You can't buy car features a la carte like the "build your car" tool on every auto maker's site suggest you can. You're forced to buy the "tech package" which includes the GPS because you want something as simple as bluetooth
Most drivers who own cars with built-in GPS systems use phones for directions
181–190 of 393 posts
Re: Most drivers who own cars with built-in GPS systems use phones for directions
#182Earlier quoted context omitted.
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).
The 2016 VW Sportwagen I does have a touch screen console either with or without Nav. The SE model and below does not have Nav and SEL does. I got the SE because it was the nicest model without Nav.
Built in Nav in cars is so shitty that I would personally pay extra to not have it.
Re: Most drivers who own cars with built-in GPS systems use phones for directions
#183Earlier 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.
My Toyota Camry had the same limitation but I later found even the lower end models have a video in jack on the display module to connect a third party camera. Got one installed for $150 including labor.
Re: Most drivers who own cars with built-in GPS systems use phones for directions
#184As 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 Yes, often the maps are bad, out of date, and require one to go the dealer and pay money to get an update.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 find google maps offline support pretty good. Seems pretty smart with caching, and if I'm going somewhere in the middle of nowhere without a signal I'm usually using the navigation to get there. As soon as you ask for a route it preloads all the maps.
I usually plan my routes while on wifi (restaurant, bar, home, or work) to avoid any cellular data charges. Similar for music and podcasts I use for driving.
Re: Most drivers who own cars with built-in GPS systems use phones for directions
#185I have a 2015 Mustang with GPS, no carplay, and I always use Google Map on my iPhone (and everyone in san diego assume that i'm a tourist because of that haha).
Same for my friends with their cars, I never saw them using their built-in gps.
I already used carplay in another car, but apple plan on it is not as good as google map.
Re: Most drivers who own cars with built-in GPS systems use phones for directions
#186Smartphone 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…
You also forgot that they are fast with responsive UI. And that's only if you compare the best of the car built-in GPS. If it is not the top of range (which btw is not related to the price of the car), the UI is generally awful.
If you are a google/apple map user. Searching for an address is a million type easier: roughly type some part of the address and it will find it. No such luck with car gps.
At this stage you wonder why car manufacturer even bother. They should just allow to plug a tablet and run software made by people that understand software, and restrict themselves to providing a simple interface to car metric, hud and maybe cameras.
Re: Most drivers who own cars with built-in GPS systems use phones for directions
#187Semi 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…
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Re: Most drivers who own cars with built-in GPS systems use phones for directions
#188As 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.
The CPU, Display, etc of a car is designed extremely conservatively. Cars lasting 20 years are not uncommon, vibration, temperature extremes, and direct physical abuse (kids, fingers, ice cream, feet, fists, pounding, etc). Not to mention being turned off for months. Car buyers are also pretty sensitive about monthly costs (thus no data connection).
Your smartphone is designed to die around 2 years (expoxied battery), is designed for something like 40F - 100F, and will survive a light rain if you are lucky. All the while charging you $50 a month.
The 2 year phone replacement cycle used to be driven by innovation and large performance/capability increases. Which have pretty much stopped. 2 year contracts on sponsored phones used to drive them as well, mostly stopped. So manufactures seem to have decided on making phones 0.6mm slimmer and expoxing in the battery to drive the replacement cycle.
Re: Most drivers who own cars with built-in GPS systems use phones for directions
#189As 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.
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Re: Most drivers who own cars with built-in GPS systems use phones for directions
#190Earlier quoted context omitted.
I realize this isn't a perfect counter, but Google Maps (on Android, and probably iOS) allows you to download "offline areas", and you can store just about many of them as your phone has storage for. This means that as part of your trip preparation, you can download the maps and use them on your trip in the boonies. I don't know how well it _uses_ them, nor what amount of data connection it still wants, but it saved…
The offline areas are useless. They are basically just prefetching the map-tiles. You can't do anything while not online, not search in the offline area, map a route or anything like that. Here maps blows this out of the water in comparison.
Are you sure? Have you tried this recently? I've been navigating without a signal and asked for the nearest gas station and it still found it for me.