GPS Navigation- Here's what I want...who makes it?

[SusieR]

I've been trying to find a navigation app that does what I want it to do but haven't found it yet. I'm now going to ask you guys- the expert users! Please give me your recommendations based on my 'have to have' coupled with my 'nice to have' lists. I don't mind paying for an app, especially if it eliminates most of the spying that comes with getting something for "free." I'd actually prefer to trade money for the app than all of my information and phone behavior! I know the lists are long and specific, but thought that would be more helpful. Thanks for any help or insight you can share!

Have to have:

- Reliable
- Current/up-to-date maps that show 99% of roads and routes (US/North America)
- Real time rerouting in case of traffic jams, pop-up construction, etc.
- Estimated time of arrival (constantly updating) based on speed, current location, route, traffic, etc.
- Real time rerouting (not always looping back) if I take a detour
- Ability to add an interim stops to final destination with efficient routing

- If I'm headed to destination "X" and want to stop at a specific store (i.e. Trader
Joe's) on the way to "X," I want it to find the most efficient (in terms of route/
location) location to add to the route. When I am in an area I don't know, I
can't effectively pick a location on my own if I don't know the city/area.​

- Voice instructions for turn by turn directions (street names would be best.)
- Shows miles to destination
- Ability to look forward on the route/map screen and zoom in and out
- Select for fastest or shortest route
- Measurements in Miles, MPH, etc. (American measurements)
- A way to save favorites
- Something that doesn't monitor everything you do!

Nice to have:

- Ability to send ETA via text to someone
- Alerts for speed cameras, red light cameras, speed traps, etc.
- Displays your actual speed
- Option for offline maps
- Clean interface
- Options to avoid gravel/dirt/unimproved roads
- Option to avoid toll roads and/or ferrys
- 3-D graphics (good ones- would rather have 2-D v. bad 3-D!)
- An onscreen compass showing in what direction you're traveling
- Not buggy (hey, it's a wishlist, right? )
- Something that routes through accessible roads (i.e.- doesn't try to send you through locked, gated roads (Phoenix area)

 

[SpookDroid]

Well, AFAIK Google Maps does everything on your "Have to Have" list, maybe except for the part of Something that doesn't monitor you, but you can turn all those things off if you're that concerned. Also most of your "Nice to have" items are there, too.

I haven't seen the gravel/dirt road option on any app, but I haven't tried that many either. I've only tried Garmin's app once, HERE Maps, and Waze. I always go back to Google Maps, even more so now that they own Waze and they use that data for real time traffic report and re-routing.

 

[SusieR]

Thanks, SpookDroid!

I left Google Maps because I was on a trip in a city with which I'm unfamiliar when the app kept crapping out. I downloaded Scout and have been using that, but it doesn't have everything I want and also monitors too much stuff on my phone.

 

[SpookDroid]

You could try HERE maps for free, or take a look at the videos for the Garmin app (Garmin does know their GPS stuff, they do make great products, I just haven't been a fan of Garmin's interfaces).

 

[Rukbat]

- Reliable

Maps, Mapquest, almost all of them - as long as you understand how GPS works. No app will be accurate if you're receiving signals from only 2 satellites, or if you're driving past a 360KW TV transmitting antenna. That has nothing to do with the app, it just reports what the GPS receiver tells it.

- Current/up-to-date maps that show 99% of roads and routes (US/North America)

No such thing. Roads are being built and closed every day. Maps are updated yearly or less for any given location. (And there are always "copyright errors" on maps - a dead-end street shown as a thru street, an intersection not shown - something so that if you publish that map, the copyright owner can prove that it's his map. (Hagstom, one of the largest map publishers in the world, has one error on every page.)

- Real time rerouting in case of traffic jams, pop-up construction, etc.

Maps, Mapquest, etc. Start your trip going in the wrong direction and as soon as you pass the point that a U-turn is the fastest route, the app will give you the new route. They all do that.

- Estimated time of arrival (constantly updating) based on speed, current location, route, traffic, etc.

Maps.

- Real time rerouting (not always looping back) if I take a detour

Same as above. The app is always giving you the route from where you are to where you're going. It doesn't care where you started from.

- Ability to add an interim stops to final destination with efficient routing

- If I'm headed to destination "X" and want to stop at a specific store (i.e. Trader
Joe's) on the way to "X," I want it to find the most efficient (in terms of route/
location) location to add to the route. When I am in an area I don't know, I
can't effectively pick a location on my own if I don't know the city/area.​

I don't think any app does that, and not all GPS standalones do. (Garmin used to let you plan out a route in advance and feed it to the receiver before you set out, but not on the fly.) BTW, what you're looking for is the ability to handle waypoints - that's what they're called, and you want the ability to add a waypoint on the fly. I think you may be able to do that with Google Maps, planning the trip on the web map, then sending it to your phone. I've never tried it.

​

- Voice instructions for turn by turn directions (street names would be best.)

Again Maps, Mapquest, etc.

- Shows miles to destination

Same thing. Miles to next change (turn, road changes name, etc) and to final destination.

- Ability to look forward on the route/map screen and zoom in and out

Again - Maps, Mapquest, etc. Pinch to zoom, move to look ahead, then resume.

- Select for fastest or shortest route

My phone is off at the moment, so I can't check, but I don't think Maps does that (it may - I never change it) but Mapquest (I haven't used it a few years) did.

- Measurements in Miles, MPH, etc. (American measurements)

Almost all of them allow you to choose. (The ones that don't probably aren't in English.)

- A way to save favorites

Maps, Mapquest. But MyDirections turns that into something like Contacts - an alphabetized (or sorted by date) list of destinations by name and address. When you tell it to navigate to a location (like telling Contacts to call a contact), it runs Maps with the lat/lon of that place fed to Maps.

- Something that doesn't monitor everything you do!

Monitor as in know where you are, or monitor as in sending the data back? It won't work without the first, and none that I've tried do the second.

Nice to have:

- Ability to send ETA via text to someone

How to Turn Your Phone Into a Mind-Reading Personal Assistant

- Alerts for speed cameras, red light cameras, speed traps, etc.

Many claim to do this, few actually can, since a "speed trap" is a police car (sometimes looking like last night's wreck) sitting where it can look at retreating traffic, with a chase car about 1/4 to 1/2 mile up (if the people running it know what they're doing - a "speed trap" that you can see as you approach it is like a "slow down" sign that makes you slow down - you check your speed and know you'll be stopped if you don't slow down). Spotting one of those takes experience (as in having been part of one) and no cop is going to report where his buddies are. Cameras turn on and off (even though the lights make them look as if they're on all the time) and reporting their location is illegal in some places. (Reporting where speed traps are - even flashing your lights to oncoming drivers to warn them - is also illegal in some places.

- Displays your actual speed

Within the accuracy of GPS, all of them. (IOW, if your speed wasn't absolutely steady for the past 3 seconds or more, it's not accurate. GPS "measures" speed by determining how long it took you to get from point A to point B - in the past few seconds.

- Option for offline maps

Maps lets you download the map you're looking at (expand it to include as much as you need - but you have to have enough space to store the map). And any app using the Open Maps Project maps.

- Clean interface

Your "clean interface" is his "clutter" and my "not enough data". The only app that looks the way you think it should is the one you wrote (and that's always been true of all computer programs).

- Options to avoid gravel/dirt/unimproved roads

Most of them.

- Option to avoid toll roads and/or ferrys

Most of them. (Almost all ferries are non-free, so non-toll includes non-ferry.)

- 3-D graphics (good ones- would rather have 2-D v. bad 3-D!)

I hate a 3D GPS display (I grew up with paper maps - and they're 2D), but I think TomTom has about the best "3D" display out there. (But it's $21.)

- An onscreen compass showing in what direction you're traveling

Maps. (Leave the display "North-up" (like map you don't turn as you drive) and the arrow on "you" will show you your direction - as long as you're moving. (The inherent error in GPS can show you moving any which way when you're standing still, because the error is constantly changing. That's because of the way GPS works and no app can change it.)

- Not buggy (hey, it's a wishlist, right? )

Maps version 6. (7 and 8 aren't too bad. I haven't updated to 9 yet, because of some of the complaints I've heard about it, but I still have 7 and 8 [and maybe 6] backed up.)

- Something that routes through accessible roads (i.e.- doesn't try to send you through locked, gated roads (Phoenix area)

Only if the roads are marked private on the map. If the map being used shows it as a thru road, the GPS has no way of knowing that you won't get through. And since maps are updated constantly, what was marked as a private road last year may be marked as a thru street this year. (Maybe in error, maybe for copyright.)

I left Google Maps because I was on a trip in a city with which I'm unfamiliar when the app kept crapping out.

Are you sure it was the app? I've never had the Maps app itself (and I've been using it since it was a really usable app - about version 6) crap out (as in crash or lock up). I've been in many places where GPS simply won't work. That's GPS, not a particular app or a particular phone or GPS receiver. And I used Maps on a Samsung Precedent, which is like hunting elephants with a wooden stick - it has almost no RAM or storage, and it makes tar in the winter look fast. There are a LOT of things wrong with Maps (many of which MyDirections fixes), but "crapping out" isn't one I've ever seen.

 

[SusieR]

Rukbat,

Thanks for such a detailed reply!

You make many salient points (appreciated!) "Crapping out" has a variable definition, and in my vernacular means "not working" for reasons other than lack of coverage/signal. The phone was fine, the signal was fine but GMaps just wouldn't work and I had had it. That said, you give good reasons for me to give it another try. I think you make a good case for that or for attempting to write my own program. We all know that would end with me trying to find a paper map because it would work better.

 

[SusieR]

update on GMaps from GMaps help forum (no waypoint support):

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Google Product Forums › Google Maps Help Forum ›
Where's the waypoint option in Google maps
2 posts by 2 authors
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Google Maps for Mobile
iOS
Directions
N/A - Mobile App

Andy TudhopeLevel 1
Jan 4

Want to add an additional destination to plan a route. Can't do this anymore. Fn crap. The instructions on how to do it on the Google help forum are also incorrect. Crap again. Most frustrating since in the older versions this was easily to do. Arrrrrgh!
Me, too - kaarrff
Click here to Reply

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Abby - Google Community ManagerGoogle Employee50 Best Answers
Jan 5

Hi Andy,
The Google Maps for Mobile app doesn't currently support waypoints or multiple destinations. I will pass along to the team that you are looking for this feature.
Thanks!
Abby

 

[edistopre]

Have you tried CoPilot or CoPilot Premium? I've used that app for a couple of years and I think it does virtually all of what you have to have, without checking point by point, plus some of the "nice to have" items. The maps are loaded onto your device, so it is completely functional even when you do not have a data connection.
You might also want to take a look at Sygic. I'm not as familiar with it as CoPilot, but it seems to be pretty feature-rich.

 

[SusieR]

Thanks, Edistopre!

I haven't looked at CoPilot in any form. I will do so.

As for Sygic, I've read a bit about it but the reviews as of late are not good. I don't know what changes or updates they made but a LOT of people seem to not be happy with the program now.