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> A 10.2-inch touchscreen is standard equipment, but a navigation system isn’t offered. Instead, you’ll have to rely on a connected phone to pull up Android Au
by djrogers 10y ago
> A 10.2-inch touchscreen is standard equipment, but a navigation system isn’t offered. Instead, you’ll have to rely on a connected phone to pull up Android Auto or Apple CarPlay.
Hallelujah! I really hope the rest of the manufacturers and their car lines come around to this model. I know they make more $$ on their $2000 nav packages, but people are rejecting them in droves because they are horrible and need to be updated through clunky, often expensive processes.
- wlesieutre 10y agoAgreed. Even people who have nav systems built into their cars still use their phones instead. http://money.cnn.com/2016/10/10/autos/car-navigation-frustration/ http://money.cnn.com/2016/10/10/autos/car-navigation-frustra... The phone navigation apps are made by software companies who actually have to compete with each other to make the best system. Compare to car nav systems where you only have one option, and the comparison of navigation systems between different cars is going to be a very very small factor in which car you end up buying. You buy the car you want and take whatever you get for navigation. Car manufacturers (to generalize a bit) are not particularly good at software, and do not have much incentive to get better at it.
- honkhonkpants 10y agoThe navigation assistance in my car is significantly better than the one Google Maps offers. For one thing it doesn't lose its mind every time I go under an overpass. For another, the UI is vastly superior: it shows me the distance to the next waypoint prominently in the center of the display, between the speedometer and the tachometer. When approaching a turn, the same area of the display is used to show the configuration of the intersection, even complicated ones like double forks or t- or y- shaped intersections, or even acute turnbacks. My car never barks orders like Google Maps does. If it needs to say something, it is awfully polite, saying things such as "If possible, make a legal U-turn." And finally my car's navigation responds to a voice command to stop navigating, which Google Maps doesn't seem to know. In my experience the only thing Google Maps navigation has going for it is superior data. I really wish I could have my car's UI with Google's data.
- wlesieutre 10y agoHasn't been my experience, but I've never had a car nav system, just attempted to use other people's. Could be a learning curve issue since I'm used to my phone UI and not the cars'. People downvoting honkhonkpants, please don't. You may disagree with him, but it's a well thought out discussion.
- foobarian 10y agoTheoretically the car nav has access to inertial/distance sensors which help a ton in tunnels/weak GPS spots. But I bet few cars have this. It would sure be nice to have this exported to phones somehow. (Heck, have the whole OBD feed exposed. One can dream...)
- wlesieutre 10y agoI imagine a car's sensors could be more accurate than a phone's because they're in a fixed orientation. Plus it can tell if you're turning the wheel and should have the same distance info that the odometer gets. The OBD-II data should include odometer readings. I assume phones could at least get that via bluetooth dongles, but I'm not aware of any nav apps that do.
- djrogers 10y agoThose may be fair criticisms, but the only way you're likely going to get what you're asking for (Google's data with a UI as good as your car's) is through a more open and competitive model. On your phone, you probably have literally dozens of choices for GPS apps, but in your car you have one. And the one in your car will never get appreciably better, you're stuck with it.
- greglindahl 10y agoAs much as I hate bringing Tesla into every EV thread, Tesla's nav uses Google data, and they've reved the UI for all car owners back to the first Model S shipped.
- 10y ago
- te_chris 10y agoI much prefer inbuilt nav systems when they're done well (integrated, simple dash view is a must) like in VW Golf and Merc A Class. Phone can't compete to having just the right information, right when you need it in the console. Particularly when travelling and hiring cars.
- FireBeyond 10y agoYes, love the navigation in my Audi. Console and in dash display, Google Maps with traffic. No nannying "you can't enter a destination unless the park brake is on", and additional nice integrations like "65 mi to empty, next fuel is 48mi, redirect to gas station now?" Oh, AND I can use either Android or Car Play in my car, as well.
- reubenswartz 10y agoI have a cradle for my phone that puts it right next to the map in my built-in nav system. I never use the nav system anymore, because it's so much easier to enter information on the phone, real time traffic is there, etc. I still like the map, and I have it on most of the time, just because I like maps, but I'd never pay the extra for the nav system again.
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- tomcam 10y agoUsed to agree with you. Then my Merc GL550 needed a nav update. For only $450 I got a "self installable" DVD that needed a trip to the dealer, only to find out it was still years behind. Bring on the iPhone 7.
- alistairSH 10y agoHave you used CarPlay yet? You get the large touch-screen control, Apple-standard UI, and up-to-date info. The only downside if Apple Maps is still behind Google Maps. But, it's also WAY ahead of most in-car nav systems.
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- vkou 10y agoYou'll love using your phone for navigation, until you go to Canada, where you don't have data. (Or affordable data.) I have a 2010 Prius, and I'm quite happy with its built-in navigation. Its UI is worse at first-time address entry, but is substantially better for... Just about everything else.
- wlesieutre 10y agoThere are offline phone navigation apps also. Have you looked at Navmii?
- krzyk 10y agoThere are multiple offline navigation applications on Android (e.g. Sygic or OSMand), and those are more up to date than the ones in car.
- neumann 10y agojust download the offline map before you go! You'd probably have to do that for your dedicated GPS anyways, right?
- vkou 10y agoMy car is pre-loaded with full mapping data for all of Canada and the US. I suppose I could achieve the same effect by clearing up space on my phone, figuring out exactly where I'm going, grabbing offline data for it, praying that I don't ever drive out of that area, deleting the offline data after my trip... Or, I could just use my car's built in maps.
- snovv_crash 10y agoThen you download the offline gmaps package, which has everything except real-time traffic and public transport info.
- cbhl 10y agoOffline maps was at one point removed from Google Maps for Mobile, but they put it back. Here's how to use it: https://support.google.com/maps/answer/6291838 https://support.google.com/maps/answer/6291838 Disclaimer: I work for Google, but not on Maps.
- markild 10y agoI'm very much ready to jump on the hype train for Android Auto, but sadly there's still a long list of countries they don't serve[1] > The Android Auto app is currently available in the following countries: Argentina Australia Austria Bolivia Brazil Canada Chile Colombia Costa Rica Dominican Republic Ecuador France Germany Guatemala India Ireland Italy Japan Mexico New Zealand Panama Paraguay Peru Puerto Rico Russia Spain Switzerland United Kingdom United States Uruguay Venezuela [1]: https://www.android.com/auto/ https://www.android.com/auto/
- zuppy 10y agoYou can just install the app from a site that mirrors apk files and it will work. It did for me a year ago, when I've tried it.
- agumonkey 10y agoI've seen a few VW builtin GPS so crappy we ended up gmaps'ing over 3G. One guy was a working cab driver.
- agumonkey 10y agoI've seen a few VW builtin GPS so crappy we ended up gmaps'ing over 3G. One guy was a working cab driver.
- irq-1 10y agoReminds me of Superbook kickstarter project to attach your phone to a laptop-shell, and use your phone like a desktop. The future looks more and more like Bring Your Own Device. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/andromium/the-superbook-turn-your-smartphone-into-a-laptop-f https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/andromium/the-superbook...
- pc86 10y agoJust picked up a new car on Friday, and the $300 CarPlay option required the $1,900 navigation option. Nav seems nice so far but the real test is always several years after the latest update...
- jsmthrowaway 10y agoMy old Highlander had a DVD that provided the map data and stayed loaded all the time for that reason. Each year was a new one for a couple hundred bucks. I bought mine, but given that it's a DVD, out of curiosity I checked if it was possible to pirate them and I only found one possibility in some Russian guy's home directory Apache index. Toyota Highlander dealer navigation DVDs weren't that hot of a commodity when I looked, rather surprisingly.
- AIMunchkin 10y agoAu contraire, I much prefer my 2016 car's built-in navigation system with consistent performance and features to the ADHD ever-changing, signal-dependent, random notifiers asking stupid questions, craptastic voice input, arbitrarily failing navigation apps of the two major mobile providers. I don't WANT to update my navigation system. That's exactly what I HATE about Google Maps etc. In fact, I have gone so far as to opt out of updating my car's system to enable Android Auto after I tried it out in a rental and found it to be an epic bowl of buggy fail that nearly got me in an accident. And of course, that didn't stop the Android team from breaking basic Bluetooth support in Android 7.0.1 on my Nexus 5x because they're go-getters in that department. My car is a useful device that I need to count on daily, not a @#$%ing mobile app like Candy Crush.
- stinkytaco 10y agoBut will you three years from now? I get what you are saying, but you are comparing a 2016 nav system to a phone. If you've got a nav system that's a few years old it's a headache (and possibly costly) to update, might be missing features in newer nav systems or might simply be broken and outrageous to fix (a problem that could also apply to an Android Auto head unit, to be fair, but at least you have a backup then).
- AIMunchkin 10y agoIn my case, I'm still quite happy with the Nav system in my wife's 2009 Rav 4 actually. It works as intended to this day. It's missing some fanciness, but I'm just not about the fancy.
- city41 10y agoThe issue is updating the system with new maps. My car's nav system is now about two years old and I find about 1 in every 20 addresses or so it doesn't recognize. Overall I do feel built in nav systems offer the best experience, I just wish car manufacturers could figure out a better update process.
- unethical_ban 10y agoI wish the nav was simply easier to update. In fact, I wish the entertainment system was an Android offshoot with GPS and wifi built in. Shouldn't be so proprietary.
- skykooler 10y agoI wish there were a way to make a more interoperable system though. Android Auto isn't available in all countries. It also locks you into the two main phone OS's. What if you have a Windows Phone? Or Sailfish OS? Now you can't connect to your car.
- bhandziuk 10y agoThen you just plop your phone on the dash with the nav running like an old car. No worse off than before.
- tempestn 10y agoI came here to post this exactly comment. I even have the same quotation sitting in my clipboard right now. Apple CarPlay or Android Auto is the best of both worlds; I can't imagine a dedicated nav system being better. (Best cause, a really good one might be the same, except tied to one car and lacking any other search history. And much more expensive.)