Waze is releasing an update today to its iPhone and Android apps that includes a helpful new feature for saving a few bucks on the road: thanks to the crowd-sourced data, you’ll now be able to save cash on fuel.
To start saving, you tap the left menu icon and choose Categories. There, not only are you capable of finding all sorts of places nearby within their respective categories, but gas stations will list all the local gas stations by price. Waze talks about how when most people realize they are low on fuel, they just pull into the nearest gas station without realizing that it may be cheaper just a few blocks down your journey. Listing gas stations along the route starting with the lowest price will alleviate this problem. Participating locations also offer discounts on gas exclusive to Wazers.
Since Waze is known for being crowd-sourced, if you arrive at a gas station and find that the prices listed within the app are wrong, you can update it to help out the rest of the Waze community — now 19 million users strong.
The new gas station search is just one among a few enhancements in this release. Starting today, you can add stops to your route, search through the aforementioned categories menu for different types of venues, save community updates in an inbox, and Android users can report incidents using hands-free voice control.
Some speculated that Waze might be doomed to fail once iOS 6 came out with turn-by-turn directions and a new Maps app, but so far, big things are happening for the startup. The app is available for free in the App Store and Google Play.