Waze will now warn drivers when a Garmin cyclist is nearby

On November 10, Google announced that Waze, its driving app, and Garmin are teaming up on real-time cycling alerts. The goal, in the companies' words, is a safer environment on the road.

Here is how it works. A cyclist turns on Garmin LiveTrack on a Garmin Edge bike computer or a Garmin smartwatch. LiveTrack is a Garmin feature that shares your live location while you move. Once it is on, the rider can choose to show up on Waze as a moving icon.

Drivers nearby also get a notification that a cyclist is close. It acts as a reminder to slow down, stay aware and share the road.

Why it matters: the warning reaches the driver before the driver can see the rider. That is the whole point.

Picture a driver on a quiet country road with Waze open. A cyclist is ahead, around a bend. The driver sees a small moving bike icon on the map and a message that cyclists are ahead.

The driver did not have to do anything. Waze already shows other things drivers care about, so a bike icon fits into a screen they know.

In real life you are driving home at dusk on a narrow road with trees on both sides. A notification tells you a cyclist is just ahead. You ease off the gas before you ever see the bike light.

Not much, but the cyclist has to choose it. The feature is completely opt-in. Nobody appears on Waze by accident.

The steps are simple:

• Wear or mount a Garmin device: an Edge bike computer or a Garmin smartwatch.
• Turn on LiveTrack: the same feature many riders already use to share a ride with family.
• Choose to show up on Waze: this is the extra permission that makes the icon appear.

Garmin devices are not new to this. Plenty of Garmin owners already use LiveTrack so loved ones know where they are on a ride or a run. The new part is that the same signal can now reach drivers too.

This is the part most riders will ask about first. Waze says drivers only see a temporary alert that a cyclist is nearby. They never see the cyclist's name, identity or exact route.

The sharing also ends by itself. Alerts turn off the moment the rider ends the ride on their Garmin device. There is no icon left behind on the map after you lock your bike in the garage.

So the design has three guardrails:

• Opt-in: the rider decides.
• Anonymous: no name, no identity, no exact route.
• Temporary: it stops when the ride ends.

Google says cycling alerts powered by Garmin are rolling out now, globally, on Android and iOS. "Rolling out" means the feature reaches phones in waves, so some people may see it a little later than others.

The launch follows early hints. In early November, code in version 5.31 of the Garmin Connect app, Garmin's companion app on your phone, showed new words: "Share your rides with Waze" and "Waze Location Sharing". It also showed a consent screen, which is the step where you agree to share. At that point nobody had confirmed what it would do, and the timing was unknown. The announcement answers both questions.

Roads are risky for people on bikes, and the numbers are not small. In the United States, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration counted 1,166 cyclist deaths in 2023, about 2.9 percent of all traffic deaths. Roughly 28 percent of those deaths happened at intersections, and 23 percent, or 274 deaths, involved a hit-and-run.

Those figures cover one country and one year. They do not say a notification would have changed any single case. They do show why companies keep looking for ways to make riders easier to notice.

An alert is a different tool from a light or a bright jersey. A light helps a driver who is already looking. A map notification can reach a driver who is looking at the road ahead, but does not yet know a rider is on it.

Garmin has built a small family of safety tools for bikes, and this launch adds one more.

• LiveTrack: shares your live location with contacts you choose.
• Incident detection: sends a message with your live location to your chosen contacts if the device detects an incident.
• Varia radar: warns the rider about vehicles coming from behind. Garmin says its Varia RearVue 820 sends visual and audible alerts to compatible Edge bike computers and select Garmin smartwatches.
• Varia RCT715: a tail light that gets brighter when it senses an approaching vehicle. Garmin says drivers can see it from up to 2 kilometers, about 1.24 miles, away.

Look at the pattern. Radar tells the rider about the car. The new Waze feature tells the driver about the rider. That is one conversation, finally going both ways.

Waze is a driving app that people use for traffic, routes and warnings about things on the road. Google bought the company in June 2013 for about $1.3 billion. At that time it had nearly 50 million users.

That history matters here. Waze built its name on telling drivers what is ahead. A cyclist icon is a natural new thing for it to show.

It is also a reminder of what the feature is not. It does not create bike routes or turn Waze into a cycling app. It adds one more kind of warning to a driver's screen.

A few honest limits are worth knowing.

• You need a Garmin: the alerts depend on LiveTrack from a Garmin Edge bike computer or smartwatch.
• Drivers need Waze: the icon appears in Waze, so a driver on another navigation app will not see it.
• Riders must opt in: a cyclist who does not turn it on will not appear.
• It is a nudge, not a guarantee: the alert reminds a driver to slow down. The driver still has to act.

Those limits are normal for a first version. The value grows with each rider who turns it on and each driver who has the app open.

• If you ride with a Garmin: look for the Waze setting in your Garmin tools, turn on LiveTrack and choose to show up on Waze. It stays off until you pick it.
• If you drive with Waze: expect a new bike icon and a notification when a rider is near. Treat it as a reason to slow down.
• If you care about privacy: the feature shows no name, no identity and no exact route, and it stops when the ride ends.
• If you do not own a Garmin: nothing changes for you yet, and the alerts depend on Garmin devices.