Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

money.cnn.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

211–220 of 393 posts

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

#211

Post by kbenson »

eric_the_read wrote: post #203

My new Tacoma has a hybrid system called Scout GPS. The idea is that you run the app on your phone, and it does all the heavy lifting WRT GPS, computing routes, etc., and the dashboard display is basically a moderately dumb UI that displays maps on the screen. In theory, it's a best of both worlds situation; the UI doesn't really need to change very often; what is most important is the maps/POI information, which can…

I've often wondered, while using the somewhat substandard media navigation of my bluetooth enabled car stereo which has a touch screen, why there isn't some standard for specifying a very simple, somewhat static visual interface for bluetooth touchscreens (or screens with a set number of external buttons). A very constrained HTML, perhaps, that apps could choose to supply to provide better control through external interfaces.

For example, let Android or iOS supply an interface to view my contacts based on the reported dimensions of the screen and capabilities. Let Pocket Casts present a list of podcasts to choose from. Let Pandora show my thumbs up/down stored for the song, and register my new preference. If I'm at my desk, and I'm using one of these apps, there's no reason a simple app that provides the same interface couldn't provide me info about the connected phone through bluetooth, to let me know who is calling me, let me stream my podcasts through my desktop speakers, etc.

Does this exist, and I just don't know about it (or it isn't implemented by anyone)?

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

#212

Post by derekp7 »

That was my biggest problem when I recently bought a car -- almost all of the ones with the options I wanted (out of dealer stock) also included the $800 manufacturer's GPS. Which is something completely useless to me since I could get by perfectly fine with Android Auto. So I ended up paying for a feature that I would not only not use, but was such inferior quality (it can't locate either my home address, or work address -- for home, it routes me to a house several miles away, and for work it sends me to the movie theater 3 blocks east).

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

#213

Post by gbuk2013 »

I am one of these drivers - my car has navigation (didn't get a choice since I bought it secondhand) but I use Waze.

That said, having it has saved me on several occasions when my phone ran out of power and when there was no signal and I missed a turn.

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

#214

Post by briffle »

gutnor wrote: post #186
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…

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…

I really don't understand why they bother with most of the 'fancy' systems they put in.. Its like everything is half-assed. I have a 1 year old truck, that has Satellite audio, Radio, 4G wifi hotspot, etc, and somehow, I have to set the clock manually in the settings, using crappy buttons..

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

#215

Post by eric_the_read »

kbenson wrote: post #211
eric_the_read wrote: post #203

My new Tacoma has a hybrid system called Scout GPS. The idea is that you run the app on your phone, and it does all the heavy lifting WRT GPS, computing routes, etc., and the dashboard display is basically a moderately dumb UI that displays maps on the screen. In theory, it's a best of both worlds situation; the UI doesn't really need to change very often; what is most important is the maps/POI information, which can…

I've often wondered, while using the somewhat substandard media navigation of my bluetooth enabled car stereo which has a touch screen, why there isn't some standard for specifying a very simple, somewhat static visual interface for bluetooth touchscreens (or screens with a set number of external buttons). A very constrained HTML, perhaps, that apps could choose to supply to provide better control through external in…

I think that is more or less exactly the idea behind Android Auto and CarPlay for iOS. The problem is that many manufacturers still don't support it, and customer demand isn't high enough (yet) to force them to. I went ahead and bought the Taco, even though it didn't have Android Auto, because it was otherwise a good truck, and the bluetooth support was Good Enough™. Until enough people don't behave like me, support is likely to lag.

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

#216

Post by derekp7 »

danpat wrote: post #192
pkaye wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think some states have laws that restrict navigation control access when car is in motion.

Interestingly, according to this summary: http://drivinglaws.aaa.com/tag/telematics/ there are exemptions of some kind for navigation systems in many places. I've heard "it's not allowed by law" often, but I have yet to track down the actual law. Hopefully automakers aren't doing this based on hearsay....

no, they are doing it to prevent lawsuits. In fact, on Ford's Sync 3 system, they have a huge disclaimer that pops up when you enable Android Auto or Apple Carplay, saying that anything that comes up on the car's screen is controlled by Android (or Apple) and therefore Ford is not liable -- go sue them instead.

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

#218

Post by justinlardinois »

mtanski wrote: post #193
izacus wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How horrible, you had to install a single app and click "Next" a few times! The connectivity issues with VWs are a valid complaint, but not pushing bloat on everyones devices really isnt.

> How horrible, you had to install a single app and click "Next" a few times! If you include the "guide" that you have the scroll through and then the 5 "Accept" popups for allowing the car to connect to the phone it's like about 9 clicks. Pretty crappy UX. But really it's the whole process of getting setup. The Android phone didn't put up a prompt when plugged in to tell you you needed to download the Android Auto a…

> If you include the "guide" that you have the scroll through and then the 5 "Accept" popups for allowing the car to connect to the phone it's like about 9 clicks. Pretty crappy UX.

Isn't that just the standard Android permission prompts?

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

#219

Post by izacus »

j45 wrote: post #40
icefox wrote: post #36

Earlier 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.

Well, Android Auto is exactly that and Google announced Waze support in this years IO.

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

#220

Post by derekp7 »

lordnacho wrote: post #133
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…

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 tho…

> 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.

That's exactly what Android Auto and Carplay do. On my Ford with Sync 3, I installed the Android Auto app on the phone. Then I plug the phone's usb cable into the car's usb port, and the dash display transforms to something controlled by the phone.

Post reply on HN