Waze Spawns Massive Israel Traffic Jam After (False) Warning Of Closed Highway

By Marcy Oster February 22, 2017

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israeli drivers avoided the main Tel Aviv-Jerusalem highway during rush hour on Wednesday morning after the Waze navigation app incorrectly told them the road was closed.

The error indicating that Route 1 was closed caused major traffic jams on the alternative route, Route 443, the Times of Israel reported.

Waze called the incident “human error” and apologized, pledging to put into place procedures to prevent something like that from happening again, according to the Times of Israel.

Waze, created by a team of Israelis, is a free downloadable navigation app with over 50 million subscribers. Google acquired Waze in 2013 for nearly $1 billion.

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