Waze, a provider of community-based traffic and navigation application, has selected Bluvision, a US-based manufacturer of Bluetooth beacons, as its hardware partner for enabling tunnel navigation capabilities.

Waze, which has developed a solution to address 'tunnel blindness' in the absence of GPS will be using Bluvision's BEEKS Plus, along with its software to solve the challenges with tunnel navigation and accuracy in ETA. Waze will start implementing the Waze Beacons in mid-August.

Bluvision CEO James Buchheim said: “Bluvision is as committed to location accuracy as Waze.

"We are thrilled to have been a part of the first scalable solution in the world that powers navigation in tunnels and looks to create a safer commute for millions of Wazers using the tunnels.

“Waze was looking for a powerful beacon that could frequently transmit high-powered broadcasts, while incorporating specific custom settings, supporting fast and easy deployments in harsh environments.

“Bluvision's BEEKS Plus is the only beacon in the market today that can handle this kind of throughput without requiring battery replacement every couple of years and has fast deployment tools to solve this type of use-case.”

"Bluvision's BEEKS Plus is the only beacon in the market today that can handle this kind of throughput without requiring battery replacement every couple of years."

Waze Beacons are battery-operated, Bluetooth low-energy microcontrollers, which transmit messages to a smartphone or tablet via Bluetooth used as an alternative to GPS signal.

Waze software engineer Gil Disatnik said: “When selecting our Waze Beacons hardware partner, Bluvision was the only manufacturer that had the power rating of six years doing 0dBm at 10Hz we needed to create Waze Beacons.

“Bluvision was a true partner, working through every question and request with enthusiasm to ensure the final product solved all of our needs.”

Image: Waze selects Bluvision as hardware partner for its Waze Beacons. Photo: courtesy of Bluvision.