I’ve been driving around more than usual this holiday season. This time of year allows me some extra free time that inspires me and my family to pay the bridge toll and go shopping far and wide. Because if not now, then when? Over the Thanksgiving break, we were venturing out toward IKEA when I noticed Google Maps on Android Auto spouting alerts about where highway patrol was on my route. I’ve seen alerts like this before, but not this big. I thought to myself, this must be the final wave of Waze features integrated into Google Maps.
Waze has always been popular among commuters because of its community-submitted reports. The same people you’re forced to share the road with can tap on the app to let others know whether there’s a crash up ahead or a slowdown due to an object in the road. It’s very specific about what’s going on, too, which is super helpful when you’re driving and can’t paw through social media to figure out what’s going on.
The alert feature is now embedded into Google Maps, similar to how you’ve interacted with it on Waze. An alert will go off, and a box will pop up. It will ask if the incident ahead is still there or has been cleared. Then, you’ll have some time to respond by selecting an option.
This is the part where it started to get distracting. We were in rush hour traffic on the way home, and as you can imagine, the feature was going off, alerting us of every incident up ahead. At first, it was helpful—I have a lead foot and want to know about speed traps! But then it became something on screen that I had to interact with, thus taking my hand off the wheel and eyes off the road. When the prompt asks you to report whether an incident remains ahead, the pop-up box stays on screen for what feels like an entire minute (or at least it did while I was driving). My husband also found it distracting while driving and snarked about wanting it to turn off.
The problem here is not with Waze and this particular set of features. There’s something that preceded it. It was the invention of the touchscreen in the car, which has graduated from a fad into an expectation. I was so happy when we bought our Subaru Outback three years ago until I realized the model we’d chosen was only available with an 11-inch touchscreen. That touchscreen is slower than smartphone interaction and requires an actual press for the interface to notice. It continues to frustrate me years later while I’m driving. Whenever Waze pops up with this feature, I’ll be reminded that I’ve been saddled with a touchscreen that distracts me while driving.