Waze Mobile Ltd,[2] (/weɪz/; Hebrew: ווייז מובייל בע"מ) doing business as Waze (Hebrew: ווייז), formerly FreeMap Israel, is a subsidiary company of Google that provides satellite navigation software on smartphones and other computers that support the Global Positioning System (GPS).

In addition to turn-by-turn navigation, it incorporates user-submitted travel times and route details while downloading location-dependent information over a cellular network.

[8] In 2006, Israeli programmer Ehud Shabtai founded a community project known as FreeMap Israel, which aimed to create (with the crowd-sourcing assistance of community users) a free digital mapping database of Israel compiled in the Hebrew language with ensured free content, updates, and distribution.

[12] The application was updated in 2011 to display real-time, community-curated points of interest, including local events such as street fairs and protests.

[20] As part of the acquisition, the Waze development team continued to operate in Israel as a separate entity from Google.

The FTC later decided that it would not challenge the deal;[23] the Office of Fair Trading of the United Kingdom and the Israel Antitrust Authority also launched an investigation, in which the acquisition was ultimately unchallenged.

[28] Waze users ("Wazers") can report accidents, traffic jams, speed and police traps, and, from the online map editor, can update roads, landmarks, house numbers, etc.

Waze sends anonymous information, including users' speed and location, back to its database to improve the service as a whole.

Waze encourages users to report traffic or road hazards through incentives such as acquiring points for their profiles.

In addition to user input, Waze relies on information from state agencies for traffic events such as road construction.

In June 2013, Waze introduced a global localization project that enables future road closures and real-time traffic updates during major events in a given country, for example the Tour de France.

[32] In 2017, an option was added for motorcycle users, as well as specialized routes for people eligible to drive in carpool lanes.

Some featured voices include Morgan Freeman, T-Pain, DJ Khaled, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Cookie Monster, Colonel Sanders, Kevin Hart, Shaq, and many more.

[41] In May 2019 the company announced it would be adding Pandora as a new streaming service to the audio play feature for iOS users, allowing riders to have more music options during their commute.

In 2022, Google announced that the app would be retired, citing COVID-related changes in commuting patterns that led to a sharp decline in carpooling.

It was noted that though initially the data the apps were sharing was all anonymous, more specific identifying details were possible, if people agreed to being monitored through their smartphones if they saw benefits for them.

Waze promotes driving through neighborhoods to avoid traffic jams on main roads,[52] endangering and disturbing residents and deteriorating their communities.

[57] In 2019, security researcher Peter Gasper reported two information disclosure vulnerabilities in the Waze Live Map, the web-based version of the navigation software.