while you drive this holiday season

With the holiday season comes traffic, there's just so much to do, and sometimes you need to be out and about to get things done. Waze wants to help you keep your cool while you're out on the road.  The navigation app partnered with Lincoln for a new turn-by-turn navigation voice that doubles as a "calm and mindfulness guide." It will remind you to "Ready, set, relax! And start driving," and "Heavy traffic reported ahead. Deep breaths!" Available until December 29, the new voice can be found by heading into Settings, then Voice Direction. Look for the option Lincoln Canada.

Siri on iOS 13 now works natively with Google Maps and Waze

With the release of iOS 13 comes some useful features; one of them is allowing third-party developers to release or update apps to access Siri without any configuration from the users' end. Before iOS 13, trying to set up a non-Apple app with Siri required setting up a Siri shortcut—and that didn't guarantee that it would work. 

But as The Verge discovers two apps can now interface with Siri, somehow. And it'll help when it comes to driving. Siri now works with Google Maps and Waze, but some features still need to be worked on.

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Waze helps ease road trip planning with new toll calculator

Are you working out the budget for your upcoming road trip? Waze is introducing a new feature for its Canadian and American users. The app now has a new toll calculator that wouldn’t just tell you how many tolls you’re going to drive by along the way. More importantly, it’s going to show you an estimate of how much these will cost you. The navigation app has been able to tell you if you’re going to pass by toll roads, but it’s the first time it can show you how much it’s going to cost you. This feature will help you decide if it’s worth spending your time and money on main highways, or if it’s better to take the scenic route to avoid them. For now, the feature seems to be exclusive to Waze users. Waze’s parent company Google hasn’t said yet if the feature will make its way to Google Maps.

Source: Gizmodo