All praise Waze! Its updated “Where to Park” feature drives you directly to that primo parking spot closest to your destination. It’s not about the journey, but about your parking spot, as every driver knows!

My Quick Take:
My love for Waze began shortly after moving to SoCal a few years ago, and my love runneth over with this newest development:  Now in addition to finding the cheapest gas and yummiest eats along your route, you can drive straight to that primo parking spot nearest to your final stop  Now inside the Waze app, users can get routed straight to their destination -or- to the parking spot closest to their destination, avoiding the endless “looking for a spot” shuffle!

What It Is:
Waze is combining the best of what it does (giving you the fastest routes based on real-time driving and data from more than 50 million users) with the connected car services of INRIX to provide enhanced functionality inside the Waze app, which every driver will relish because:

“Drivers wasted an average of 55 hours last year searching for parking, representing nearly $600M in lost time and fuel,” according to a company release

Waze recently introduced its first “Where to Park” feature, which suggests parking lots closest to a destination and allows users to navigate there directly. But, if a user doesn’t select a parking lot prior to arrival, Waze will give the option to select and navigate to one when approaching a final destination. INRIX parking data, already supplied to car companies like BMW and Volkswagen, adds to the Waze database, comprised of parking lots sourced by the Waze community and other company partners.

google waze parking

So instead of getting routed to Third Street Promenade and driving in circles for parking, Waze directs you to the parking lot on 4th street. Then, an automatic parking pin will be added to the map, so you can remember where you parked and you’ll received walking ETA to your car’s location.

Fine Print:
Remember, these features are only in the Waze app, NOT Google maps – even though owned by the same parent company. New features will roll out to users over time, so there’s no precise timetable for when it will reach you.

Get It Now: Available on Android and iOS at www.waze.com/get