Permanent Hazards Phase 1

Feature Summary

Permanent hazards are meaningful road insights that users would want to know while driving.  Alerts will encourage users to slow down and drive more safely saving not only drivers lives but pedestrians too.  This feature empowers you to contribute real-time information that makes a lasting impact on the Waze experience.

However, with great power comes great responsibility 🙂. We want to emphasize the importance of using Permanent Hazards judiciously.

For this first phase you will be able to add PH as points:

• Sharp curve
• Multiple Lanes Merging
• Complex Intersection

The idea is to warn users of certain entities that might have a higher probability of accidents due to the complexity of them.

• Speed bump: speed reductor.
• Toll Booth: use it to indicate physical toll booths. Please note this is not the same as marking a segment as ¨toll road¨ from the restrictions panel. Adding a toll booth does not affect routing, but it warns the user of an upcoming toll booth with an alert.

Introductory words from Gil, our PM

Hello Wazers! The day has finally come! We’re launching the first phase of Permanent Hazards with the introduction of “point on map” hazards.

This was one of the most requested features by the Waze community, even before I joined the team. That’s why I never said it would be coming “soon”! 🙂

Phase 2 is right around the corner with our new, shiny advanced scheduler. But until then, please take a look at the first phase. Your input and feedback will help us make sure that phase 2 is even better.

Thanks!

Lock Level and deletion

By default, PH as a feature will be locked to L4 and above.  

This can be changed, as each country will also have a configurable minimum rank for editing Permanent Hazard. If you wish to request a change for the minimum rank to edit PH in your country, please ask your coordinators to complete the form that has been shared in the Coordinators Forum.

That said, the PH will also inherit the lock level of the segment to which it has been added to.

Scenarios:

• If the segment is locked to L1 and a PH is added, and the country’s lock level is L4, the lock level for the PH will be L4.
• If the segment is locked at L5 and a PH is added and the country’s lock  level is L4, the lock level for the PH will be L5.

If a low-level editor deletes a segment, the PH will also be deleted, even though the editor does not have permission to delete the PH directly. However, if the editor tries to delete the PH directly, the operation will fail.

How to add a PH

1. Click on the Hazards button on the top right side of the screen and click Enable layer.

   

2. Now that the layer is enabled, select the PH Hazard you wish to add by hovering your mouse over the relevant hazards and clicking Create Point.

   

3. Drag the point to the place in the map you wish to locate the PH.
4. Add the direction.
5. Save. That's it! Please note that as other entities, PHs do require a map build in order to be displayed in the client.

Mapping Guidelines

Please follow these guidelines when adding the following Permanent Hazards to the map:

Multiple Lanes Merging

Add a hazard to the map when:

• More than 2 lanes merge at once: This includes situations where the merge occurs outside of the current map segment.

Complex Intersection

Add a hazard to the map when:

• Multiple roads meet at a single point: This indicates a more complicated intersection than traditional layouts.
• There are different flows of traffic entering the intersection at unexpected/unusual areas: Pay close attention to intersections where traffic patterns don't follow standard merging or yielding rules.
• Lane guidance alone is insufficient for smooth navigation: If you believe drivers would benefit from an extra warning about the intersection, add a hazard.

Speed bumps

Speed bumps bumps that serve to reduce speed.

We’ve also added the option in some countries to alert for every speed bump for a big and destructive speed bump.

Please use this toggle with discretion, only for speed bumps that pose a real danger to the car and driver and that require a speed reduction in order to prevent the car from being damaged.

The toggle is displayed in:

• Mexico
• India
• Honduras
• Colombia
• El Salvador
• Dominican Republic
• Paraguay
• Venezuela
• Hungary
• Israel
• Qatar
• Uruguay
• Italy

If you wish to add the toggle for big and destructive speed bumps to your country, please ask your community coordinator to request it in this forum post. The change will be done by your CM.

Direction

PH can be added in one direction, or in both ways (for 2 way segments)

For one way segments, the directionality will be automatically selected and won’t be displayed.

If you drag a PH from a 1 way segment to a 2  way segment, the affected driving direction from the original segment will be kept, but you can change it.

To summarize:

If you drag and drop a PH, the following will occur (in terms of directionality)

• One way to 2-way: we will enable both directions
• 2-way to 1-way: we will enable the only direction
  • If changing a 2-way segment with A-B only enabled to a B-A segment, the new direction will be B-A (the only viable direction), if changing back to 2-way we will remember the originally intent direction (and put it back as A-B),

Explanatory video

Splitting and merging segments with PH

• Splitting a segment would result in 2 different segments, each retaining the existing permanent hazards that exist on it’s part, so, for example:
  • Segment A = 1000m long PH X @ 100m PH Y @ 400m PH Z @ 800m
  • New Segments: A & B, each 500 m long
    • Segment A = 500m long PH X @100m PH Y @400m
    • Segment B = 500m long PH Z @300m
• Merging a segment would result in 1 new segment with the PH items on the original projected location, for example:
  • Existing segments:
    • Segment A = 500m long PH X @100m PH Y @400m
    • Segment B = 500m long PH Z @300m
  • New segment A = 1000m long PH X @ 100m PH Y @ 400m PH Z @ 800m

Existent Cameras and Railroad Crossing

Cameras and Railroad Crossing have been moved under the Hazards menu. All cameras that you’ve edited remain unchanged.

That said, their behavior will not change at the moment, so cameras will not share the capabilities/rules with PH.

Alerts on Client

PH alerts will be displayed on the client 500 mts before the hazard has been mapped, as a takeover with sound.

Multiple pins capping: When multiple PH of the same type occur in close proximity (less than 500 from each other) we group them together as follows:

• Show one alerter letting the driver know that there are multiple occurrences of such type ahead
• Show only one pin on map in the app for the first occurrence of this PH (grouping is done by PH type and never for different types together)

FAQS

What happens if I delete a segment with a PH?

The PH will be deleted as well.

What happens if I change the lock level of a segment with a PH?

This means the lock level for the PH on that given segment will be changed as well.

What happens if I delete a PH on a segment?

The segment will remain unchanged. You are just removing the hazard.

What happens if I drag/drop a PH to another segment, with a different direction?

• One way to 2-way: Enable both directions
• 2-way to 1-way: Enable the only direction
  • If changing a 2-way segment with A-B only enabled to a B-A segment, the new direction will be B-A (the only viable direction), if changing back to 2-way we will remember the originally intent direction (and put it back as A-B),

Can we add PHs from the app?

Not at the moment. We’ve spoken about this internally and understand it can be valuable since some hazards are hard to locate using satellite imagery, but it is not in the roadmap for now.

Will PHs appear in the app in real time, once they are added to WME?

No, they need a tile build like other map entities.

When is Phase 2 planned for?

Phase 2 (scheduler + hazards on polygons) is in design phases. Likely 2024, but we don’t have a timeline yet.