per Lucas Gharib
My experience with CarPlay comes since last February, when I bought my new car (a Peugeot 208 Allure, year 2018). The fact of having this integration weighed in at the time of the purchase decision, after all, the competitors I saw did not have this feature and, as a good technology freak, I could not be without the next years.
Since then, CarPlay has been my companion. I can easily use the phone, listen to messages and dictate short and succinct responses to Siri (even on WhatsApp it works), control the music using the sound controls on the steering wheel … it’s super-useful, but it was missing to such navigation. Today, the long-awaited update came!
I’ve been part of the Apple Beta Software Program since iOS 10 – and iOS 12 wouldn’t be any different, especially with the release of navigation and map integration for CarPlay. So much so that, soon after, I joined the beta community of Waze to also receive as soon as possible the update that would make the feature available – which happened this week.
Here are my first impressions about Waze on CarPlay!
Navigation and interface
Everything is working extremely well! The information is displayed very clearly in a simple interface with few elements, so as not to distract the driver. The turn-by-turn curve is very well established and the next necessary movement is fixed to the left side of the screen, which makes it easier to know which track to keep in order to program in a conversion, for example.

Something nice to mention is that if the next move goes too far and the speed is a little bit higher, as in marginals, the map gives a zoom out and navigation is even better. Nice touch! Another important detail is that ETA (estimated time of arrival, or estimated time of arrival) is also always available on the same left side, but at the bottom of the screen, which helps to know the distance and time remaining to the destination.

Another interesting point: in the middle of navigation, a simple touch on the screen brings down a small bar by which you can choose the level of warnings (if always on, if only for alerts or completely off).

Another icon allows you to look at the available routes, and you can choose the fastest, the shortest or the one that seems most appropriate. This menu is displayed at the same time that the map changes the view and highlights the possibilities on routes with different colors.
Still on the interface, if you exceed the speed limit, the icon of the board with the allowed speed appears in the upper right corner, followed by the standard audible warning that we already know.

Finally, I highlight the warnings and alerts for radars and holes. They come through popups to the left and then the alert icon is displayed – in the case of a radar, informing the distance and, curiously, two options just below the alert (one to thank and one to deny its existence). I found it interesting because, even in this limited interface, the collaborative core of the app is maintained. Point to Google!
Search for places

It works as well as it does on a smartphone, but it’s not very comfortable or practical to type on the screen. If you go to a favorite place, just touch the star and choose the location so that navigation starts instantly. But if you go somewhere else, then you need to use the on-screen keyboard (which is very accurate, but perhaps not practical). The good thing is that, when typing, suggestions start to appear which can shorten this process. Once the location has been chosen, the interface displays more information about the destination and a button to start navigation.
Here is an observation: log of the update, support for voice commands in English is mentioned, but I still couldn’t find the icon. Maybe because of my location I am not cleared or maybe I should activate the command on the steering wheel of the car, although I tried and it had no effect.
Turn to turn by voice
Here, nothing to declare. We are talking about the very same feature available in the iOS app, which works the same way.
Bugs identified
There is a boring bug that influences the experience of driving while listening to music. I explain: the priority of the sound is for navigation alerts for Waze. But, when I’m listening to a song on Deezer (my favorite music service) and an alert appears, the sound of the song fades. So far, nothing much, since the priority is really the Waze alert. The problem is that, after the alert, the music does not return to the previous volume and remains low.
I noticed that this is unstable because, at the end of a second alert, the music returned to play in the normal sound; after a few seconds, however, instability reappeared. And this is repeated even without a route plotted on the map: just by opening Waze, Deezer’s sound is already reduced and only returns to normal after “killing” the app on the iPhone. The good news is that an update came out today promising to fix this, so we’ll see!
Negative note
The interface as a whole is not well defined. It is possible to see some serrations, but it may come from the model of my console – although I don’t notice it in other apps. It is also not possible to freely navigate the map with your fingers, only by the direction and zoom arrows – even though the media is original of the car and supports multitouch with up to three fingers.
Positive note
Everything is very simple and easy to use. The app maintains the collaborative essence and it is possible to insert several alerts in the middle of the navigation – including to thank the alerts of other users or to “deny them”. I also found it great that it was possible to combine routes with multiple stops – something I use very little, but I know people who think the resource is fundamental.

In general, Waze does its job very well, with a good and easy to use interface. There are all the elements of the iOS app and the convenience we already know. Voice search remains open, which is not available in English for now, and the sound bug (which may have already been fixed) – “normal” things in an app that is still in beta.
One more thing…
The reader Jose Ronaldo is also testing Waze and alerted us to something curious, which takes the blame from Google regarding the delay in starting testing the app for CarPlay.
Apparently, Apple did not allow – or limit – external tests with TestFlight that required iOS 12 features and functionality until the system was released to the general public. So much so that the company only approved the first version of Waze on TestFlight (platform for distributing apps under test) yesterday, after the launch of the mobile operating system.
What a thing …
