Here are the problems I have observed with the May 2023 release of Waze and why I would rather go back to the previous version.
1. It defaults to having a menu open on the left asking where you want to go with the list of your frequent destinations. I preferred the previous version where if I wanted to navigate somewhere it was easy to click the search icon and bring up this menu.
2. The menu of locations has Home and then a list of recent places I have gone. The previous version listed Home and then WORK and then the list of recent places. I most often will click on WORK and it's not in the menu anymore.
3. When I close the menu mentioned in 1 above and just drive, it skews the display and shows my location on the left side of the display. Then, whenever an alert pops up like "stop light camera ahead" or "railroad crossing ahead," the pop up comes up on the left side and blocks the view so I can't see where I am on the map or where the hazard is that's coming up. I would rather it left my position in the center of the display and didn't obscure my position when alerts pop up.
4. The system is effectively useless now in a car without a touch screen. In my 2018 vehicle, I do not have a touch screen. I have a wheel I spin to highlight the different buttons on the screen and then push in on the wheel to select whatever I have highlighted. In the previous software version, when a pop up like "police reported ahead" or "road kill on road ahead" came on the screen, I could easily spin the wheel to highlight the "there" button and leave it. If I saw the police officer or road kill, I could push in on the wheel to click the "there" button on the screen. If it wasn't there, I could swist the wheel one click to highlight the "not there" button and push in on the wheel to click on the "not there" button. This functionality is completely removed by the latest Waze update. Now, when a pop-up shows up on the screen, it refreshes every couple of seconds. If I try twisting my selector wheel to highlight the "there" button, a couple of seconds later, it resets the display and my cursor goes back to the default highlighting the search magnifying glass icon. I've tried several times to click on "there" or "not there" but by the time I twist the wheel and get the cursor down to the 'there" or "not there" button on the screen, the display resets and moves my cursor back up to the magnifying glass icon again. As it pertains to paragraph 3 above, I can't click on the X to make the "railroad crossing ahead" or "traffic light camera ahead" pop-up go away. If I try to spin the wheel to get to the X to close the pop-up, by the time I get the cursor there, it resets the display again and puts my cursor back up at the magnifying glass. So I have no way to close the pop-ups, and every time a pop-up comes on screen it blocks my view of my location as I stated in paragraph 3.
5. The whole point and original intent behind Android Auto was to make cars safer by reducing distracted driving. In the old Waze, the speedometer display included the speed limit, the current car speed, and small tick marks to show how far above or below the speed limit you were driving. The tick marks were red if you were above the speed limit or black if you were below the speed limit. It was VERY easy to very briefly glance at the screen and know if I was close to the speed limit and fine or if I was significantly above or below and needed to adjust my speed. The most recent version of Waze got rid of the tick marks. Now it's just the numbers in black or red if you're above the speed limit, but it takes just that much more attention on the display and mental engagement to determine how far off is my speed from the speed limit. The tick marks in the previous version took no mental processing and very little attention on the display. You are forcing drivers to spend more time looking at the screen by getting rid of those tick marks on the speed indication.
6. It doesn't navigate me where I want to go anymore. In the previous version, I would say "navigate to ______" and Waze would bring up a list of destinations that it thought might match my desired location and I would click on the one I want. Now, it doesn't show me options and it just starts navigating to the WRONG place. In one example, I did a voice command "Navigate to Water Drops Car Wash" which is the name of a specific drive thru car wash just a mile away. Waze has correctly navigated me to Water Drops Car Wash in the past before the update. Now, Waze automatically started navigating me to the closest car wash that was only 0.2 miles away, but it was a self service car wash and not named Water Drops, so NOT the correct, desired destination.
7. When I put my car in reverse, it turns the rear view camera on. When I take it out of reverse and the camera image goes away, it doesn't go back to Waze. It goes back to the Android Auto app menu and I have to tell it to go back to Waze. I realize this is likely an Android Auto problem not necessarily a Waze problem.

I hope this feedback is constructive and helpful in improving Waze.