Popular GPS driving app Waze has introduced a couple of nifty new features to its iOS app today.
The new Planned Drives feature lets you enter a date and time for your intended destination, and Waze will then tell you when it’s time to leave based on real-time traffic data.
Given that traffic conditions can change, you will also receive an alert with an updated recommended departure time if it does change.
Above: Planned Drives: Waze for iOS
Founded out of Israel in 2007, Waze built a solid reputation for the way it lets users share real-time traffic data, leading to Google to acquiring the company for more than $1 billion back in 2013.
While Waze already let users integrate their calendar with the navigation app to receive reminders on when to leave based on current or anticipated road conditions, that of course required users to actively update their Google Calendar with their life’s plans. By introducing a separate feature within the app for scheduling planned trips in advance, this gives drivers another option to ensure they’re never late. Indeed, with this latest feature Waze lets users pull in all their Calendar or Facebook events which will then be automatically turned into Planned Drives — these can then be viewed together in the main Waze app.
Another notable update that hits Waze for iOS today is explanations for slow traffic — yes, Waze will now give you the reason for a traffic jam if it’s known, for example if there has been an accident.
Waze said that this latest update will be arriving for Android users “soon.”