CROWDSOURCING THE ROAD. Waze 3.6 adds crowdsourcing functionality for road closures. Photo from Waze.

MANILA, Philippines - Road information crowdsourcing app Waze has a new tool to fight off the traffic demons: crowdsourced rerouting information in the event of road closures.

Announced on the Waze blog, version 3.6 of the application brings "the first real-time crowdsourced solution to helping drivers navigate around road closures and get where they need to be."

The Waze blog explains that once a user encounters a road closure, that user can "just tap the closure icon in the report screen. Choose the type of closure (hazard, construction, or ‘event’) and mark how long you anticipate it’ll last." The map editing community of Waze will take care of marking and editing for extended closures to a given location.

CLOSURE TRACKING. Waze allows users who encounter road closures to report them for other Waze users' benefit. Screen shot from Waze blog.

After a completed report is made, Waze will close the road off and offer rerouting advice. Waze says smart systems are in place "to ensure accuracy and predict reality." An algorithm will determine if there's enough evidence to support a road closure, and system is in place to return roads to normal status once it detects cards driving on a reportedly closed street.

This new Waze update brings new moods and a newly customised message inbox for people to use as well. Waze is available on for iOS and Android devices. - Rappler.com