I Hate Maps & Navigation!

[Vanilla Tarantino]

Fictitious diminutive horrid appearing creature that resides underneath bridges?

No. I know exactly what he's talking about on a few cases. The address working better is one huge example. I wanted to go to a store about 10 miles away one time, so I did a voice search. It found a store in the area, so I said, "ok, go!" Well, when I got to the location, the store was nowhere to be found. After getting pissed, I parked, looked up the address online and found the store that way. Turns out it was about half a mile away on a completely different street from what Google had registered. Same thing happened to me the next day with a different store, but since then I've had pretty good luck with the voice search...although I have started to rely more on using the internet to find the address, then clicking it to open it up in maps.

 

[Ghostwheel]

Prior to getting my Droid, my only experience of any kind with GPS navigation was the VZ Navigation on my wife's Blackberry Storm. Driving across PA on the turnpike a couple months ago, I was impressed with its localized weather and traffic reports as we drove in and out of snow squalls, as well as its "you are here" style of follow-along mapping. It even offers a choice of computer voices, which are all smooth and fluid sounding.

Compared with that, I have to say that Google Nav absolutely seems like a beta. So far, navigation is the only feature in which I think her phone beats the Droid. I hope Google updates to a fully functional release soon. And gets rid of that choppy robot voice in the process.

 

[hookbill]

Prior to getting my Droid, my only experience of any kind with GPS navigation was the VZ Navigation on my wife's Blackberry Storm. Driving across PA on the turnpike a couple months ago, I was impressed with its localized weather and traffic reports as we drove in and out of snow squalls, as well as its "you are here" style of follow-along mapping. It even offers a choice of computer voices, which are all smooth and fluid sounding.

Compared with that, I have to say that Google Nav absolutely seems like a beta. So far, navigation is the only feature in which I think her phone beats the Droid. I hope Google updates to a fully functional release soon. And gets rid of that choppy robot voice in the process.

Well, one is free the other is paid for. You think you should get a navigation system that's as good as Verizon's for free?

I've never used Verizon's I have to take your word for it but it's strange, I don't find the voice robotic. Probably just because I haven't seen a superior product. And I think the navigation will always be beta, that's just how Google runs.

 

[Ghostwheel]

Well, one is free the other is paid for. You think you should get a navigation system that's as good as Verizon's for free?

Well, I get linux for free, and it's far better than the paid-for alternatives. :wink:

 

[gentlefury]

Prior to getting my Droid, my only experience of any kind with GPS navigation was the VZ Navigation on my wife's Blackberry Storm. Driving across PA on the turnpike a couple months ago, I was impressed with its localized weather and traffic reports as we drove in and out of snow squalls, as well as its "you are here" style of follow-along mapping. It even offers a choice of computer voices, which are all smooth and fluid sounding.

Compared with that, I have to say that Google Nav absolutely seems like a beta. So far, navigation is the only feature in which I think her phone beats the Droid. I hope Google updates to a fully functional release soon. And gets rid of that choppy robot voice in the process.

Are you actually saying you prefer vz navigator? I have owned several navigation devices, from the bottom end to the highest end, and vz navigator I would say is the worst I've ever used, and google navigator goes right up there with or better than my $600 nav.

 

[RW-1]

The voice is the same as on my Garmin 496, geez...

New maps just pushed to N1 has favorites, integration to the maps website (very nice BTW) and has night mode ( to match other portables).

It's frackin great for free, just take it with a grain...

 

[darthdroid]

The navigation app has several issues in my opinion:

- There is no option to choose a different route, avoid a certain road, part of a road etc. The funny thing is that the app has traffic information but makes no use of it. I was driving to work, and the highway was jammed, so i took a back road. The Nav app wanted to take me back to the highway, showing the red traffic icon on the bottom, with 15 minutes estimate. I ignored this, and took another road, and the estimate changed to 9 minutes, with the red changing to green.

- There are no favorites to choose from.

- When you use voice search and say "Navigate to home" it does NOT look for a contact named home first, but rather, tries to google search home, this is stupid.

- I also noticed that when you put in an address with a street number that is unknown in google maps, the app can route you to a different city that might have the same street name with the number you entered. This is a major issue - if you don't know where you are going, you WILL go to the wrong address unknowingly.

 

[unix.punkx]

I absolutely LOVE Google Navigation, it was only wrong once and it was when the Droid first launched. It is extremely accurate, updates are free, and its based on Google Maps. I've never had a TomTom or GARMIN, although I almost bought one right before I got my Droid, glad I didn't.

 

[Ghostwheel]

Prior to getting my Droid, my only experience of any kind with GPS navigation was the VZ Navigation on my wife's Blackberry Storm. Driving across PA on the turnpike a couple months ago, I was impressed with its localized weather and traffic reports as we drove in and out of snow squalls, as well as its "you are here" style of follow-along mapping. It even offers a choice of computer voices, which are all smooth and fluid sounding.

Compared with that, I have to say that Google Nav absolutely seems like a beta. So far, navigation is the only feature in which I think her phone beats the Droid. I hope Google updates to a fully functional release soon. And gets rid of that choppy robot voice in the process.

Are you actually saying you prefer vz navigator? I have owned several navigation devices, from the bottom end to the highest end, and vz navigator I would say is the worst I've ever used, and google navigator goes right up there with or better than my $600 nav.

It could be that I just need more experience with Google Nav to get used to its quirks and differences from VZ. But as far as the voices, I prefer VZ to Google.

 

[Milehighjc]

Have used it a lot, and NAV is one of my favorite things about that Droid.

Having said that, It did lead me to a phantom Chipoltle once... Empty parking lot, nothing even remotely looking like a Chipoltle. Maybe it was trying to protect my health.

It also does not always take the most efficient route, in my town, it tries to route me to main streets almost every time, even when that is out of the way. There are much shorter/faster ways to get to where Im going. BUT - if Im in a strange town, its probably easier, and possibly better to take the main streets.

Overall, its failed me once... out of maybe 50 uses - far less than the OP claim of 50%. Guess Maps is better here than wherever he lives. :icon_eek:

jc

 

[gruve]

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.

I would have to disagree with you. The voice is rather annoying but it gets me where I need to go. I have a tomtom as well and use both devices. It's a free feature on the phone, what do you expect? Perhaps you should go back to mapquest and print out directions

 

[KZIWarrior]

The software works, its the maps that are no where up to the quality of Navtec and Teleatlas. I agree that the software works fine, the directions aren't perfect, but the maps have to be rated horrible.

That's because Google canceled their contracts/agreements with both back in October. Here in Nashville (especially in the outlining areas) the maps have regressed to where they were about two years ago.... WHY Google did this just as they were launching Nav is beyond anyone (Google has even refused to acknowledged it's creating a problem on their support pages/forums).

Only thing I can think of is that TomTom and Garmin pressured Navtec and TeleAtlas into not allowing Google to use the maps for the Nav (no-competition clause maybe) or maybe Google would have had to pay a premium for the added service.... whatever the case they are now forced to rely on maps from the Census Bureau and 'free' sources.... kind of pointless IMO but hopefully they're working on it...

But then it is a FREE app/system so 'you get what you pay for', lol.

 

[evilsock]

just saying, i have the top notch tom tom with bluetooth and blah blah, i hate updating all the road closings weekly/monthly, anyway long story short tom tom has not left glove box since i got my droid IMO it is pointless to buy a garmin or tom tom when vzw nav is better and cheaper, and google maps is better than that and its free, and getting better. what room does tom tom have to grow? oh wait i can make homer simpson give me directs....fail

 

[Twist747]

My questions have been since comparing my Garmin to NAV...
1) How can I save waypoints so they are easy to bring back up?
2) How can I download a track to reload and follow again in the future?
3) How can I manually create a route to upload and follow to a destination?

I love this thing, I just can't find satisfying solutions to these issues to be able to say ...bye bye to Garmin.

 

[alexr]

Well I didn't expect for there to be 5 pages, but I will reply to some things that have been said.

Trust me, when you don't have a clue where you are and are routed onto the wrong road while traveling to a POI you have to get to, you will be pissed off as well.

I understand that it is a beta, and I know the Navtec maps were dropped from Google Maps, that is my point. I have had a Garmin and TomTom and can reliably say that they are a lot better at routing then the google one. Live traffic means nothing to me, it isn't like it routes around the traffic.

Most times it is fine, but my success rate for POIs has been 50% or below. Regular addresses seem fine, as they should be. My point more or less is that the POIs in Google Maps are simply unreliable. I have reported a lot, and so far only 1 has been fixed. I look around my town, a hotel that is a POI is over a mile from where it actually is, in the wrong direction. I reported that but I haven't seen a change. Even worse is that a lot of these businesses are in the business directory themselves and can edit it themselves.

Anyway, like I said, I love the phone. But verizon really shouldn't even be pushing this navigation thing as hard as they did because it simply isn't that great of a replacement as plenty have seen. Between the no cached maps, people having issues with satellites, and my issues with POIs it simply looks like this product is half done.

Like all the other Google products I am sure this will be great once it is perfected, but this is the most incomplete product I have ever seen Google release. You may disagree with me, but ask the people who's complete developments disappeared from Google maps after they dropped Navtec.

I really want this to be the best app, and have reported so many issues I think I am just angry that they aren't even being addressed. To be honest I really get more angry when I leave plenty of time to get to a place and it isn't even there.

still love the droid