Waze, the “social driving” service that allows road users to share traffic conditions automatically in real time, is to start feeding traffic news to media organisations via a new feature called Custom Groups.
The Israeli startup is teaming up with media brands to create Custom Groups that allow users to relay traffic conditions to traffic news reporters. The first two outlets to sign up are TV station NBC2 in Florida and newspaper The Statesman in Austin, Texas.
The Statesman already has its group up and running, with over one hundred members of the public sharing the traffic conditions on their journeys with the newspaper. Meanwhile, NBC2 is set to launch within the next few weeks.
The benefit of branded groups is clear – media outlets get real-time data about road conditions, users require no additional effort to share the information and Waze itself gets some useful new partners to help promote its product.
Waze, meanwhile is celebrating reaching 1.5 million users and has shared some infographics showing its currentdistribution by country, along with growth curve this year.
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