Waze is now rolling out Conversational Reporting, a feature powered by Gemini that enables drivers to report road incidents using only their voice. This enhancement allows users to tap the reporting button and describe the incident using natural, plain language.
How Conversational Reporting Works
Drivers can simply say something like, “there’s a mattress on the road” or “looks like there are cars jammed up ahead,” and Gemini will process the spoken description and automatically drop a report onto the map. As Google stated when initially announcing the feature, there is “No need to use a specific voice command or tap extra buttons.” If the driver’s initial report requires more detail or is ambiguous, Gemini is capable of asking follow-up questions, which the driver can also answer using their voice.
After being in beta testing for a year, the feature began appearing for some users in the UK and US last week. However, some early adopters are reporting a buggy experience. One Reddit user commented that the system “never seems to register what I say when I activate it in CarPlay,” while another complained that it “Stops the media playback and not resuming it.” In addition to these technical glitches, relentless pop-ups notifying users about the new feature’s arrival have also become a major source of complaint. Google will hopefully fix these issues soon.
What The Author Thinks
The integration of Gemini into Waze represents a clear leap forward in hands-free convenience, effectively transforming a tedious, button-based task into a simple conversation, which is critical for road safety. However, the reported initial bugs, particularly the disruption of media playback and issues with CarPlay, highlight the tension between rapidly deploying advanced AI features and ensuring a flawless user experience. While the core vision of “vibe-coding” a road hazard is strong, a buggy feature that distracts a driver is worse than no feature at all, proving that reliability must be prioritized over conversational novelty.
Featured image credit: Wikimedia Commons
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