With more than 140 million monthly users, Waze stands out as a leading free navigation app. Waze uses  real-time data from its users to provide the best routes, taking into account  accidents, traffic jams, speed traps, construction, and other obstacles to establish the best route for each driver. 

Waze alerts users to items such as construction, heavy traffic, accidents, potholes, and more. The navigation app is able to report on these items thanks to the contribution of its users. 

For example, if a Waze user encounters heavy traffic, they can open the app and click the “report” button (a triangle with a plus sign), select “traffic,” and then choose “heavy” or “standstill.” Once reported, Waze uses this information to predict accurate arrival times and tailor directions for each user. 

Waze boasts social features  as well. The app encourages users to connect their Facebook accounts to share their location with other Waze users and view their progress if they're heading to the same destination.

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How do Waze and Safety Cloud® work together?

Waze’s ability to alert users of hazards in the roads in real time helps it to remain one of the leading navigation apps. Safety Cloud by HAAS Alert helps to make that possible. It brings down the risk of collision by delivering real-time electronic notifications, known as digital alerts, directly to nearby and approaching vehicles. These alerts warn drivers of an emergency responder, work zone, or other hazard nearby and prompts them to slow down and move over.

Safety Cloud sends drivers digital alerts up to 30 seconds before coming into contact with a hazard in the road, giving drivers more time to take appropriate action. This has been proven to reduce the risk of collision by 90 percent compared to traditional lights alone.

First responders and roadway workers can equip their vehicles and assets with Safety Cloud in one of three ways:

• Preinstalled and prepaid on new compatible emergency apparatus.
• Integration with existing warning lights through a piece of hardware, the HA-7, that can be installed on any alerting vehicle.
• Activation through select wireless platforms, telematics hardwares, or other fleet management solutions listed on HAAS Alert’s integrations page.

How does Waze alert drivers?

Analog alerting solutions like lights and sirens typically give drivers less than three seconds to safely react. Safety Cloud alerts through Waze notify drivers up to 30 seconds sooner to a hazard in the road. 

Waze users receive both stationary and moving digital alerts. That means that users will be notified of any type of hazard, whether it’s a tow truck driver stopped on the side of the road assisting a stranded motorist or an ambulance navigating through traffic to get to a medical emergency as quickly as possible. 

When a Safety Cloud-equipped vehicle or asset is nearby or approaching, Waze sends an alert to its users, displaying a message with the appropriate hazard icon, which notifies drivers of the vehicle’s presence and distance. Waze users will see one of three hazard icons:

• Emergency vehicle — Fire trucks, ambulances, law enforcement vehicles, emergency response vehicles, tow trucks, vehicle repair trucks
• Construction worker — Construction crews and utility crews
• Traffic cone — Lane closure 

Waze offers first responders and roadwork fleets a standard alert message. But Safety Cloud-equipped fleets can work with the HAAS Alert team to customize their message. While they cannot provide a specific direction to drivers (i.e. Township Fire Department ahead, move left.), fleets can use whatever brief message they believe will be most effective at getting drivers to slow down, and move over. 

How else do drivers receive Safety Cloud alerts?

Drivers of compatible Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, and Ram vehicles (models 2018 and newer) will receive Safety Cloud digital alerts directly in-dash through Stellantis' Emergency Vehicle Alert System. When an emergency vehicle, roadwork vehicle, or other Safety Cloud-equipped asset is nearby, a driver will receive an audible and visual alert in their vehicle's infotainment center. Drivers will hear two dings and then see a message with a hazard message on their infotainment center's screen. Drivers can tap "Dismiss," once they've seen the alert. Or, they can click "Not There" if the alert is not needed anymore. Drivers of 2024 and newer Volkswagen vehicles recieve Safety Cloud alerts through their infotainment centers as well. At the time of writing, Mercedes-Benz drivers who opt into the Emergency Vehicle Alert Beta Program will also receive digital alerts. 

Why is advanced warning important on the road? 

Roadways are dangerous for drivers, their passengers, and those responding or working on the road. With cell phones always within reach, the temptation to scroll through texts and social media is constant. 

Cars themselves pose distractions too. Gear shifts are more intricate, sound-deadening underbody shields are more prevalent, and active noise-cancellation solutions make it difficult to hear emergency vehicle sirens. These distractions increase the risk of injury and death for all roadway users. These distractions increase the risk of injury and death for all roadway users.

Drivers are not intentionally unsafe, and they often don't realize their behavior could lead to a collision with a first responder or roadway worker.  However, those who work on the road are acutely aware of these dangers. Every year, tens of thousands of collisions occur between civilian drivers and police or fire vehicles, resulting in tragic consequences and significant cost. 

The Federal Highway Administration (FHA) estimates that the average cost of a fatal collision involving a regular citizen is $11.2 million. This includes the cost of emergency services, medical services, lost wages and fringe benefits, household productivity loss, insurance processing, workplace costs, legal costs, and congestion impacts.

While a human life is undoubtedly worth more than an emergency or maintenance vehicle, such incidents  have ripple effects. For instance, replacing just one fire truck could cost a community millions. Repairing that truck drains resources, leads to fewer emergency vehicles on the road, and compromises community safety. This dangerous cycle demonstrates that both civilians and emergency personnel deserve better.

Slow Down, Move Over laws were created to help mitigate the risks associated with distracted and negligent driving. These laws require drivers to slow down and move over to allow safe clearance to emergency personnel, roadside workers, and other incidents and hazards on the road. Every state implemented some form of Move Over laws between 2001 - 2012, and states continue to improve these laws to make them more effective. 

However, challenges persist, with discrepancies state-to-state creating an uncertain environment for emergency responders and the motoring public. Digital alert systems represent a crucial step forward in keeping everyone safer on the road.

Safety Cloud alerts through Waze create safer roads for everyone

Experts in the field have studied the effectiveness of digital alerts. The results speak volumes. Research shows that digital alerts can help to reduce collisions and get drivers to slow down and move over.

Purdue University published a study in 2021 to measure the impact of digital alerting-equipped queue warning trucks on hard-braking events. The researchers’ goal was to discover if warning drivers of upcoming work zones earlier through digital alerting would reduce hard braking events on highways. After 3 months of research and 370 hours worth of observation, the study determined that queue trucks with digital alerting decreased hard braking events by 80 percent. 

It goes to show that the more drivers receive advanced warning from digital alerting systems, the more likely they’ll be to move over and prevent near misses. The best way to ensure more alerts get out there is to deliver them straight to drivers themselves. Waze is an incredibly powerful channel to do that. In 2024, Market Watch conducted a study to learn more about driver behavior, including their’ habits with navigation apps and how they use them to deal with speed traps. 

Their research shows that Waze is the second-most popular navigation app in the US. While it isn't the most popular navigation app, it offers benefits that other behemoths don't. For example, Market Watch's research shows that Waze is 30% more effective than Google Maps and 20% more effective than Apple Maps in alerting drivers to speed traps. Unique factors like that is why Waze's popularity continues to grow. Waze's CEO also attribute's the navigation app's human element to its popularity. 

“Why should anybody feel emotional about a navigation app? Yet people do, including me,” Waze CEO Neha Parikh said. “It’s not just a one-way app that uses technology. It is a two-way ecosystem where people actually contribute to help each other.”

Waze and HAAS Alert share a crucial mission in common — empowering people to help each other get home safely at the end of the day. Book a Safety Cloud demo now to ensure Waze users are alerted when your crews are working on the road. 

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