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Hey guys.
I never have been a big sat-nav user but over the last couple few years i have been relying on my smartphone and a navigation app.
I started off using 'google maps' about 18 months ago, it took me on bizarre routes a few times. I stopped using it. 'Navmii' was recommended as a great free app, it was fairly good for using occasionally. I have been traveling about England in the past week, I'm finding 'Navmii' poor and it has let me down a few times. My friend suggested 'Sygic' app, I'm finding the app great and it has many great features especially when it helps with lane changing. However the second time i used it, i was trying to get to an nearby Asda, it took me down a dead end road behind Asda and onto a back lane that was also blocked off. Today it performed fine on my way to South Wales.
So features aside, it is just a case of no Sat-Nav is perfect at getting you to your destination? Do we have to accept some mistakes with all apps and all sat-nav devices?
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I use waze or Google maps, both work well for me , both in the truck an car
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May 10, 2016 13:40:56 GMT
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I normally use google maps to see where the destination is then make up my own route using satnav or map (some on here will now what a map is) just to find my way the last part of the route.
We have recently bought a Garmin but that's mostly for use In Euroland.
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May 10, 2016 17:35:18 GMT
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cheers for the replies, i also like checking the route on my laptop first, its not alsways possible if you are out and about and need to use sat nav. Also how do you get your sat nav app to follow the route you planned on your pc, it ends up taking its own route.
Today i was out trying to get to a town 6 miles away, 'Sygic' kept trying to get my to turn into residential streets or small country roads that are not part of the route, instead of stick to the main roads.
Does your Garmin produce better results?
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May 10, 2016 17:58:38 GMT
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A local farmer used to do a nice sideline in towing out cars on one of the local byways.....stupid thing is it's really really obvious it's not suitable for cars, and it's signed as such as well.
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slater
Club Retro Rides Member
Posts: 6,390
Club RR Member Number: 78
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May 10, 2016 23:22:30 GMT
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As with all of them you still need a brain. I can't see why anyone bothers with sat nav anymore. Google does it all and better and surely nearly everyone has smart phones nowerdays?
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cheers for the replies, i also like checking the route on my laptop first, its not alsways possible if you are out and about and need to use sat nav. Also how do you get your sat nav app to follow the route you planned on your pc, it ends up taking its own route. Today i was out trying to get to a town 6 miles away, 'Sygic' kept trying to get my to turn into residential streets or small country roads that are not part of the route, instead of stick to the main roads. Does your Garmin produce better results? I've not actually used the Garmin yet but guess I should test it before going abroad. The system we have one our work phone/PDA is a windows, Google maps satnav which is the same as you get on your laptop with google Earth mapping and you can choose quick Route/ Main roads/ avoid tolls etc and I believe you can do the same with Garmin. |
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As with all of them you still need a brain. I can't see why anyone bothers with sat nav anymore. Google does it all and better and surely nearly everyone has smart phones nowerdays? Possibly because not everyone has unlimited data or coverage on their phone. |
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I use google maps before I leave home or an actual paper map to plan a route. It must be remembered that in many places there are roads that only exist on a map and sometimes satnav devices think that these are real roads. At my work, in the roading industry, we receive police accident reports. We get a lot involving tourists who trusted the satnav in their rental car and got onto unsealed roads that look like a shortcut on the map but are one and a half lanes wide at best and not at all suitable for inexperienced drivers who have never driven outside a city before.
A prime example of trusting the satnav too much occured some years ago when a group of Australian tourists in a small 2wd rental car attempted to take a direct route from Hanmer Springs to Nelson. Anyone who is familiar with the South Island of New Zealand will understand that this a bad idea. Three river crossings later the tourists became stranded and were later discovered by a local farmer who wondered how they had even got that far. They were a bit lucky to be found so soon. It is a very sparsely populated mountainous area and they could have been stuck there for weeks and been dead by the time anyone noticed the car.
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bortaf
Posted a lot
Posts: 4,549
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May 13, 2016 14:04:09 GMT
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Main issue i've found is if you choose to aviod motorways the route wont go accross motorway juctions you can join/leave at, once made an interesting drive back from bedford to W London when the sat nav took me via cambridge and braintree cos it couldn't find another route to cross a motorway using a bridge or tunnel, over/under a motorway  |
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R.I.P photobucket
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bortaf
Posted a lot
Posts: 4,549
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May 13, 2016 14:06:09 GMT
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As with all of them you still need a brain. I can't see why anyone bothers with sat nav anymore. Google does it all and better and surely nearly everyone has smart phones nowerdays? Not eveyone, TBH thats a crazy assumtion, most people over 50 cant use one but still need/want satnav, it's like saying why have satnav on your phone surely eveyone can afford a car with satnav built in ! |
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R.I.P photobucket
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Ryannn
Posted a lot
Posts: 2,423
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May 13, 2016 18:55:00 GMT
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I've started using waze for work as I can't find my sat nav. The biggest issue with using my phone is that the battery is empty after 3 hours constant use. So I have to keep it plugged in which then means I can't use other things in the car.
With regard to locations, even the waze app will take me to the delivery entrances of businesses or drop me off at a junction overlooking my location lol. It's not the sat nav's fault, it doesn't have a brain! Haha
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May 13, 2016 22:22:21 GMT
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I bought a Garmin when I first got the Range Rover as Manila roads can be somewhat confusing. However, the Garmin just made it more so. The three big problems here is that Metro Manila is comprised of 16 separate cities which all run into one big lump. They also love to name their roads after dead politicians, which poses a problem as there are only so many to go around. So, you input Senator Gil Puyat Avenue/Street/Road/Boulevard and off you go. It's then pot-luck which of the 16 Senator Gil Puyat Avenues/Streets/Roads/Boulevards it sends you to. Finally, mapping in general is no way up to Ordnance Survey/A-Z standards. I tried a little experiment the first week. Inputting a destination I already knew, we set off. It was fine until about halfway there when it seemed to realise there was another road of the same name near to where we were and got all distracted, insisting I did a U-turn and headed off the wrong way. I gave it to Madam. She doesn't use it, but it's a gadget and she loves gadgets!  I now mainly use paper maps combined with Google Street view (to get an idea of any landmarks) before embarking on a journey and maybe Here/Google maps when I know I'm getting close to destination. |
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I use google maps before I leave home or an actual paper map to plan a route. It must be remembered that in many places there are roads that only exist on a map and sometimes satnav devices think that these are real roads. At my work, in the roading industry, we receive police accident reports. We get a lot involving tourists who trusted the satnav in their rental car and got onto unsealed roads that look like a shortcut on the map but are one and a half lanes wide at best and not at all suitable for inexperienced drivers who have never driven outside a city before. A prime example of trusting the satnav too much occured some years ago when a group of Australian tourists in a small 2wd rental car attempted to take a direct route from Hanmer Springs to Nelson. Anyone who is familiar with the South Island of New Zealand will understand that this a bad idea. Three river crossings later the tourists became stranded and were later discovered by a local farmer who wondered how they had even got that far. They were a bit lucky to be found so soon. It is a very sparsely populated mountainous area and they could have been stuck there for weeks and been dead by the time anyone noticed the car. Is that the road that goes though Molesworth Station? Isn't it gated most of the time? |
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Dez
Club Retro Rides Member
And I won't sit down. And I won't shut up. And most of all I will not grow up.
Posts: 11,790
Club RR Member Number: 34
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Any sat nav is only as good as its software, and the regularity of its software updates.
In my experience Garmin are terrible, can't find my business address which is on a main road and sends you to some council houses 3 miles away instead!
Tomtom are better but you pay a premium for it
Google maps has the best software and most regular updates, plus it's already on my phone so i tend to use that.
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I've started using waze for work as I can't find my sat nav. The biggest issue with using my phone is that the battery is empty after 3 hours constant use. So I have to keep it plugged in which then means I can't use other things in the car. With regard to locations, even the waze app will take me to the delivery entrances of businesses or drop me off at a junction overlooking my location lol. It's not the sat nav's fault, it doesn't have a brain! Haha   |
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Last Edit: May 14, 2016 8:00:31 GMT by welshpug
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I use google maps before I leave home or an actual paper map to plan a route. It must be remembered that in many places there are roads that only exist on a map and sometimes satnav devices think that these are real roads. At my work, in the roading industry, we receive police accident reports. We get a lot involving tourists who trusted the satnav in their rental car and got onto unsealed roads that look like a shortcut on the map but are one and a half lanes wide at best and not at all suitable for inexperienced drivers who have never driven outside a city before. A prime example of trusting the satnav too much occured some years ago when a group of Australian tourists in a small 2wd rental car attempted to take a direct route from Hanmer Springs to Nelson. Anyone who is familiar with the South Island of New Zealand will understand that this a bad idea. Three river crossings later the tourists became stranded and were later discovered by a local farmer who wondered how they had even got that far. They were a bit lucky to be found so soon. It is a very sparsely populated mountainous area and they could have been stuck there for weeks and been dead by the time anyone noticed the car. Is that the road that goes though Molesworth Station? Isn't it gated most of the time? No. The Molesworth road, though often closed, is an actual through road. These guys went the other way, past the skifield access, and followed the river up a dead end road that I believe only accesses one farm. I took a Mazda 121 part of the way up there in '91 but turned back long before the first river crossing. |
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BT
Posted a lot
Posts: 1,772
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I use Google maps. Its taken a bit of getting used to but the live updates I get on mine have saved me hours which I am pleased with.
I even use it when running around my local area, we suffer in my part of the world with a lot of traffic, so it will automatically take you the quickest way which is a bonus.
Only negative is I have to have it plugged in if I am using it for any longer than an hour because it kills the battery, but I guess this is the same for any phone based sat nav app.
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Ryannn
Posted a lot
Posts: 2,423
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May 14, 2016 10:20:12 GMT
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I've started using waze for work as I can't find my sat nav. The biggest issue with using my phone is that the battery is empty after 3 hours constant use. So I have to keep it plugged in which then means I can't use other things in the car. With regard to locations, even the waze app will take me to the delivery entrances of businesses or drop me off at a junction overlooking my location lol. It's not the sat nav's fault, it doesn't have a brain! Haha I already have a twin USB, but my FM transmitter runs straight from an AC socket, not a USB. I'd get one of the adaptors but I don't like how untidy they look and tbh, there's not really anywhere to mount one in the car, the only storage compartment it has is the glove box. I just listen to the radio instead if I'm charging my phone. |
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May 16, 2016 19:41:18 GMT
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I thought i would give google maps another try after losing faith. Today i had no data signal so it was useless. You can download offline maps but thats only for your local area. They also seem to take up more room than other offline apps.
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