Well, I have had my Droid for over a month now and I have finally come to a verdict on Google Maps Navigation.
It Sucks.
Why? A number of reasons, none related to the actual phone. I love the phone, it works great for anything I need it for. E-mailing, texting, browsing, it all works. The only thing that seems to cause me grief is Google maps.
The ads advertised the GPS navigation, sure it works, barely. First off, if you know the address, it may work better. I have put addresses in and it would route me to where it thought the location was. The only problem was that the place I was looking for was just a bunch of woods on my left according to the Navigation app.
After about 20 minutes I realized that there was another road with the same name across the highway. I crossed the highway and went down the road and found the location in no time. This hasn't happened just once, this happens about 50% of the time I try to find a place.
POIs, don't even get me started on these. The correct name would be "POS", they are almost always wrong. Heck, some of the time they don't even have the right road for the address. Just two days ago I selected a POI and clicked navigate. It told me I arrived when I pulled up to an intersection with absolutely nothing there. I called up the place I was looking for just to find out that the POI in Google Maps didn't even have the right street.
Markers are almost always in the wrong place, the directions will tell you to turn right even if you are just supposed to go straight and slightly turn to stay on the road. If you try to report either of these problems you can expect for them not to get fixed in a timely fashion. Even if the thing does seem to have an idea where to go, the directions are just about the worst I have ever seen at some points. Whenever I want to turn onto I-95 it wants me to make a U-turn instead of just turning left at the light onto the ramp.
It is an insult to even call this a navigation app. The only thing it seems to work for is getting me home, and that is because I usually have an idea where I am going.
Ever since they got rid of the Navtec maps, google maps has been the most unreliable service Google has ever put out.
Hopefully TomTom or Garmin comes out with something respectable.
By the way, I use google products for almost everything, so this isn't just an "I hate google" rant.
It Sucks.
Why? A number of reasons, none related to the actual phone. I love the phone, it works great for anything I need it for. E-mailing, texting, browsing, it all works. The only thing that seems to cause me grief is Google maps.
The ads advertised the GPS navigation, sure it works, barely. First off, if you know the address, it may work better. I have put addresses in and it would route me to where it thought the location was. The only problem was that the place I was looking for was just a bunch of woods on my left according to the Navigation app.
After about 20 minutes I realized that there was another road with the same name across the highway. I crossed the highway and went down the road and found the location in no time. This hasn't happened just once, this happens about 50% of the time I try to find a place.
POIs, don't even get me started on these. The correct name would be "POS", they are almost always wrong. Heck, some of the time they don't even have the right road for the address. Just two days ago I selected a POI and clicked navigate. It told me I arrived when I pulled up to an intersection with absolutely nothing there. I called up the place I was looking for just to find out that the POI in Google Maps didn't even have the right street.
Markers are almost always in the wrong place, the directions will tell you to turn right even if you are just supposed to go straight and slightly turn to stay on the road. If you try to report either of these problems you can expect for them not to get fixed in a timely fashion. Even if the thing does seem to have an idea where to go, the directions are just about the worst I have ever seen at some points. Whenever I want to turn onto I-95 it wants me to make a U-turn instead of just turning left at the light onto the ramp.
It is an insult to even call this a navigation app. The only thing it seems to work for is getting me home, and that is because I usually have an idea where I am going.
Ever since they got rid of the Navtec maps, google maps has been the most unreliable service Google has ever put out.
Hopefully TomTom or Garmin comes out with something respectable.
By the way, I use google products for almost everything, so this isn't just an "I hate google" rant.