Enhanced TIO

Note that this is a draft article. This will either need to be included in a more accessible article once this has been finalized (most likely into Junction Arrows then) or maybe it is worth being a separate article.

Turn Instruction Overrides (Turn Guidance)

Turn Instruction Overrides (TIO) is a feature in the WME which allows editors to control the visible instruction and the verbal instruction given to the driver making that turn through a junction.

This makes it possible to override the following aspects of each turn:

• The text of the audible guidance of text-to-speech (TTS) voices (or to disable audible guidance)
• The display of the visual guidance, including which turn instruction you get, the displayed text, road shields and exit signs (or to disable visible guidance)

This capability allows generating precise instructions, better aligned with the local signalisation. As such, please avoid using micro-doglegs (mDL) from now on. This technique, used to alter the turn instruction by modifying the angle, is no longer needed. The mDL technique sometimes causes weird user placements on the map and should therefore be avoided.

Instruction overrides allow us to simplify some segment names. Previously, some segments where artificially named in order to generate adequate instructions. Before we rename or remove these segments, the feature needs to have gone live to all clients.

Ideally, all road turns for which there are destination signs will receive a turn instruction override to use the information on those signs in the audible and visible instructions. This is a great improvement compared to the current turn instructions that only roughly give an idea of what sort of turn to take and the street name you'll be going to.

Turn Instruction Overrides are available for all regular junctions and roundabouts. For roundabouts, the voice prompt should never be adjusted. Any turn instruction overrides on roundabout exits will be used at the entrance to describe the exit to be taken on the roundabout. Junction boxes are not yet supported, but are planned to become supported as well.

Road shields in turn instruction overrides

An example of the free text field being used instead of the direction field

To add a road shield to an instruction, you select it from a list. That list only includes road shields from streets that are currently visible on the Waze Map Editor screen. So if a shield is missing, zooming out or moving the map will show you more shields in the list. Any changes to that road shield on the street will not change the road shield used in the instruction override as the shield is duplicated. If the shield you want to add doesn't exist yet, you can temporarily create a shield on a nearby street and then use that shield in the instruction override. Don't forget to remove the shield from that street afterwards.

Make sure to leave the direction information field for a road shield empty. This field is present for countries that add a cardinal direction to road numbers (e.g. Route 66 North). If you want to add text like a street name behind the road shield, you should add a "Free text" field with the plus button instead.

There is no practical use for drivers to get a road shield for a road number that isn't signed. As such we do not want to add shields for road numbers that aren't signed with the direction signs.

Exit signs

An example of how we want exit instructions to look with an exit name and listed destinations

The instruction overrides feature also allows you to add an exit sign to the instructions. This exit sign shows the exit number in the same way as it is signed alongside the road. The name of the exit should be put as the visual instruction. A road shield may be added to these instructions, if it is signed. If destinations are listed on the advance exit sign, these may be added in the "Towards" field.

As a fallback mechanism, we still want the exit ramps to have a street name as they were before (Afrit/Sortie # > destination). This is fine as the name of ramp segments is not displayed in the app or livemap. This will allow the client to still give proper instructions should we ever forget to add the instruction override.