I’ve been diving into the world of smart home automation lately, and I must say, it’s been an exciting journey! One of the most intriguing aspects for me has been integrating Waze travel time with my calendar entries to automate various tasks around the house. The idea is to grab a calendar event, check the destination, calculate the travel time using Waze, and then trigger some actions like turning on the porch lights or adjusting the thermostat. It’s all about streamlining my daily routine and making my home more responsive to my schedule.
So far, I’ve managed to set up a basic configuration for fixed locations, and it works like a charm. Here’s a snippet of my current setup:
yaml
- platform: waze_travel_time
name: Michal to home
origin: person.michal
destination: zone.home
region: EU
vehicle_type: car
scan_interval: 120
This setup gives me the travel time from my current location to my home, which is super handy. However, things get a bit tricky when I try to make it dynamic based on my calendar entries. I’ve attempted to create a template sensor to extract the destination from my calendar and then use that in the Waze travel time integration. Here’s what I came up with:
yaml
-
platform: template
sensors:
michal_destination:
friendly_name: “Michal’s Destination”
value_template: “{{ state_attr(‘calendar.xxcalendarnamexx’, ‘location’) }}” -
platform: waze_travel_time
name: Home to meeting
origin: zone.home
destination: sensor.michal_destination
region: ‘EU’
vehicle_type: car
Unfortunately, this approach hasn’t been as smooth as I hoped. The Waze travel time integration doesn’t seem to recognize the dynamic destination correctly, and I end up with strange routes that don’t make sense. I’ve tried different configurations and even reached out to the community forums, but I haven’t found a solution yet. It’s a bit frustrating, but I’m determined to crack this!
One thing I’ve noticed is that when I manually input the destination address from my calendar into the Waze app, it works perfectly. So, why isn’t the integration doing the same? I suspect it might be an issue with how the destination address is formatted or recognized by the Waze API. I’ve tried tweaking the address formatting, but nothing seems to work.
I’m also curious if others have faced similar challenges. It seems like a logical use case—automating home preparations based on calendar events and travel times. If anyone has successfully implemented something like this, I’d love to hear about your setup and any tips you might have!
In the meantime, I’ll keep experimenting with different configurations and keep a close eye on the community forums for any updates or solutions. Automating my home is a passion project for me, and I’m excited to see where this journey takes me next. Happy automating, everyone! 