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Funny, when I was car shopping in 2013 it was the exact opposite. They kept trying to sell us on built-in nav systems even though we repeatedly told them that w
by mikeash 9y ago
Funny, when I was car shopping in 2013 it was the exact opposite. They kept trying to sell us on built-in nav systems even though we repeatedly told them that we don’t care about those systems and plan to use our phones. Maybe they’ve finally caught on.
- raverbashing 9y agoIf you're not going somewhere where there's no 3G connection then there is no need to worry But on the countryside there is usually no usable signal for great stretches of road
- mikeash 9y agoThere are plenty of smartphone navigation apps that work without a connection.
- ams6110 9y agoGoogle Maps lets you download your route in advance. So with a bit of planning you don't need data. I have no data plan on my phone, yet I navigate with Google Maps all the time in this way. I just download on WiFi beforehand.
- tgb 9y agoOn my last trip, it even prompted me in advance to suggest this based off the flight information!
- snowwolf 9y agoThis is a great feature and I’ve used it extensively when travelling too. Word of warning though. It does not take into account the Avoid Toll Road setting when route planning without a signal. Which I found out the expensive way.
- monocasa 9y agoI use Google Maps in the Colorado high country all the time.
- joosters 9y agoWaze performs surprisingly well when you have no signal during your journey - I guess that it pre-emptively downloads the bits of maps that it knows it will need. OTOH, Waze is next to useless when trying to first pick a route when you have anything less than a great signal. 2G or patchy 3G? No hope. The dumb app will just give a timeout error after about five seconds or so and refuse to even consider plotting a route. It's like the developers never bother to test their code on anything other than a perfect internet connection.
- netsharc 9y agoHERE or Here WeGo (formerly Navteq, bought by Nokia, now owned by a consortium of Audi, BMW and Daimler) offers a smartphone navigation app with downloadable maps for regions (for big regions, e.g.Germany it even offers sub-regions, so German states), and all for free.
- oh_sigh 9y agoYou can download map data in Google maps to use it offline. Routing and I think some POI searching works offline...it's hidden in the settings menu somewhere.
- saberworks 9y agoOnly if you "sign in" to the google maps app. Which otherwise works fine without signing in.