Why not just have a nice phone holder built into cars rather than these systems. It would integrate with the speaker/mic in the car and charge my phone.
Most drivers who own cars with built-in GPS systems use phones for directions
81–90 of 393 posts
Re: Most drivers who own cars with built-in GPS systems use phones for directions
#82Earlier quoted context omitted.
Yeah, it's pretty sad. I was ready to buy a brand-new Subaru a couple years ago, but they mandated the shitty touch screen in the dash on all new models. Ended up with a used Mazda3. I was very interested in the new ND Miata, but they mandate the dumb LCD screen in the middle of the dash. Nope, not doing that. Seems early 2010s are the last of the good, pre-technology cars. Hopefully the self driving ones come soon b…
The GPS navigation feature on the new Mazda Connect systems is a $400 SD card that plugs into the dash. That's it. For $400 I'll stick with my phone. If only Mazda got CarPlay working on their dashboards as they've been promising for two years now.
Or you know, just use the physical HVAC and radio controls that have worked just fine for forty years.
Re: Most drivers who own cars with built-in GPS systems use phones for directions
#83Earlier quoted context omitted.
Waze continually gets me to work through back roads and side streets in 20 min, a trip that in traffic on the "normal" routes takes roughly an hour... Maybe one day cars will have GPS on that level built in... but for now... nope
If everybody has that kind of intelligent routing, then any advantage of that kind of intelligent routing will stop being an advantage.
In the DC area enough people have this kind of intelligent routing that Waze seldom saves me much time. And not all of it is intelligent, Waze-style routing; a lot of it is just that people know shortcuts. Even when it claims to have time savings at the beginning, usually it eliminates those time savings from its estimate as I actually drive.
Sometimes Waze gets a shortcut for me that actually saves maybe three or four minutes...but at the expense of driving down dangerous roads and making numerous turns. Typically it's not even worth it.
About the only time Waze is worth it is when there is an extraordinary event, such as a very bad wreck or a closed road. In those circumstances rerouting can save time.
At least Waze is up to date. Apple sometimes gives me impossible routes (e.g. illegal turns) and has some street and highway names that have been out-of-date for at least six months. Google on the other hand has an infuriating way of asking me to confirm reroutes that supposedly save me time, and giving me only a few seconds to do it. But Waze has a muddy, horrible interface. All these services have flaws.
Re: Most drivers who own cars with built-in GPS systems use phones for directions
#84Earlier quoted context omitted.
The navigation system that came with my 2004 Infiniti performs better than almost any systems I have used. It is well integrated with the car, it starts in seconds, there are physical buttons for the most common operations, it always plans a route in a few seconds at most. The screen space is used well so I can see what I need with just a glance. The company that built it clearly thought through what they were buildi…
I have had the same experience with my car. Car manufacturers are far better at the car/dash experience than phones, however the phones have been catching up. Apps like Waze are hard to ignore. What would be ideal is a high quality integration between the two worlds, or at least the ability to use the phone's touchscreen as an extended mirroring display of one's phone if you choose as a universal standard.
You would think so...
In my '13 Hyundai, the navigation UX is pretty good, but I swear that the entertainment part of it was written by a summer intern.
Re: Most drivers who own cars with built-in GPS systems use phones for directions
#85Semi unrelated question: Am I the only one who wished navigation apps allowed more precise control of route complexity? Just a slider that goes between "minimum number of turns" and "most efficient" would be nice. Optimizing a route for complexity vs efficiency is a very important consideration when planning a route. A way to do that in a navigation app would be really nice. I appreciate the intention but taking four…
I have found Apple Maps to be the absolute worst offender of route complexity. Although sometimes we use it for the specific purpose of taking the scenic route.
It will almost always suggest a confusing “shortcut”, which takes more time because it doesn’t account for all the additional turns, stop signs, speed limits, etc. It would be nice to have an optimization slider, or even a global setting for which mode you prefer.
Re: Most drivers who own cars with built-in GPS systems use phones for directions
#86This is why Carplay/Android Auto are so key. They're safer than using your actual phone, they offer legitimate maps apps (Google Maps/Bing Maps/Apple Maps/etc), and are somewhat future proof. Too bad the MirrorLink consortium dropped the ball so epically. MirrorLink arguably does the same thing as Carplay/Android Auto and has been deployed to millions of vehicles, but nobody uses MirrorLink 1.1, why? Because to get y…
The average age of cars on the road in the US is something like 11 years [0]
Even if CarPlay/Android Auto last more than five years, I expect new versions will come out which render old vehicles incompatible.
[0] http://www.latimes.com/business/autos/la-fi-hy-ihs-average-c...
Re: Most drivers who own cars with built-in GPS systems use phones for directions
#87Earlier quoted context omitted.
This depends on your car model. Many (like mine) have horrible voice control systems.
I found that for my Ford Edge, I basically have to shout at it before it understands me. My wife laughs at me every time.
I have the exact same car and problem. I think her laughing is making it even harder for the voice recognition but it's hard to prove.
Re: Most drivers who own cars with built-in GPS systems use phones for directions
#88Earlier quoted context omitted.
I use the built-in GPS about 99% of the time. I keep a mount in the car just in case I need to use my phone for navigation, but that almost never happens. The built-in navigation isn't great. It lacks some pretty obvious options (it doesn't offer multiple routes, and you can't give it intermediate waypoints) and its routing is occasionally stupid. Although the big screen shows Google Maps, the actual routing is done…
Out of curiosity, does the Tesla system pay any attention to the number of people in the vehicle? For example in the sf bay area, there are some places where going from one highway to another (eg 101 to 85) is a left exit for carpools and right exit for solo occupant. Most gps let you pick to include or exclude car pools, but it is such a pain to change the setting that it is usually left on excluding car pools. But…
Interesting question. No such option is exposed, and I don't think it's doing anything clever with seat occupancy sensors. I'm not sure how aware it is of HOV restrictions in the first place. I think that for routes which are only restricted at certain times of day, it will freely use them, and for routes which are always HOV it will never use them.
There are also some HOT lanes around here (where you can either drive for free with 3+ people, or pay a toll with less) and it never routes me onto those, even though it happily routes me onto other toll roads. Not sure what's up with that.
Re: Most drivers who own cars with built-in GPS systems use phones for directions
#89Another reason not mentioned by the article is map updates . Lexus charges $169+ to update the map data and requires a dealer appointment. A smartphone with google/Apple maps is always more up-to-date. If you're buying a new car today, the reason to get navigation is for the LCD screen and not for the GPS. The LCD is used to see the rear view camera image for parking. Also, playing music shows the song titles.
> If you're buying a new car today, the reason to get navigation is for the LCD screen and not for the GPS. I could have sworn the US govt mandated that all new cars, after some soon to come year, must have rear facing cameras. Perhaps I heard incorrectly.
You appear to be correct and my google search shows 2018 to be the date. https://www.google.com/search?q=all+new+usa+cars+require+rea...
Re: Most drivers who own cars with built-in GPS systems use phones for directions
#90Earlier quoted context omitted.
The GPS navigation feature on the new Mazda Connect systems is a $400 SD card that plugs into the dash. That's it. For $400 I'll stick with my phone. If only Mazda got CarPlay working on their dashboards as they've been promising for two years now.
Or you know, just use the physical HVAC and radio controls that have worked just fine for forty years.
In its defense, the Mazda Connect system is pretty nice. It's solely focused on entertainment, navigation, and some secondary car management functions (maintenance intervals, explanation of trouble lights, long-term MPG charts).
Sorry to be the bearer of bad news but the touchscreen/command knob is the way things are now. You can't do terrestrial radio, satellite radio, bluetooth, USB music playback, etc with a single knob and 20-character display. All of these features have worked their way into being standard now. Nobody ships an AM/FM radio.
And now that backup cameras are mandatory in the USA as of the 2018 model year, you're going to need that LCD display anyway. So it's easier to throw all the HMI/IVI on that board and be done with it.
The Mazda Connect is run off an NXP iMX6 SoC, which is very powerful yet affordable enough to put in Mazda's base models for no upgrade charge. It's also highly hackable. =)
Oh, and HVAC is still done with physical knobs in a convenient location.