When I bought my latest car, navigation package included few safety features I wanted to get, so I had to get them to get somewhat safer car. My car -- Mazda, comes with free 3 years of map updates. I am yet to update it, because I'm lazy. It also comes with optional paid for traffic service. Why do I need to waste my money on that, when I can get free (I know, I know) Waze, Apple Maps or Google maps which will get me where I need to get avoiding traffic. Despite driving 2016 model year vehicle, I GPS/entertainment center feels like from 2010 or so. So yes, I use my phone for navigations most of the time.
Most drivers who own cars with built-in GPS systems use phones for directions
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Re: Most drivers who own cars with built-in GPS systems use phones for directions
#32It 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.
Yeah, it's pretty sad. I was ready to buy a brand-new Subaru a couple years ago, but they mandated the shitty touch screen in the dash on all new models. Ended up with a used Mazda3. I was very interested in the new ND Miata, but they mandate the dumb LCD screen in the middle of the dash. Nope, not doing that. Seems early 2010s are the last of the good, pre-technology cars. Hopefully the self driving ones come soon before those models are worn out.
Re: Most drivers who own cars with built-in GPS systems use phones for directions
#33I'd be perfectly happy if my car just had a dock for my iPhone, with an amp for the speakers. I use my phone for anything music, gps or phone-related while driving. The only time I don't use it is when I can't get the friggin' bluetooth to connect right away.
You might want to check out Apple CarPlay
Re: Most drivers who own cars with built-in GPS systems use phones for directions
#34Earlier quoted context omitted.
My car has voice-control, so I press a button on the steering wheel, speak my destination, and I'm good to go. It works really well. I can't do this easily on a smartphone while I'm driving. The "big-screen dinosaur" is incredibly helpful for showing routes and directions, much better than the dinky smartphone screen.
This depends on your car model. Many (like mine) have horrible voice control systems.
I found that for my Ford Edge, I basically have to shout at it before it understands me. My wife laughs at me every time.
Re: Most drivers who own cars with built-in GPS systems use phones for directions
#35I cited my experience with the new Rav4 satnav in a recent blog post [1] on the difference between "requirements" and "needs". Tweeted it with "If you've lost something in your modern Toyota, it's probably hiding behind a settings menu". The current version isn't terrible; the version the car was delivered to me truly was. Inexcusable. Although there are benefits to integration, unless the delivery model changes to a more phone-like one I can't see myself buying an built-in satnav again.
[1] https://blog.agendashift.com/2016/10/06/better-user-stories-...
Re: Most drivers who own cars with built-in GPS systems use phones for directions
#36It 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 building and built a product that is solid and scores very high on usability.
Integrated navigation systems can provide more value than what a phone can. The obvious point is that the screen can be bigger, but more valuable is integrated with the car audio to turn down music when giving directions. When driving in tunnels and there is no GPS because it can talk to the car it knows the speed and can provide better estimations. And having permanent buttons right on your dash that you can hit without taking your eyes off the road is something that no phone will have. These are the type of features that a integrated navigation system should absolutely nail.
The navigation in my 13 year old car might be a dinosaurs, but in the world of car software what matters more than age is usability.
Now on the flip side I have used various navigation systems that are almost the exact opposite and are always a pain to use. If that is all you have ever experienced it is entirely understandable that you might think that this years system is a dinosaur. Having recently car shopped I was saddened at the state of many of the systems I tried. They probably have 10X as much computing power, but they were slower and more difficult to use. I could easily see how someone who bought one of these thinking how next years model would be better simply because it would be faster from the faster computer when it is clear that it was lazy coding and a failure to prioritize usability.
Re: Most drivers who own cars with built-in GPS systems use phones for directions
#37The quality of phone based GPS directions has improved drastically in the last 3 years. I had a cutting edge GPS about 5 years ago in my car that did better than my phone. Now there's no comparison and I wished one could simply mirror their iphone/android display into the car's touchscreen without the pageantry of needing an Android Auto/iPhone.
Re: Most drivers who own cars with built-in GPS systems use phones for directions
#38Because 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 lifetime upgrades, clear, fast interface, free and constant internet connection in every country of the world, with accurate traffic and speed camera updates. And it only cost me ~$250 new.
I just don't understand why anyone would get a built-in satnav over a dedicated device.
Re: Most drivers who own cars with built-in GPS systems use phones for directions
#39This 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 your app certified takes tens of thousands of dollars, months, and tons of paperwork.
Carplay/Android Auto literally exist because the MirrorLink group created so many rules, regulations, and nonsense in the name of safety that MirrorLink 1.1 has like twenty apps total after two years(!). So if your vehicle has MirrorLink on the feature list, just laugh and forget it exists, you won't be using it.
PS - MirrorLink 1.0 allowed two way screen sharing, which was legitimately useful. MirrorLink 1.1 is a very different beast, most newer cars and phones only have MirrorLink 1.1 (no 1.0 at all). 1.1 defines things like how big buttons have to be, what kind of animations can play, how many button presses to reach each task, etc. Then everything has to be certified by an independent auditor.
PPS - Most depressing part is: MirrorLink could certify Carplay/Android Auto themselves, and instantly add both to millions of existing vehicles on the road. But they're never going to simply because they're effectively in competition with both.
Re: Most drivers who own cars with built-in GPS systems use phones for directions
#40It 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…
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.