Map tiles are part of the core of the Waze Map.
Theory of operation
The Waze map is divided into a grid using 1km-square areas which are called tiles or map tiles. Changes to the map are processed on a per-tile basis. Changes to any part of a map tile cause Waze to mark the tile as changed and it will be rebuilt during a map update cycle.
Updates
When certain items in the map are edited, they cause Waze to incorporate the changes from the offline editor database into the live map database during the next update cycle. That process will only include changes from map tiles that trigger the tile for an update. Not everything that gets edited will trigger an update.
Note that because some things do not trigger updates on their own, Waze will also cycle through a percentage of the tiles each map update cycle and eventually update all the tiles. The process generally takes 10+ days.
Trigger updates
The following edits are known to trigger a map update for anything else that changed in the same map tile.
- Adding a new road through WME
- Adding a new road by paving in the client after the back end system processes the drive (a few days).
- Adding toll indicator
- Changes to Street/Alternate/City/State name
- Geometry changes to a segment
- Junction Arrows (standard and scheduled restrictions)
- Lanes
- Road elevation
- Road locks
- Segment restrictions (scheduled)
- Speed Limits
Non-trigger edits
The following edits will not trigger an update of the tiles they are included in. Some of them may not be seen in the client until the tiles are updated automatically on the regular cycle.
- Camera updates will not be seen until the tile is updated.
- To expedite the process, perform a trigger update on the same tile.
- Adding or editing House Numbers in WME are not dependent on tile updates.
- They will be included in the next house number index update. Performing a trigger updated is not needed. See the House numbers page for more details.
- Adding or editing a place is partially reliant on a tile update.
- Place details and navigation updates go live immediately
- The place name index (used when searching for the place by name) is updated separately on a schedule, and is unaffected by the tile build.
- The polygon and name displayed on the client map for area places is only updated with a tile build. To expedite an update of an area place polygon on the client map, perform a trigger update.