The Waze integration with Headspace involves a Spotify Playlist
Starting off the Headspace integration, Waze has introduced five new moods that will replace your car icon. These moods are aware, joyful, open, bright, and hopeful. While a new car icon wouldn’t exactly do much to reduce stress, it’s still an interesting addition. The really helpful feature is the ability to stream audio from Headspace. You’ll be able to listen to a Spotify playlist full of relaxing audio in the Waze app. This will play relaxing and meditative audio for you to help keep your stress down. If the icons and the playlist aren’t enough, you’ll also have a new navigating voice. Headspace’s mindfulness instructor, Eve Lewis Prieto, will be your guiding voice. This combination of soothing music and a soothing voice should hopefully help to keep people from stressing out while on the road. Truth be told, driving is a rather stressful activity, and if you get stressed easily or suffer from anxiety, it’s imperative that you have some means of stress relief (other than punching your steering wheel). Waze adding the integration with Headspace might be just what some drivers need.
What is Headspace anyway?
Headspace is an entire suite of meditative content and practices to help you keep your stress levels down. Founded in 2010, the company has been growing steadily over the years. Content includes articles, animations, music, videos, and meditation. The overall goal of Headspace is to help people practice mindfulness throughout their day and live happier lives. If you think you could use a bit more mindfulness, there’s a free basic plan that introduces you to the program. If you feel like you would want to upgrade, the plan costs $12.99/month, and there’s also a $69.99/year plan.
Google Maps will start giving you the most fuel-efficient routes
Other news on navigation software has to do with Google Maps. The app has been helping people find the fastest routes to where they’re going, but it’s now showing people the most fuel-efficient routes. The company says that this could actually help reduce how much carbon we throw into the air every year. According to Google, doing this is the equivalent of taking 200,000 cars and trucks off the roads every year. It’s available now in the US with a launch in Europe next year.
