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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

#141

Post by gmarx »

macjohnmcc wrote: post #101
jasode wrote: post #11

Another 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.

We bought a Gamin GPS for my wife as she prefers it over using a phone for navigation. It has lifetime map updates and costs less than the map update for my car's built in navigation. It's also far superior in several ways including knowing the speed limit on more roads, showing the name of the upcoming cross streets and better multi-lane information. I personally tend to use Waze on my phone but like the Garmin navi…

Better multi lane information is great. I would also like better info on which lane to be in for a turn taking account of the fact that soon after I need to make another turn and don't want to have to cut across a lane to make it

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

#142

Post by tibbon »

Why is Tesla one of the few car manufacturers who actually pushes real updates to their car's dashboard system (and for free, others charge absurd fees if they do give minor updates).

I hope that by 2020 it is the expectation that your car will continue to update and improve its interface over the years you own it.

I say this because people point to smartphones as always being more updated- and there's no reason for this.

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

#143

Post by seanp2k2 »

FireBeyond wrote: post #124
pwthornton wrote: post #106

Smartphone 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…

I know my Audi has Google Maps, and real time traffic. I think one of the other issues is how many GPS systems refuse to let you enter addresses en route and make you stop and / or pull the handbrake. This increases frustration hugely. The Audi system says "please don't do this while driving" - you say "Okay" and are able to do so.

The other thing I find infuriating is having to agree to some license agreement every time the car is started.

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

#144

Post by korethr »

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 Internet connection become kind of useless. Yes, you can add maps for the areas you are planning to be to your offline areas, but that requires planning ahead. And if you ended up somewhere you didn't plan to be, well, good luck.

The UI for these in-car navigation systems is bad, but at least you have _a map_, instead of a featureless void with a blue You Are Here in the middle. Personally, I like a map book for such situations. Sure, it's ancient and obsolete technology, is quickly out of date, but the UI is quick an easy to learn, and it doesn't require power to use.

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

#145

Post by danpat »

stillworks wrote: post #74
jmcdiesel wrote: post #28

Earlier 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.

Believe it or not, there exists a Nash equilibrium for this. There are several papers discussing various approaches to optimally distributing traffic so everyone gets the best possible route given all the cars on the network:

http://dl.acm.org/citation.cfm?id=2008646

http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0191261504...

http://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/1181966/

I have read a paper (which I can't find now) that claimed that cooperative optimization had visible effects on overall routing with as little as 7% of the traffic population participating in the cooperative routing scheme. So it doesn't even require that everyone use the same scheme to get some benefits, which is nice.

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

#146

Post by astrodust »

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.

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

#147

Post by alex_anglin »

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.

Not if you're using an interface such as Siri, I believe.

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

#148

Post by detaro »

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 5 countries worth of OpenStreetMap on my phone, that at least covers the "seeing a map" part. (I haven't tested routing with it)

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

#149

Post by danpat »

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.

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

#150

Post by gknoy »

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 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 us a bunch of mobile data usage on our last trip.

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