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Get it on Google PlayWhat Tsamaya does.
Tsamaya is a free navigation app for South African drivers. It plans routes around areas with a history of vehicle crime, then guides you turn by turn. This page lists everything it does today, with a link to the detail on each.
Routing
Lower-risk routes, graded
Every trip is checked against the rated areas in 14 metros, for the hour you drive, and bent around the high-risk ones when a sensible detour exists.
- Three options
- Fastest, Balanced and Lower-risk, each with an A to E grade.
- Stops
- Add up to four stops to a trip. Each leg is risk-checked on its own, and each stop is announced by name.
- Before dark
- The route card warns when a trip will arrive after dark, and when time is tight, how soon to leave to arrive in daylight.
- Live overlay
- Turn it on to see every rated area and road, colour-coded.
- Outside the metros
- An ordinary map and navigator. It just has no risk data there.
On the road
Closures, cameras and what drivers report
The things that change on the day: a protest, a roadblock, a camera van, a hijacking hotspot ahead.
- Closures
- Road closures and protest reports are picked up daily, and the Balanced and Lower-risk routes go around them where there is a way round.
- Driver notices
- Police and roadblock notices from other drivers, shown for an hour and spoken when they are ahead. They never change your route.
- Speed cameras
- Known fixed speed cameras show on the map with a spoken heads-up. Drivers can report permanent cameras and camera vans. It is a list of the cameras we know about, not a complete one.
- Hotspots
- Reported hijacking and smash-and-grab spots show on the map, with a spoken heads-up as you approach one. They are awareness only and never change your route.
- Report as you drive
- Tap Report, or say it: police, roadblock, speed camera or crash. It works on the phone and on the car screen, with a few seconds to Undo.
- Report a corner
- Tell us where we got it wrong, from inside the app.
- Speed
- A speed limit readout and a gentle over-speed chime.
The map
Offline maps and discovering a city
- Offline maps
- Download the map for an area so it keeps drawing where the signal drops.
- Discover
- A guided flyover of your metro, landmark to landmark, with a quick guide at each stop. Landmarks never change your route.
In the car
CarPlay, and Android Auto in testing
- CarPlay
- The same routes, voice guidance and alerts on the car's own screen. Android Auto is in testing.
Emergencies and sharing
SOS and live trip sharing
- SOS
- One button on the phone's drive screen calls 10111 or 112, or opens a text to your emergency contact, ready to send, with where you are and a link that follows you live while you drive and stays up for 24 hours.
- Share a trip
- Send someone a link and they follow your drive live in any browser, down to an Arrived screen. They need no app.
Coming soon
Tsamaya Premium
Tsamaya Premium is an optional subscription that is built and in testing. It is not on sale yet, and it is not needed for anything listed above: routing around risk, the SOS button and trip sharing stay free.
- More detailed searches
- A bigger daily allowance of detailed place searches than the free share.
- 3D vehicles
- A garage of 3D vehicles in six colours for the map.
- Trip history
- Your whole history on the phone with 30-day totals. The latest trip stays free.
- SARS logbook
- Tag a trip business or personal and export a logbook in the order of SARS's own eLogbook.
- Arrive by
- Pick when you want to arrive and Tsamaya works out when to leave, with a reminder.
- Fuel cost
- The fuel cost of a trip from the official fuel price and your car's consumption.
- Toll prices
- The toll gates on your route and what they cost for your vehicle class.
- Fuel price alert, earlier
- The alert before a fuel price change arrives a day earlier than it does for free phones.
What it is not
The limits
Tsamaya is not an emergency response service. Its SOS button calls the public emergency numbers (10111 for the police, 112 from any mobile) and opens a text to your own contact; it does not dispatch armed response or an ambulance itself. It aims to lower your exposure to areas with a history of vehicle crime; it cannot guarantee safety.
Tsamaya is in open beta. Android Auto is in testing and not yet in the public Google Play build. The risk ratings come from published crime statistics, an AI second opinion, a person's sense-check and drivers' reports, so they are good information and not a prediction. Lower risk is not no risk.
Questions
Asked often
Yes, up to four. Tap Add stop on the route card. Each leg is planned and risk-checked on its own, the voice announces each stop by name, and only the last stop ends the trip.
Yes. Known fixed speed cameras show on the map and you hear a heads-up as one comes up. It is a list of the cameras we know about, not a complete one, and coverage is better in some metros than others. The pins and the spoken alerts each have a switch in Settings.
Each morning Tsamaya searches the news for planned protests, strikes and road blockades in the metros it covers. The Balanced and Lower-risk routes go around them for as long as they last, where there is a way round. A road the search cannot pin down is held for a person to review rather than guessed at. Tsamaya only knows what has been reported, so it can miss a blockade that has not been.
Yes. The same routes, voice guidance and alerts appear on the car screen: route options with their grades, the coloured risk border, speed camera and hotspot pins, closure notices and a Report button. The app runs on your phone and the car shows it, so keep the phone with you.
Android Auto is in testing. It is built and testers use it, but it is not in the public Google Play build yet. This answer changes when that does.
Partly. Download offline maps for an area and the map keeps drawing where the signal drops, and the risk ratings are kept on your phone once loaded. Planning a new route, sharing a trip and the live link in an SOS text need data.
Yes. Everything that routes you around risk, the SOS button and trip sharing included, is free and stays free. There is no account and there are no ads, and we do not sell anything about you.
No, and we will never tell you otherwise. Tsamaya cuts your exposure to areas with a history of vehicle crime. Crime is not predictable, and no route is safe. Lower risk is not no risk: treat it as better information for the choice you were going to make anyway.
Get the app
Put it on your phone.
Free, in open beta, on Android and iPhone. Lower risk is not no risk.
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