Waze Points – How People Might Be Cheating (And Why)

Do you suspect people might be cheating with their Waze points?

That sucks! I know how frustrating it is to try your best to get as many points as you can every time you navigate with the platform, only to see others leading the charts with apparently little to no effort.

Granted, Waze points are not super useful and hold no real-world value, but still… it’s nice to collect them in hopes of seeing your name at the top one day, right?

Suspecting other Wazers are cheating is no fun, but what if I told you that everything’s actually legit?

Believe it or not, it’s possible to get several thousand points per day for people who get delayed points, rewards for map editing, or simply have a job that requires lots of driving.

Keep reading to learn more about this!

#1 The Power of Delayed Points

Let’s start off by clearing something up. According to our research, there’s no evidence of people cheating to score several points, nor are there any known methods that would allow for this.

I get how it can seem like people are not playing fair when they’re accumulating more points in a day than most people do in a month, but there are actually great explanations for this.

The first one is delayed points. You might have experienced this while using the platform – you drive, get to your destination and start earning points, but your score doesn’t seem to move. If this sounds familiar, then you’ve already been a victim of Waze’s wonky point counting system.

Apparently, although not super common, the platform can occasionally take a little while to register your points for a specific driving period. This can be anywhere from a single trip to a couple of days.

Now, if this has happened to you, you probably noticed that your Waze points eventually were added to your score, along with what you earned during the day, right? Well, the same thing happens to truckers, Uber drivers, and delivery staff, the only difference is that they likely drive a little more than you.

And since points might update immediately or take a couple of days, it can sometimes seem like these people accumulated more points than it’s humanly possible in a single day, as their old points added up to the new ones.

Confusing, I know. But at the end of the day, they’re not cheating.

#2 Map Editing and Its Benefits

Yet another reason why it might seem like people are cheating with their Waze points, is that they’re spending more time working as Map Editors, than driving.

It might seem counterintuitive to think that the former earns people more points than the latter, but surprisingly enough, it’s true. According to Waze’s scoring system, while every mile driven will earn you 5 points, you’ll be able to cash in a massive 200 with your first map edit.

Believe it or not, there are many Wazers out there that spend several hours per day editing maps and improving the overall app data for their community, so it makes sense that they’re earning several thousand points per day.

Now, you might already be thinking of signing up as a Map Editor and I commend you for it, but there’s a process to becoming one. If you’re interested, get ready to begin an exciting journey.

#3 High Miles, High Score

Lastly, let’s cover the workplace.

As I mentioned in the previous sections, some people’s jobs require them to drive several hundred miles every day. Just to put it into perspective, the average trucker in the US is required to drive a maximum of 11 hours daily. If they’re going at an average speed of 60 miles per hour (96.56 km/h) at all times, they could drive as much as 660 miles (1,062.17 km) in a single day!

Now, if we multiply that by the Waze points per mile mentioned in the previous section, we get a whopping 3,300 points per day (660 miles x 5 points per mile), or 66,000 in a month considering 20 working days.

So, as you can see, it’s more than possible for a single Wazer to accumulate almost a million points in a year if their job involves several hours behind the wheel. Again, I understand how seeing people get so many points every day might make it seem like they’re cheating, but in reality, it all depends on the individual.

Conclusion

That about covers it!

I know thinking other people might be cheating with their Waze points can be very frustrating and seem unfair. After all, what’s the point of using the platform’s scoreboard system if some Wazers aren’t playing fair?

Luckily, as I hope you’ve learned in this piece, in 99% of cases, people with astoundingly-high daily points are not cheating, but rather have very demanding jobs or spend countless hours editing maps. If you want to be a high earner like them, you can always begin your journey towards becoming a Map Editor, or switch professions altogether.

Thank you so much for sticking with me all the way to the end. If this article was interesting to you and answered your most burning questions, it’ll please you to know that we upload new content every week. While we pen our latest work, why not check out our other incredible resources below to become a Tech Detective yourself?

We have all kinds of solutions for daily Waze issues, such as sound not working, or extremely low volumes.

Best of luck to you.