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Most drivers who own cars with built-in GPS systems use phones for directions

money.cnn.com

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Re: Most drivers who own cars with built-in GPS systems use phones for directions

#161

Post by david-given »

sbuttgereit wrote: post #130
tdkl wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would I pay hundreds of $currency for a new head unit or thousands for a new car, if I'm already walking around with a device capable doing all that? Android Auto/Car play should just run as a dedicated mode on the phone.

Yep. A better approach these days would be to have the car dash component simply be a display/remote control surface for the phone rather than have all the software in the car. I appreciate that approach has certain disadvantages for device and car makers, but really, the only additional value they could add from my perspective is a more convenient display location and larger, car-centric controls. The apps, the conf…

That's exactly what Android Auto is (can't speak for Carplay) --- it's a dumb terminal which is controlled by your phone. All the real software runs there.

I believe all the car provides is a screen, some speakers, a microphone and (possibly) a touch surface.

Re: Most drivers who own cars with built-in GPS systems use phones for directions

#162

Post by sangnoir »

imglorp wrote: post #128
jimwalsh wrote: post #119

Earlier 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.

What is it about American cars[1] and tiny rear view windows? I once got a Ford Fusion rental in the US; I was surprised how little I could see of what was behind me.

I have never had the same issue with European/Japanese vehicles.

1. My sample size is small, I could have been unlucky. Anti-glare coating on rear view mirrors on American cars makess night-time driving awesome though, I wish the European/Japanese vehicles would copy that

Re: Most drivers who own cars with built-in GPS systems use phones for directions

#163

Post by LeifCarrotson »

astrodust wrote: post #146
korethr wrote: post #144

As a counterpoint to the comments here bringing up the point that the maps on one's phone are always up to date, I'll bring up the point of offline access. Yes, often the maps are bad, out of date, and require one to go the dealer and pay money to get an update. However, once out of the city, and cellular data ceases to be a thing, Google maps and similar applications built with an assumption of an always-available I…

I have a stupid question: Why is the user interface on a $30K car so bad compared to a $99 smart phone you can buy at the drug store? What is with the garbage they call software these days? The response time on some of these in-dash systems can be measured in seconds.

Because the smartphone software is being continuously iterated and is critically evaluated by a billion people on a daily basis.

The car software was customized for that particular vehicle's combination of knobs and buttons, will be a check-box on the feature list, doesn't have any alternatives (except the phone) once you've bought the car, is lacking real-time traffic and constant map updates, was designed five years ago, was sold from a tier-two supplier to a committee at a tier-one, who sold the whole instrumentation package to an OEM, is burdened by safety and legal requirements (the vehicle must be in park, because you can't know whether it's the driver or the passenger doing the programming) ...

The problems are numerous. Two things seem like a possible fix:

1. Let it hook up to your home wifi or tether to your phone. We're close to having phone data plans that can handle that in the US. 2. Provide two things: A standard set of controls (wheel, buttons, touchscreen) and an open app store. Android or iOS compatibility would be nice for developers.

Together, these would mean that even if their own developers didn't get a good solution in place, the market could fix it later.

Re: Most drivers who own cars with built-in GPS systems use phones for directions

#164

Post by serialpreneur »

filereaper wrote: post #94
Someone1234 wrote: post #39

This 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…

Yup, bought a new Accord specifically for CarPlay/Android Auto support over all the competitors models. CarPlay works well enough though no Google Maps, having issues with Android Auto mostly due to issues on my phone side :(

Similar here. Bought Civic '16 specifically b/c it comes w/ Android Auto + Carplay! Has been working pretty smoothly with my Nexus 5X.

Re: Most drivers who own cars with built-in GPS systems use phones for directions

#165

Post by korethr »

astrodust wrote: post #146
korethr wrote: post #144

As a counterpoint to the comments here bringing up the point that the maps on one's phone are always up to date, I'll bring up the point of offline access. Yes, often the maps are bad, out of date, and require one to go the dealer and pay money to get an update. However, once out of the city, and cellular data ceases to be a thing, Google maps and similar applications built with an assumption of an always-available I…

I have a stupid question: Why is the user interface on a $30K car so bad compared to a $99 smart phone you can buy at the drug store? What is with the garbage they call software these days? The response time on some of these in-dash systems can be measured in seconds.

I would guess because the in-car navigation is a relatively new thing to car companies, and largely outside the specialties they've developed.

Ask a car company to design a useful and functional suspension system, an engine, a transmisison, a brake system, and they'll have little trouble doing so. These are all things that rather fundamental to having a functional car, and the car companies have had decades to work out the various difficulties in engineering and building such things.

However, a nav system is not (yet) a hard dependancy of a functional car. As such the man hours that car companies (or their contractors) have put into their (non-essential) nav systems likely pales in comparison that Google has put into maps.

Re: Most drivers who own cars with built-in GPS systems use phones for directions

#166

Post by tdkl »

david-given wrote: post #161
sbuttgereit wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yep. A better approach these days would be to have the car dash component simply be a display/remote control surface for the phone rather than have all the software in the car. I appreciate that approach has certain disadvantages for device and car makers, but really, the only additional value they could add from my perspective is a more convenient display location and larger, car-centric controls. The apps, the conf…

That's exactly what Android Auto is (can't speak for Carplay) --- it's a dumb terminal which is controlled by your phone. All the real software runs there. I believe all the car provides is a screen, some speakers, a microphone and (possibly) a touch surface.

It's not a dumb terminal, it's a fully fledged car nav system from the car manufacturer, which also (secondary function) serves as an external screen for Android Auto/CarPlay. A dumb terminal would be dead until you connected the phone to it (and also cheaper).

Re: Most drivers who own cars with built-in GPS systems use phones for directions

#167

Post by tdkl »

mikeryan wrote: post #118
tdkl wrote: post #104

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would I pay hundreds of $currency for a new head unit or thousands for a new car, if I'm already walking around with a device capable doing all that? Android Auto/Car play should just run as a dedicated mode on the phone.

Because for the most part in the US its actually illegal to use that capable device while you're driving your car.

That's a regulation issue. Is it illegal to handle radio, car head units (Android Auto/Car Play being of those) and GPS devices ?

Common sense would also advise to enter the destination, set music etc. before starting to drive.

Re: Most drivers who own cars with built-in GPS systems use phones for directions

#168

Post by monknomo »

izacus wrote: post #103
mrpippy wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple takes backwards-compatibility very seriously for MFi protocols, because they know that the "accessories" are cars that people keep for a long time. I used to work at a company making iPod car kits--we took an interface from 2006 (with a hard-wired 30-pin connector), hooked it through a FireWire->USB charging adapter, a 30-pin->Lightning adapter, and it worked fine with an iPhone 6.

I distinctly remember iPhones complaining about "obsolete device" when plugging them into a few years old Audi and VW cars around iPhone 4 era. That was then followed up with connectivity and charging issues. So what was the deal with that?

I have an old car and it definitely doesn't work with anything newer than a 2G iPhone. No errors indicated, just can't hack it. It does work with a usb stick full of mp3s, though.

Re: Most drivers who own cars with built-in GPS systems use phones for directions

#169

Post by lanius »

Haven't tried built-in GPS, but I prefer using my phone over my standalone GPS because it's much faster. My standalone unit takes forever to boot up, has too-long delays when navigating between screens, and overall is just frustratingly sluggish when trying to use.

Re: Most drivers who own cars with built-in GPS systems use phones for directions

#170

Post by sellweek »

danpat wrote: post #149
korethr wrote: post #144

As a counterpoint to the comments here bringing up the point that the maps on one's phone are always up to date, I'll bring up the point of offline access. Yes, often the maps are bad, out of date, and require one to go the dealer and pay money to get an update. However, once out of the city, and cellular data ceases to be a thing, Google maps and similar applications built with an assumption of an always-available I…

Check out the http://maps.me/en/home app - it gives you offline routing using OpenStreetmap data on your phone. Google Maps also supports offline downloads, but from what I remember, they expire every 30 days, so you need to keep re-downloading.

+1 for maps.me, I've been using it for more than a year in multiple European countries and it's been rock solid, even if it sometimes takes a while to get a fix (though that's probably more of a problem with my phone than with the app).
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