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Most drivers who own cars with built-in GPS systems use phones for directions
131–140 of 393 posts
Re: Most drivers who own cars with built-in GPS systems use phones for directions
#132Smartphone maps are so superior because they are always up to date, can provide real-time traffic data, can tell you to take an alternative route and can provide other data about places to eat, etc. While a lot of car GPSs have some of this, they are no where near what Google Maps or Apple Maps (or a targeted app like Waze) has. I bought a new car last year, and intentionally didn't get the GPS, even though my car ha…
Yeah, I'm not sure why car companies invested at all in attempting to build their own mapping software. It's a hard thing to do well, and I had been using GPS in the car since Windows 98 + Microsoft Streets + Garmin eMap + serial adapter running NEMA days. PC or smartphone navigation software has always been better than what is available in cars. Additionally, while the upgrade cycle for phones is yearly for some peo…
Even then, the AC and other integrated controls could easily be ios/android apps and integrated into the device's connection... Yes, a given app for a/c might suck, but the rest of the ux doesn't have to.
Re: Most drivers who own cars with built-in GPS systems use phones for directions
#133Smartphone maps are so superior because they are always up to date, can provide real-time traffic data, can tell you to take an alternative route and can provide other data about places to eat, etc. While a lot of car GPSs have some of this, they are no where near what Google Maps or Apple Maps (or a targeted app like Waze) has. I bought a new car last year, and intentionally didn't get the GPS, even though my car ha…
And the UI on the apps seem to be better. I have an old Land Rover, and whoever wrote the software didn't consider that you need to be showing the current location of the car when displaying a junction. It's no use to me seeing a junction, which can be very complex in the UK, and then not giving an indication of how close I am to it. Am I a mile away? 100m? Oh, I missed it.
Seems to have traffic info though, even though it's quite old. Around London it basically displays a huge jumble of arrows, to the point where you can't see the Thames.
Seems to me what they need to do is just let the phone use the touchscreen in the car. You want to show movies to the kids anyway, and your media will all fit on the phone.
Re: Most drivers who own cars with built-in GPS systems use phones for directions
#134Smartphone maps are so superior because they are always up to date, can provide real-time traffic data, can tell you to take an alternative route and can provide other data about places to eat, etc. While a lot of car GPSs have some of this, they are no where near what Google Maps or Apple Maps (or a targeted app like Waze) has. I bought a new car last year, and intentionally didn't get the GPS, even though my car ha…
Acura wants me to spend something like $179 to update the maps for my in-car navigation system. For that money I can buy a windshield phone mount and a nice cable with cash leftover to take the wife out to dinner.
Re: Most drivers who own cars with built-in GPS systems use phones for directions
#135My issue isn't so much the pain of entry — although it is a pain — as the fact that Google Maps provides better directions, taking into account current traffic conditions, than my car's system.
OTOH, my car's system knows about highway amenities like food & gas, and has a neat feature where it displays a preview of what certain turns look like.
I would love to integrate them somehow.
Re: Most drivers who own cars with built-in GPS systems use phones for directions
#136Earlier quoted context omitted.
Agreed. I got the cheaper model of my car when I custom ordered it to not have the NAV addon because I knew I'd use my phone and didn't want to pay $2500 USD extra for my car.
My car needed the nav feature in order to get the backup camera, which is essential in cars with a poor rear view.
As someone who had a 2012 Challenger, and recently went to a 2016 Challenger, have to agree... the backup camera, and moreso the blind spot indicators have been great improvements.
Re: Most drivers who own cars with built-in GPS systems use phones for directions
#137Semi 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'm paid to work on navigation software: http://www.project-osrm.org/
The answer to your question is: because it's hard to make some of these adjustments on-the-fly and still have reasonably fast queries.
On embedded devices, space and processing power are limited - so you need to perform optimizations to speed things up so it's usable. These optimizations usually limit the flexibility of features like you're requesting. That's a basic trade-off.
For server-side routing solutions, you need response time to be fast so you can scale - again, you need to optimize your data and you lose flexibility. Route calculations are CPU heavy, it gets very expensive to serve lots of users if your route calculations aren't fast.
There's a lot of algorithm research being done in this space - the last 5 years have seen some really smart new approaches. However these haven't been deployed commercially in very many places.
If you'd be happy with 10s of seconds to calculate a route on your phone (offline), then you can have all the flexibility you want :-) This is rarely desirable, so very few implementations are as flexible as you want.
Re: Most drivers who own cars with built-in GPS systems use phones for directions
#138Smartphone maps are so superior because they are always up to date, can provide real-time traffic data, can tell you to take an alternative route and can provide other data about places to eat, etc. While a lot of car GPSs have some of this, they are no where near what Google Maps or Apple Maps (or a targeted app like Waze) has. I bought a new car last year, and intentionally didn't get the GPS, even though my car ha…
Acura wants me to spend something like $179 to update the maps for my in-car navigation system. For that money I can buy a windshield phone mount and a nice cable with cash leftover to take the wife out to dinner.
They're not the only one, I recently bought a Nissan and I have to pay around the same amount for a new sd card which contains the update to be shipped which is a waste of time and money compared to just opening Google Maps every morning.
Re: Most drivers who own cars with built-in GPS systems use phones for directions
#139Semi 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…
Similar thought, but in cities, I'd prefer to cross major streets and make left turns at signaled intersections. I might save 2 minutes on my 30 minute commute, but those are incredibly risky and stressful maneuvers. I use my GPS because it has saved me from an hour of traffic more than once, but I don't need to risk my life to save 30 seconds.
OSRM is looking at improving this exact situation right now: https://github.com/Project-OSRM/osrm-backend/pull/2912
Re: Most drivers who own cars with built-in GPS systems use phones for directions
#140Can confirm. If the iu / method of entering a postcode wasn't so faffy for the in car satnav, it would serfice.