Poll: In Car NAV preferences

[kcowan]

We abandoned our Garmin and use Waze/Google Maps through our car AV system. We often turn off the voice prompts when in a foreign country.

 

[grasshopper]

I was using Google maps for intentional travel downloaded ahead of time with points of interest saved on my android phone.

It was a no brainer to use android auto in my Santa Fe. There are still lots of dead spots in SE AZ, so being able to download my maps is very helpful.

My '09 GMC PU doesn't go anywhere where a map would help.

 

[2017ish]

:...

DW prefers paper Road Atlas or even a local map showing county and dirt roads if available. Smart phone as a backup.

Heh heh heh - When she drives us to a new place - it is an adventure. to put it mildly. The road less traveled, the journey IS the destination, yada yada.

We use a road Atlas as a complement to Google maps on our big road trips (1 or 2 months wandering around the USA). Maps is great at getting you to a particular destination, but (with a handful of egregious exceptions) not much on leading you into lesser known and interesting places. On those trips, your last paragraph fits us perfectly!

 

[audreyh1]

^^^^^
I've seen you posting before about Amsterdam and now I see you mention bicycling... I've been there a few times (~20 yrs ago) and taken a number of the bicycle tours in the area.... I assume the organized bike tours are still going on since they were certainly popular back in the 90's... My favorite ride/tour was just west of the city in a seaside community called Zandvoort. Lots of bicycle routes with some passing along the North Sea, "outstanding beaches ", national park, local race track and down to the casino area. I never needed a nav system since the paths were pretty clearly marked and I was usually riding with someone familiar with the area...

Great fun for anyone visiting the area and great scenery "if you are in shape for some extended bicycling". Glad I did it when I was still young enough to enjoy the rides and sites.

We stayed in Amsterdam for a couple of months one summer and bought used bicycles and that was our main transportation all over town and much faster/more convenient than the public transportation we normally take.

But this was definitely bicycles as transportation. No cycling tours.

Quite exciting though! . The bicycle traffic and navigation can be quite horrific at times - especially the merges! . We did need NAV as we were on our own much of the time.

Another time (spring) we stayed in a small town in the Bollenstreek and rented bikes for a few days cycling around the tulip fields and making a couple of visits to Keukenhof which was a bit of a cross country ride. One afternoon we rode the bikes across an awesome bike path up and over the dunes to Noordwijk aan Zee - a seaside resort town and had a nice seafood dinner at the beach restaurant. In this general area they had the special colored/numbered bike path markers at crossroads, so it was much easier to navigate even though we still got lost on the return as we were on our own. This area was really nice because most of the bike paths were off road/across country unlike Amsterdam. I forget what they call their numbered junction bike trail system.

The small inn we were staying at in Noordwjkerhout was quite famous for great dining, so we pigged out at night! It also had crazy steep Dutch stairs - typical!

I have family living in Amsterdam so we try to visit once a year.

 

[explanade]

Looks like plenty of bike tours in Amsterdam.

https://www.viator.com/searchResults/all?text=amsterdam+bike+tours&destId=525

Only been to Amsterdam so there are a lot of cities I want to visit, Delft, Rotterdam, The Hague, etc.

But not this summer, their infection rates are very high. So is neighboring Belgium too.

 

[Midpack]

I added Car Play to my 2018 Lexus SUV and find it way better than the built in navigation. I was going to have to pay $150 or something to update the maps so I just popped $180 for Car Play. Most people like Waze but I can't get used to the interface. I do like Apple Maps which I had never bothered with before. I like the detailed instructions. "go thru the next light and then turn right at the stop sign."

I didn’t know you could buy CarPlay as an upgrade. It’s built into all iPhones now and your car either has it installed (std or optional) or it doesn’t IME and, but obviously that’s not always the case from your example.

 

[harllee]

For those who use your smart phone app for navigation do you have a way to get it on a larger screen on your car (like CarPlay) or do you just look at your phone screen?

 

[donheff]

I didn’t know you could buy CarPlay as an upgrade. It’s built into all iPhones now and your car either has it installed (std or optional) or it doesn’t IME and, but obviously that’s not always the case from your example.

I was surprised too. It comes standard in the same model now but when I was Googling navigation system map updates I came across a reference for having the dealer install the CarPlay software. It was $180 but would be much more expensive if you had to replace the head unit. In my year and model it was a software upgrade.

 

[cathy63]

I didn’t know you could buy CarPlay as an upgrade. It’s built into all iPhones now and your car either has it installed (std or optional) or it doesn’t IME and, but obviously that’s not always the case from your example.

I had it added to my 2015 Mazda by the dealer about 3 years ago. For my car it was a hardware (more powerful USB ports) and software upgrade. I already had the built-in infotainment system, it just didn't support Android Auto/Apple CarPlay.

 

[2017ish]

For those who use your smart phone app for navigation do you have a way to get it on a larger screen on your car (like CarPlay) or do you just look at your phone screen?

I have a suction-cup dash mount and audible directions enabled, not a larger screen. If a rental car on trip, DW will have the phone in hand and give me directions--especially if situation is too confusing with just the audible from phone (i.e., on Jordan's King's "Highway" when going through small towns....).

 

[cathy63]

For those who use your smart phone app for navigation do you have a way to get it on a larger screen on your car (like CarPlay) or do you just look at your phone screen?

I use Android Auto in my own car, and it displays Waze or Google Maps on the car's built in head unit screen. My phone doesn't actually show the map in that case, even though it's sending the image to the car system.

When I rent a car, if it doesn't have Android Auto enabled, I use a vent clip mount to hold the phone where I can see it and run the nav software there. I usually still start the Android Auto app on the phone and use that to start the nav though.

 

[Midpack]

Interesting poll result. I think the built in systems are clearly inferior to smartphones (expensive and never current), and a manufacturer/dealer ripoff, but I assumed the majority here would use built ins. I was also surprised to see that many people still use stand alone GPS units in cars, though I used one constantly when I was boating. Just not quite what I expected, that's why I polled.

As much as I prefer CarPlay w Apple Maps, I realize there will come a day where we'll be locked in to built in NAV systems again, as self-driving develops. I well understand why carmakers have to lock into one NAV map/app for self-driving, e.g Tesla is locked into Google Maps - understandably no way around it.

 

[Scrapr]

I couldn't vote because I'm about 50/50 for my Volvo nav system and Waze via CarPlay.

Both are excellent, and the only problem with the Volvo system is that it's weak when searching for a destination. But I can easily get around that by using the Volvo app on my phone to find a destination and send it to the car, so it's just a minor annoyance.

That is exactly what I do with my Volvo. The search function in car is bad. Horrible even. Much better on the phone. The in car Nav has a big screen to see the road ahead. Plus the heads up display does much the same

The remote start is just an added bonus.

 

[Ready]

My 2010 Lexus had a built in NAV system but it required expensive updates which I never bothered with. As it got older I found myself using my phone almost exclusively. It took too long to enter an address and the screen resolution wasn’t very good.

With our Teslas NAV is integrated into the car. It is useful on longer trips to calculate charging stops and locations and for warning us of traffic jams. But if I don’t know where I’m going I will sometimes use both the Tesla navigation and my Iphone because sometimes the Tesla maps are just flat out wrong.

 

[audreyh1]

Tesla augments the google map data.

 

[easysurfer]

Interesting poll result. I think the built in systems are clearly inferior to smartphones (expensive and never current), and a manufacturer/dealer ripoff, but I assumed the majority here would use built ins. I was also surprised to see that many people still use stand alone GPS units in cars, though I used one constantly when I was boating. Just not quite what I expected, that's why I polled.

As much as I prefer CarPlay w Apple Maps, I realize there will come a day where we'll be locked in to built in NAV systems again, as self-driving develops. I well understand why carmakers have to lock into one NAV map/app for self-driving, e.g Tesla is locked into Google Maps - understandably no way around it.

As long as Garmin is still around I'm happy with my lifetime map updates on the old GPS.

Another disadvantage of built-in NAV systems I'd think is what happens to all the saved favorites locations if you happen to use a different car? Are the savings portable or tied to a certain vehicle. With a portable GPS or smartphone, just bring the device from car to car.

 

[kcowan]

When we rented a car in France, we had a Renault with built in NAV and the passenger used a portable Garmin. We eventually just used the built in ...

Now our iPhone plays in the Kia screen.

 

[travelover]

As long as Garmin is still around I'm happy with my lifetime map updates on the old GPS.............

I found a like new Garmin GPS with lifetime maps (circa 2014) in the free bin at my local Habitat ReStore. When I proudly showed it to my DW, she observed that it was in the free bin because no one wants them anymore - everyone just uses their smartphone. I updated the maps on it and I'll carry it with me for use in rental cars, but I suspect DW was right.

 

[audreyh1]

We did Garmin lifetime maps and used them for many many years, but when we started to use iPhones they went the way of the dodo and we were quite happy to see them go.

 

[explanade]

For those who use your smart phone app for navigation do you have a way to get it on a larger screen on your car (like CarPlay) or do you just look at your phone screen?

I have a suction-cup dash mount and audible directions enabled, not a larger screen. If a rental car on trip, DW will have the phone in hand and give me directions--especially if situation is too confusing with just the audible from phone (i.e., on Jordan's King's "Highway" when going through small towns....).

I use a vent mount, which is hit and miss as far as some cars.

I've driven on long road trips with the iPhone in the cup holder and me occasionally picking it up to look at the display, though getting audio prompts all the time ("turn left in 100 meters")

 

[explanade]

I found a like new Garmin GPS with lifetime maps (circa 2014) in the free bin at my local Habitat ReStore. When I proudly showed it to my DW, she observed that it was in the free bin because no one wants them anymore - everyone just uses their smartphone. I updated the maps on it and I'll carry it with me for use in rental cars, but I suspect DW was right.

I used to update the Garmin maps a couple of times.

Had to download this Garmin application called Basecamp on my Mac and the update process took a long time.

Even then, it was so inferior because those old Garmins have slower processors, less RAM and non-capacitive touch screens plus a very clumsy menu structure.

I still went to the trouble of trying to save custom favorites or POIs, which you had to enter names or labels for, but of course it's much simpler to do in Google Maps, you just tap an icon.

 

[ls99]

My flip phone does not do graphics. Have a Garmin in each vehicle bolted to the top of dash. Every couple of years update them.

 

[steelyman]

CNBC ran a story today that may interest readers of this thread:

Apple introduced CarPlay in 2014 as a way to integrate the iPhone and a car’s dashboard.

In the United States, over 80% of new cars sold support it, Apple said last year.

Apple’s success with CarPlay explains the automotive industry’s interest in rumors that Apple plans to build its own car.

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/05/29/apple-carplay-massive-success-paves-way-for-automotive-entry.html

 

[audreyh1]

Whenever we’ve had CarPlay in an rented car we’ve really enjoyed it. We’ve even become adept at discovering where deep in the vehicle settings to enable it.

Our Jeep is too old.

 

[audreyh1]

I use a vent mount, which is hit and miss as far as some cars.

I've driven on long road trips with the iPhone in the cup holder and me occasionally picking it up to look at the display, though getting audio prompts all the time ("turn left in 100 meters")

My Apple Watch really helps with navigation. It displays next turn information and taps you on the wrist when it’s time to do something. A good supplement to the audio instructions.