Likewise, and it’s basic failure: I’ll be driving somewhere and it will suggest a turn. I say “Nah”, go straight, and a few seconds later it recalibrates with arrival 10 minutes sooner. That’s not something we can blame on major/minor route differences, or left-turn delays, or anything like that: it’s just lousy software.
Having said that, it’s an interesting problem, and I’d bet that there are cutoffs in terms of how long it’s willing to keep trying routes. Though often the route I pick is simpler/straighter, and you’d think decent software would start with those and then branch out.
2011 Toyota, btw. I’ve often joked that I should get some Velcro and stick my Garmin (or phone) over the built-in screen.
That’s what Android Auto and the iPhone equivalent do. They take over your cars built in screen with their own navigation and minimal other functionality (like taking phone calls, or quickly rejecting them.) My next car will talk to Android Auto.
In the mean time, i have a phone mount clipped to one of the vents in my car, and i use Google Maps when i drive.
I used it in our last car, which had built in GPS, because it worked better. And even through the screen was smaller, it had more pixels and have more detail.
For several years Google kept telling us that the best route to the highway is via someone’s private road. A shorter route, yes – it would save us from going a half-block south before turning east – but not a feasible one.
There is one favorite GPS route inside San Francisco, from the area I live, which involves getting on a freeway, which then becomes the left side of a merger of two freeways, and then taking the very next exit by crossing (I think) four lanes of traffic in a short space. I now know to look for that fun joyride before clicking Start, and instead re-doing the route with “no highways” marked. (Which I then have to remember to un-mark after the trip. Thanks, Google Maps!)
I’m not sure if it still does this, but Google used to keep trying to route me through the Target parking lot, which it seemed to think was a normal street. I guess that route is ever so slightly shorter than driving past Target to the actual street.
I wish there was a way to get the navigation app to only start giving me directions once I’ve reached a certain point. Like when I go to Los Angeles in a few months – I know how to get from my house to the freeway, and I know that CA-99 or I-5 south will take me to Los Angeles. I really only need directions from the freeway to my hotel. Actually… would it work if I only asked Google for directions from say the point where CA-99 and I-5 meet, rather than using my house as the starting point? Would the directions just start with something like “Drive to the starting point”, and then start giving me more detailed directions from there?
Just drive as far as you’re comfortable without messing w the map app at all. Maybe that’s where CA-99 & I-5 connect. Maybe it’s just 20 miles and 3 burbs north of the one you know you’re going to.
Then start the map app, put in the destination, and the start point defaults to “your location.” Done.
This is something I’ve thought for years. To add to this, maybe a selection when setting the route to say, “Start in 10 minutes. Or 30 minutes.” etc. I know how to get to the freeway from my house, and I know that route I will be traveling for a while, what I need help with is the last piece.
I generally use Waze, which seems to include traffic speed, and any road hazards or cop activity, in calculating routes and timing, based on crowd sourcing users on the route? I would also like to see the route calculations become more intelligent over time by capturing (big data) when drivers avoid the suggested route because of reasons. ISTM that this would eventually account for the whicky-whacky routes through town (real people just use the freeway), routes through Target parking lots, spots where people go up to the next major intersection rather try to make an un-signalled left turn through traffic, and the “this is the best way to the freeway” situations.
Yeah, I thought of that; I would just prefer to not have to stop somewhere just to start the navigation app. Oh well, I know I’ll have to make a gas/bathroom/food stop somewhere along the way anyway. I’ll just start the map app there, wherever that may be.
Oh, that’s another annoyance about GPS apps – if I’m using it to navigate to somewhere several hours away, and I exit the freeway for a pit stop, it starts yelling at me to return to its planned route. “Make a U turn, then take the next right to merge back onto I-80!” Yes, that’s what I intend to do after I gas up and pee.
The only times that I use voice are when I’m in a city in heavy traffic, driving to an unfamiliar destination. I need to keep my eyes on the road, not glancing down at the screen. Fortunately, these times are becoming increasingly more rare.
In my general area, let’s call it Sprawlville, I can always tell when somebody is following the advice of a GPS or Nav aid. They’re the ones who are foolish enough to attempt to make a left turn ( to the west ) from a subdivision(s) connector road on to a winding, hilly main-ish ver very very busy 2-lane road pretty much any time during daylight hours. The planets would be in perfect alignment more often than a gap in traffic permitting such a turn. That intersection is always covered in debris and busted up tailight lenses, glass, trim and whatnot.
Locals know that they can much much more easily access the areas to the west by making right turns from the other end of said subdivision connector road. Now normally one could say “Well, too bad for them trying to make a difficult left”. What sucks is the rest of us making right turns ( east ) get stuck behind the bozo for eternity, or midnight, whichever comes first.
Testament to the power of the Dope! The last 2 times I checked routes on Google Maps, it has given me my preferred route, as opposed to the one I remembered (misremembered?) it consistently giving me before. I figure there is no reasonable explanation other than that SDMB is the most powerful force on the internet!
When I was coming back from Napa once I was on a road that I eventually needed to make a left from. Google Maps told me to go through an office complex parking lot. I ignored it, thinking it must be loony. Turned out the left turn light was very short, there was a signal at the exit from the parking lot that would have let me turn left faster. I should have listened. Google Maps, I’ve found, is very good at taking traffic into account.
I’ve heard that it’s because there was an accident that slowed the direct route down… days before.
We had that happen, and it took well over 24 hours for Google Maps to realize “Oh, huh, looks like that road’s clear now…”
And when a major arterial through our city was changed to 25 mph (it’d been dangerous, and the city thought this’d help), Google immediately changed their routes and sent people out to the freeway, all the way around the city, then back in to their destination…
…adding a good half hour to any trip.
Then, just as suddenly, the detouring was gone. Granted, it still takes an extra ten minutes to get through town, but our map app recommends it once again.
Yep, back in the (surprisingly short, in retrospect) MapQuest era, I used to do that with their directions: copy & paste and then delete the first n steps. Nowadays I just lie about where “home” is.