Waze or TomTom in France

[garyfrogeye]

I've always used Tom Tom in France, via the mobile app, which I pay for. But wondered what people's experience of using Waze in France (and Europe generally has been like).

[Kev_mk3]

Waze is technically illegal in France from what I believe, but I've used it for years and find it great. Only thing I've noticed is cameras show as police not a camera that is it.

[JDS]

Waze is technically illegal in France from what I believe, but I've used it for years and find it great. Only thing I've noticed is cameras show as police not a camera that is it.

Nope, it's not. Indeed, you will find that many organisations here are partnering with Waze for directions to events - for example, the ACO for this year's Le Mans! Speed camera/radar detectors or any database of camera locations is illegal here, but Waze gets around this by having an 'incident' database. Semantics yes, but in the world of legaleze it matters a lot I guess. The maps are all based on Google maps (as Waze is 100% owned by Google) but display differently and have a lot of user interactivity/input (think more of a community) so the information is often more up to date than more conventional nav systems such as TT or Google Maps.

Ultimately, it's free, so you have nothing to loose by trying it out.

[Kev_mk3]

Waze is technically illegal in France from what I believe, but I've used it for years and find it great. Only thing I've noticed is cameras show as police not a camera that is it.

Nope, it's not. Indeed, you will find that many organisations here are partnering with Waze for directions to events - for example, the ACO for this year's Le Mans! Speed camera/radar detectors or any database of camera locations is illegal here, but Waze gets around this by having an 'incident' database. Semantics yes, but in the world of legaleze it matters a lot I guess. The maps are all based on Google maps (as Waze is 100% owned by Google) but display differently and have a lot of user interactivity/input (think more of a community) so the information is often more up to date than more conventional nav systems such as TT or Google Maps.

Ultimately, it's free, so you have nothing to loose by trying it out.

Good to know thank you

[clkgtrlm1]

At the moment, there is no unilateral agreement between France an the UK for fixed speed cameras, so really of no interest (at the moment).

I have not used Waze, so I have no idea, but I guess users can report incidents of "Les Flics" diving out of bushes with hair driers?
This is then reported via the app to irresponsible drivers who are driving whilst looking at their phone?   ;)

[Werner]

I've used Waze for the 24h and the Classic this year, it was great. Surprisingly it found better, shorter ways through Paris than Google Maps, which I checked in paralell.

[Lawnmower Man]

I used waze for the forst time in France because that was how the ACO directed me to the Ticket collection point.
Since then I've used it as my satnav of choice.

I'm using it on an iphone linked to CarPlay.  The best feature I find is that if I have an appiontment in my diary Waze automatically picks it up.

[Barry]

My favorite feature of TomTom is being able to set up routes on My Drive on my desktop which will transfer to my TT app and Jo's TomTom. If you want to go cross country or the scenic routes it's excellent.

Is there a similar function with Waze?

[JDS]

My favorite feature of TomTom is being able to set up routes on My Drive on my desktop which will transfer to my TT app and Jo's TomTom. If you want to go cross country or the scenic routes it's excellent.

Is there a similar function with Waze?

Yep, but it's clunky - the 'app' on your PC is basically a webpage.