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So who likes the Droid's gps navigation?

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esmith818 said:
I'm not a traveling salesperson so I don't need an app to be flawless, and overall, I'm happy with Google Nav. However, having had the opportunity to test it side-by-side with a Garmin Nuvi 255w, I will say that the Garmin still has the edge, at least in my neck of the woods. A couple of reasons I will still take the Garmin on long road trips:

1) The Garmin has yet to miss a pronunciation on any street we've been on. Google routinely mispronounces street names. Not critical, but annoying when another device seems to have already mastered it.

2) Perhaps because of the mispronunciations in #1, there are several streets I can't navigate to using voice search on the Droid. The voice search works great if I want to go to McDonalds or BestBuy, but if I'm trying to get to a person's home or a small business, the voice interface rarely understands me. (In fairness, the Nuvi doesn't offer this service so I suppose it's unfair to hold this fault against Google.)

3) Google tends to assume that any street that borders a location is a satisfactory end point. I live on a neighborhood cul-de-sac that backs up to a major street. When my home is the start point, Google knows to take me out through my neighborhood, but when returning, it assumes I can just pull off on the side of the major road and climb over my backyard fence!

4) God forbid your route takes you on a road with a long name. The Garmin will tell you to take "Exit 16, Sunset Rd." Google will refer to the same exit as "Exit 16 A-B, west on Sunset Road, State Road 1536." I didn't know Sunset Rd had a state road number, and I certainly wouldn't know where to find it to confirm my heading!

5) Through no fault of Google, there are many areas I travel with poor 3G coverage. If I begin my route in one of these places, Google never has an opportunity to cache the necessary maps. Garmin has never failed to pick up a satellite from any location.

On the plus side, Google's maps seem to be more accurate. The Garmin device has not been updated for new roadwork around us that has been open for about 6 months. Google has been flawless in these situations.

If I didn't have a GPS device, I certainly wouldn't run out to get one as Google's offering is adequate for most situations, but since I do have one, I think I'll continue to rely on it for the time being.
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I have had some of those problems myself. You would assume that if you get a set of directions to a place they would essentially be reversed when returning but so far GoogleNav has proven otherwise - having me turn off major thoroughfares several stops before I needed to and take windy side streets rather than main roads on return trips when the directions were straightforward going there. (And, no, traffic wasn't an issue either time.) I have also had exit numbers wrong - take exit 235 for instance when there is only a 234 or 236. (The poor pronunciation I chalked up to the fact I set it to the British Accent and street names such as Hiawatha and Minnehaha would be a challenge to your native Brit. :p ) All thatsaid, since I relied on printed Mapquest directions prior to this, the Droid's Navigation is still pretty cool. :cool:
 
I would like to see an option to preload/cache/save local(and along route) maps and layer data BEFORE you depart on a trip.. this way you could be on a call or out of a service area and still have full information displayed. With a 16GB SD card, I'm pretty sure some of us wouldn't mind sacrificing the 1GB it may take to save and keep such data.

A night mode would be a major bonus also.. although I use the #D satellite view most of the time.

The above aside, Gnav is the best I have seen to date. The new terrain layer will be nice for off-roading too..once it goes 3D.
 
problem is, if you dont have a car charger the batter drains like no other with the gps.. when not using the gps, is ok to turn it off in your settings?What else is the gps used for besides navigation?

Also, at some points why does it say when your on the road "lost signal" even when your on a busy street?

Also pretty dangerous unless your listening to the voice, cant really be looking at your droid unless its docked somewhere

Thanks!
 
buddiec said:
I really think it needs a voice trainer on it and that would cure the mispronunciation that I always get when trying to navigate to a address and street name combination. I did however use it today, and tried 6 times to get the street name and it just would not register. So I tried speaking the letters to the street and whola it worked though you have to speak quickly or it will time out it also helps if you can get the zip code in there that really narrows it down. If anyone knows of better way please let me know.
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I know it sounds stupid, but most of these types of devices respond better if you speak to it like a robot. Oh and it's fun too, especially when you have a co-pilot next to you and you start talking like a robot to your phone. ;)
 
droidpcguru said:
I would like to see an option to preload/cache/save local(and along route) maps and layer data BEFORE you depart on a trip.. this way you could be on a call or out of a service area and still have full information displayed. With a 16GB SD card, I'm pretty sure some of us wouldn't mind sacrificing the 1GB it may take to save and keep such data.

A night mode would be a major bonus also.. although I use the #D satellite view most of the time.

The above aside, Gnav is the best I have seen to date. The new terrain layer will be nice for off-roading too..once it goes 3D.
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In my opinion this was the only real advantage of a navigation app on the iPhone 3GS. The app size averaged about 1.2GB for the entire USA, but even in the middle of nowhere where cell coverage does not exist at all for any carrier I still had my maps and navigation right there on my screen.
 
Give me a break... The Navigation is only awsome if it works correctly, and it does not. Yes many things are really cool that it can do but accurate directions is the most important thing. In Houston it is very wacky sending me off the freeway onto side streets and then back on same freeway. I see no option to avoid a street in routing me like VZ Navigator did. ( Very useful when I know there is likely to be traffic on a certain road) I agree talking like a robot is the best way to get it to understand speech. I test it every time I go anywhere and it is not reliable. If I were in a city I did not know my way around I would not trust it to get me there in a timely manner. It will get there one day, and GPS stand alone devices are on the way out for sure when it does.
 
anabolix said:
This gps while new is simply amazing. It beats my 2 year old Garmin nuvi by a long shot. The directions are more accurate, it's fast, and more detailed. Not to mention it has tons of features the Garmin does not.

I tried it out today to go to a mall I have never ever driven too, and I got there with ease! :eek:

amazing stuff, I LOVE MY PHONE!!!!:D
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It's okay. Serve the purpose when you don't have any navigation tool to use. But would lvoe to see Garmin releasing a software for Android, like they did for Blackberry.
 
I don't see anyone ever mentioning this, but why doesn't google nav have an option to avoid tolls? It's such a simple feature I can't understand why it is not implemented. Other than that, I love it.
 
bigbabys said:
I don't see anyone ever mentioning this, but why doesn't google nav have an option to avoid tolls? It's such a simple feature I can't understand why it is not implemented. Other than that, I love it.
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You're right. You can't pick the type of roads to include or excludes when it calculate the direction. Also it doesn't take traffic condition into accounts too :(
 
smilepak said:
You're right. You can't pick the type of roads to include or excludes when it calculate the direction. Also it doesn't take traffic condition into accounts too :(
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ya, and it doesn't seem like that important of a feature unless you are like me and never carry cash anywhere. It becomes a real inconvenience then.
 
google nav saved my ass this past weekend in NYC during the huge snowstorm. me and my friends were in an old 1997 honda civic, front wheel drive car. and it was a manual. no one had gps except on my droid. highways were pretty empty but traffic was going slow and the snow was coming down like crazy. visiblity was super low. we couldnt even see the exit signs. and the car's window fogging up didnt help either. relied pretty much solely on the droid's google nav to get home by following all its directions. accuracy was pretty much pinpoint accurate, even in that huge blizzard, which was surprising. rerouting was a cinch. real time traffic congestion was also accurate, although it wasn't really congested, more like slow moving traffic cuz of the snow.

there are some annoying things i guess, like the ETA doesn't adjust based on the rate of speed that you're going. there's no street view display when you're traveling. i thought you could turn on street view and itll keep displaying each movement forward while driving, but i guess not.
 
Every time I notice something that bugs me a little about the Google Nav on my phone (like no option to exclude freeways from a route) I smile and remind myself "It's free!" :D

There are any number of improvements Google could/should make to it over time, but the accuracy has been faultless in the 200 mile radius I've used it, and did I mention that it's free!? I am a very happy (and no longer lost) camper...
 
Every time I notice something that bugs me a little about the Google Nav on my phone (like no option to exclude freeways from a route) I smile and remind myself "It's free!" :D

There are any number of improvements Google could/should make to it over time, but the accuracy has been faultless in the 200 mile radius I've used it, and did I mention that it's free!? I am a very happy (and no longer lost) camper...
 
I'm bailing on Droid altogether. Google is impossible to communicate with. For example, their street name pronunciations are off the charts awful; worthless navigation at times. iPhone here I come... I guess
 
As always, you're not stuck with the stock apps. There are plenty of other nav apps to choose from.

If you're not happy with the stock TTS engine then try SVOX or Loquendo.
 
Thanks, you're right about the apps. But Google runs the show and there's nobody home. How would it be possible for a company to offer customer service without access? It seems to me that they decide what's 'right' and what 'works best' and who 'knows what I want' instead of their customer base. I'm not on the soap box here, this is strictly personal experience; Google can do whatever they want without me. I prefer not to do business with any company who's intentionally lost their ability to communicate with me, their customer. Thanks again for taking the time and energy,
Calvinator
 
You can ponder all you want and get nowhere or do something about it. "Google runs the show" doesn't matter. Use the apps that work for you. If you'e going to insist on using only stock apps then you might as well use a Blackberry.
 
I think that the navigation is well done. I have an in dash navigation system and often wish that they made an Android powered head unit.

Also my girlfriend says that it is one of the things that she misses the most since she switched to an iPhone.
 
I guess my message wasn't clear. The only thing that DOES matter (to me) is "Google runs the show". I don't care about anything other than being able to communicate with the Master Controller. I choose not to use Facebook and/or any other service that's shuts me out of the Customer Service window. I don't care if it's free, gold-plated or delivered by turtle doves. As the (retired) CEO of an international corporation my door was open to everyone and I'd walk through fire to make any customer feel important no matter how big or small the consequences. Customer accessibility hones businesses and makes them better; EVERY business.
I appreciate your position and efforts... Google doesn't. They would never hear your words or mine... they would turn their back on you and simply not care what you have to say. Unlike me. Thanks again,
C
 
I love having the nav in my droid. I use it every time I go to a place Ive never been before. When I was in Florida in 2010 I was staying in Cocoa Beach. The launch of Atlantis was going to happen while I was there. We decided to go to Titusville pronounced Ty Tus Ville to check out the launch. The nav pronounced it Tit Us Ville..I laughed so hard I almost crashed the car
 
Calvinator said:
Thanks, you're right about the apps. But Google runs the show and there's nobody home. How would it be possible for a company to offer customer service without access? It seems to me that they decide what's 'right' and what 'works best' and who 'knows what I want' instead of their customer base. I'm not on the soap box here, this is strictly personal experience; Google can do whatever they want without me. I prefer not to do business with any company who's intentionally lost their ability to communicate with me, their customer. Thanks again for taking the time and energy,
Calvinator
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More love from Google: If you don't want their 1+ bug on your search they have an URL for you to opt out... unfortunately it's a Google error 404. It just makes my point about nobody being home. The one response from a Google employee is laughable: How do I disable Google +1 functionality from appearing in my searches? I want to remove "+1" icon from Google Search r - Web Search Help.
 
You know, for someone who's so anti-Google, you sure seem to be posting a lot of vitriol in this thread, after reviving it from the graveyard.

This thread is about the navigation, let's stay on topic, K?
 
Calvinator said:
I'm bailing on Droid altogether. Google is impossible to communicate with. For example, their street name pronunciations are off the charts awful; worthless navigation at times. iPhone here I come... I guess
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You are very naive if you think you can communicate with Apple any better than Google.
 
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