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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

#241

Post by jstandard »

cesis wrote: post #19
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.

I would love a rear-view camera that could display on my phone

Several competitors starting to pop-up here. One downside on all of them currently is, you need to connect to a wifi network generated by the camera. They have mini-routers built in because of the speed required to even come close to streaming real-time video.

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

#242

Post by flukus »

hx87 wrote: post #201
teej wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

It's not just the money, it's the time. Lexus wants me to wait two days to special order navigation software for my car. Which leads to the question: why the hell do I need to wait 2 days for software in 2016?

Try being international, you get bounced around to a bunch of broken links on their website trying to find the "correct" software version. Then half the time you can't download it because your country (Australia) is a "security risk" and they can't export software for a device on retail shelves.

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

#243

Post by mikey_p »

icefox wrote: post #36
RankingMember wrote: post #2

It never made sense to me why you'd want to have a built-in GPS these days when modular devices are available that are A. generally better-designed and B. replaceable. People buying used cars in the coming years will be stuck with these big-screened dinosaurs in their dash that are essentially wasted space.

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…

That's exactly how I felt about our old Volvo. We bought it used and didn't even know it had nav until I accidentally hit the the buttons on the back of the steering wheel during our test drive. It was a disc based system, but pretty fast. The discs were 10 years old and some points of interest were out of date, but it was surprisingly good for being that old. If there was a missing waypoint or destination, we would just enter the street address in and be good to go.

The interface was what I loved though. The screen popped up out of the dash* which meant that it was super easy to see without looking down at the center console, and it didn't replace our radio or other screens with the nav, the screen was nav only.

The controls were cursor based (not pointer, but just menu selection) so the buttons were on the back of the steering wheel, so you didn't even have to take your hands off the wheel to run it. All it needed was a 4-way pad and an enter and back button. There was an IR wireless remote that the passenger could use.

One of my favorite features was that it easily supported multiple waypoints, search along route, and it stored routes even when you turned the car off. Taking a multi-day road trip? No problem!

* How the motorized screen still worked on a 10 year old volvo is probably a small miracle considering what didn't work on that car.

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

#244

Post by mikey_p »

RealityVoid wrote: post #71
nojvek wrote: post #66

Toyota gps is just garbage. Hangs all the time. I strongly believe car makers just don't see software as a critical component. Exception is tesla.

I build car dashboard software. You are right. The SW is shit. Exceptions, from what i've head are Volvo and Daimler. Don't know the kind of resources Tesla puts into their SW and am not sure if it's not just hype.

I'll second Volvo, we bought a used 2003 XC-90 several years ago and the Nav in it was great. Even with the 10 year old discs it found 95% of what we needed by name or waypoint and the interface was incredibly easy to navigate while driving. I chalk that up to the fact that it's _not_ a touchscreen, which means you can build muscle memory and menus were super predictably.

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

#245

Post by Cybernetic »

Native GPS systems are painfully slow, in my experience. I have a Subaru Impreza 2014. Its GPS usually tracks a full block behind we're I'm at. If I'm not paying attention and make a turn based on the voice-guidance alone, it's often a wrong turn. Re-routing takes a long time as well; too long to be useful. Additionally, I have to pay for annual map updates if I want them. To someone's point earlier, all interaction with the map is disabled while the car is in motion. It would be nice if it were unlocked so a passenger could use it.

So I use Google Maps on my phone. It's significantly faster, shows more meta-data relative to my route, e.g., delays and alternate route suggestions, and if it has to re-route it's usually immediate.

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

#246

Post by nashashmi »

I have looked at the comments here and everyone is talking about the superiority of their phones and how carplay and Android auto are so much better.

And this leads me to having a Steve Jobs moment: I wish the car dash computers would work as simply as smart watches where they are just dumb remote controls for phones.

I don't have Android auto or carplay. But I have used moto360. And I find that is all I really ever need when driving. The voice recognition is awesome. The interface is simple. And like all simple things it leads the mind to wish for more.

It seems like the car manufacturers tried to swallow too much at once and sucked at all of it.

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

#247

Post by Kadin »

copperx wrote: post #230
lukaslalinsky wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cars can generally go much faster than the maximum speed limit, so it wouldn't be the first time the car allows you to do something against the law.

I'm honestly surprised they don't restrict that. Does anybody know why? I know different states have different speed limits, but I think a 85mph speed limit could cover them all. Is it because Canada and Mexico? They have lower speed limits. Is it because the car could be exported to Germany and driven on the Autobahn? or what?

There were, until very recently, some roads in Montana that didn't have any speed limit during the day. They provided at least a legal justification that there was a legitimate on-road use case for going more than 85MPH.

I believe Montana gave that up in the last few years, so there wouldn't be much of a case against putting an 85MPH governor in cars, except I guess against the possibility that some state might at some point raise their limit.

Some states (e.g. Texas) have been raising their speed limits, seemingly in keeping with the safety enhancements in cars, which is an interesting example of "risk compensation".

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

#248

Post by TuxerLulz »

copperx wrote: post #230
lukaslalinsky wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cars can generally go much faster than the maximum speed limit, so it wouldn't be the first time the car allows you to do something against the law.

I'm honestly surprised they don't restrict that. Does anybody know why? I know different states have different speed limits, but I think a 85mph speed limit could cover them all. Is it because Canada and Mexico? They have lower speed limits. Is it because the car could be exported to Germany and driven on the Autobahn? or what?

I track my car, so at least for sports cars they would need to find a way to remove that restriction when you're on a track.

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

#249

Post by pyb »

gambiting wrote: post #38

Because built-in GPS is terrible . I recently bought a 2016 Mercedes-AMG vehicle that has sat nav as standard(on non-AMG models it's a $1000 (!!!!!!) option). The satnav is made by Garmin, and it's just awful. Truly horrible in terms of speed, usability, and it only gets updates once a year(you get a new SD card when you go for the annual service). In the meantime, my TomTom 5000 satnav is still unbeaten - free lifet…

TomTom also supply GPS for quite a few carmakers.

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

#250

Post by closeparen »

copperx wrote: post #230
lukaslalinsky wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cars can generally go much faster than the maximum speed limit, so it wouldn't be the first time the car allows you to do something against the law.

I'm honestly surprised they don't restrict that. Does anybody know why? I know different states have different speed limits, but I think a 85mph speed limit could cover them all. Is it because Canada and Mexico? They have lower speed limits. Is it because the car could be exported to Germany and driven on the Autobahn? or what?

There are 80mph roads. You might need to accelerate out of trouble on one of them, though probably not sustain >85.
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