Waze started rolling out three new features to its iOS and Android app Wednesday, the most noticeable of which is new support for high occupancy vehicles or carpool lanes.
Now, if you’re carpooling or have a vehicle with a special permit, Waze will offer travel times and directions for the HOV lanes as well, making it the first navigation tool to offer the opportunity.
The feature is currently supported in Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, Georgia, Hawaii, Louisiana, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah, Virginia, Washington, Wisconsin, and D.C as well as Toronto, Vancouver, and Montreal. You can turn the new feature on by going to the Navigation menu within Waze and then clicking “Add Tool/HOV Pass.”
In addition to the new HOV navigation, Waze also added a hands-free feature that allows you to interact with Waze by saying “OK Waze”
To activate this feature, go into the Sounds & Voice menu within Waze and select “Talk to Waze” followed by “OK Waze.”
The third and final new feature is the addition of motorcycles as a vehicle type, allowing riders to get new motorcycle-specific directions.