How Waze kills dead zones in tunnels for all commuters

Image: Kena Betancur/VIEWpress/Corbis via Getty Image

Just because you’re underground doesn’t mean you have to drive blind. 

For commuters who depend on or maximize their drive with a navigation app, heading into tunnels and other low-service areas defeats the whole purpose of using GPS-enabled directions. 

Waze, Google’s handy driving directions app, has been zapping dead zones with Beacons, the small battery-operated devices it debuted in 2016. On Tuesday, Beacons that transmit 10 pulses every second went up in New York City. 

More than 700 Beacons are now stuck to the walls of the Holland, Lincoln, Queens-Midtown, and Hugh L. Carey (Brooklyn Battery) tunnels. The devices, which cost $28.50 and can be installed quickly, are already sending out radio signal to drivers in Chicago, IL; Boston, MA; Pittsburgh, PA; Rio, Brazil; Paris, France; Florence, Italy; Haifa, Israel; Jihlava, Czech Republic; and Oslo, Norway.

Waze’s Gil Disatnik said in a call this week that “we don’t want to give you any location data if we’re not sure,” so that’s where the Beacons come in to send a signal to show your true location. Sure, the apps can make a well-informed guess where you are based on traffic speeds before you enter the tunnel, but it’s not authentic location tracking.

The Beacons program isn’t entirely a Waze marketing campaign. Instead, it’s costing the directions app to partner with cities, transportation agencies, and private road companies. But it does make it so that the main product — the Waze navigation app — can work more places and without disruption. 

But it’s not just Waze users – any navigation app can use the Beacons’ signal. “You don’t need to know about it, just use it,” Disatnik said.

The devices are stuck to the wall with industrial-grade adhesive and are built to handle soot and grime that accumulates in tunnel conditions. The average driver probably won’t notice the 42 devices per mile of tunnel, but they should notice the continuous service.

Ride-hailing drivers on apps like Uber and Lyft often complain about dropped signal while out working, something Uber addressed with its driver app update last year. The app now records GPS locations so when there’s no service it still knows where you’re supposed to go. 

It’s not only ride-hailing drivers who can take advantage of the signal boost, but anyone affected by tunnel blindness. The next time you enter a tunnel in one of the Beacons’ locations, you should be good to go.