Factory installed car GPS devices...

[DWalt]

For my type of driving, I usually know where I am going and need no GPS assistance. When I need to go somewhere unfamiliar, I normally use my iPhone or laptop to map out my route in advance. I do have a GPS unit in my car (not OE) but very seldom need to use it. In fact, I don't even remember the last time I did.

 

[LVSteve]

The built in GPS in our 2017 Mazda CX-5 drove me nuts. it was programmed to show a route for the shortest time, not distance, and could not be changed.

When I was in the UK in June, the nav system in the Renault rental also had some strange ideas. It dumped me off a freeway at a particular spot on the way to a village I used to live in. I suddenly realized where I was, and the car became filled with a blue haze. We were at the end of a particularly notorious piece of road that used to carry all the traffic to a major port. To my chagrin, the road had not been improved. I could have backtracked a ways, but decided not to.

Oh, but it got worse. *****ing Betty in the dash then wanted me to take to the lanes to get to our destination. Nope, been there, done that years ago. We nearly hit a tractor head on in our school bus. So I ignored Betty and pressed to the next town to a better road. When I showed my wife the spider's web of roads Betty wanted us to navigate, and the street views of how narrow they were, my wife went pale.

 

[MRB1]

This. I have never had or used any kind of GPS. My vehicles are too old to have it built in. I've always kind of enjoyed looking at maps anyway; as does the woman in my life. If we get turned around, I stop and ask for directions. Never ran into a person who objected.

I realize that this is no help to John; so I'll take a hike and let all the tech people continue their discussion.

Regards,
Andy

Word of advise - don't EVER admit to asking for directions. Dang good way to lose your man-card.

 

[wood714]

Google maps and Android have yet to let me down.

Never understood why people wanted to see their phones when driving till I started using it. Shows road conditions ahead, speed limit and your current speed, ETA, and a feeble attempt at speed traps. Bought a radar detector to help out with that.

 

[CAJUNLAWYER]

For my type of driving, I usually know where I am going and need no GPS assistance. When I need to go somewhere unfamiliar, I normally use my iPhone or laptop to map out my route in advance. I do have a GPS unit in my car (not OE) but very seldom need to use it. In fact, I don't even remember the last time I did.

GPS is for the water. If I can't figure out where I am on a highway for cryin out loud then it's time to hange it up. I google map before a trip-jot down a coup0le of notes than off I go. If I DO get turned around I got the I phone. Back up is the wife sitting in the wife seat with "ways". I thjink that onstar is hooked into a big government computer-Tony Soprano thought the same thing. Now what I would really want is a drain in the center counsole so I could use it as a cooler for....cold drinks

 

[venomballistics]

Rand McNally Motor Carriers''' Road Atlas

I'll leave this here so you whippersnappers can see a little bit of old school since you ignored your grandpappy when he was trying to teach you something important

 

[CAJUNLAWYER]

Rand McNally Motor Carriers''' Road Atlas

I'll leave this here so you whippersnappers can see a little bit of old school since you ignored your grandpappy when he was trying to teach you something important

I remember the days (and I'm talking about the 90's) where you could send off to AAA, tell them where you are starting from , where you want to go and what stops you want to make and they would send you an actual booklet made up of a series of maps outlining your route. Probably still have a couple lying around somewhere.

 

[Rustyt1953]

Google maps and Android have yet to let me down.

Amen! We have a Honda factory installed GPS but we have never activated it because Google maps, Android, T-Mobile and Bluetooth are the perfect recipe for success. Like you, they have never failed us.

 

[Rustyt1953]

I remember the days of being packed in the car, on the highway, windows down, mom in the co-pilot seat, wrestling with a 3' square origami folding map trying to figure out where dad went wrong.

 

[Onomea]

It really was a different experience before GPS.

I recall a month-long car trip in 1992, 2000 miles on the East Coast and 4000 out west, with me driving and the Rand McNally highway atlas on my wife's lap next to me. Evenings in motels we'd check the route for the next day.

Ice chest full of beer and sandwich makings in the back seat. Carton of Marlboros and a stack of cassette tapes in the front. Set that baby on cruise control, sit back and relax on down the highway.

Different times, for sure.

 

[venomballistics]

I remember the days (and I'm talking about the 90's) where you could send off to AAA, tell them where you are starting from , where you want to go and what stops you want to make and they would send you an actual booklet made up of a series of maps outlining your route. Probably still have a couple lying around somewhere.

Nice spin on a similar concept, but that old raw truckers road atlas that became one with the interior of my Mustang got me into and back out of all the trouble I ever wished to find.
Sure, some of today's technologies can give more detail, but figuring out those details when you get there was kinda the point in going in the first place.
The spirit of adventure from our 20's is something we should retain right on up to our memorial service, at least as much of it as we can keep

 

[swsig]

When I'm driving somewhere new, I always check the route and location using Google Maps Satellite View and Street View on my home computer before I leave. Once I get to the approximate vicinity of my destination, I may, if necessary, refer to my car's GPS map to pinpoint the exact location I'm traveling to. I never, ever, use the GPS system as my sole basis for navigation. And yes, I carry a Rand-McNally Road Atlas as a back-up.

 

[Countrycuz]

I remember the days of being packed in the car, on the highway, windows down, mom in the co-pilot seat, wrestling with a 3' square origami folding map trying to figure out where dad went wrong.

And if you were smart, you kept quiet in the back seat

 

[ladder13]

Threw away all my maps, Trip Tiks, etc years ago.

 

[venomballistics]

And if you were smart, you kept quiet in the back seat

why do you think "Are we there yet?" became a phrase synonymous with travel?
After tormenting your sister got old, you moved on to poking the bear

 

[LVSteve]

And if you were smart, you kept quiet in the back seat

I recall leaving teeth marks in my fist one time we got lost. Apparently, it was all my father's fault because the place we wanted to visit involved going down the map, not up. My mother went into left-right dyslexia the minute a trip went outside the NW to NE quadrant.

 

[Rustyt1953]

And if you were smart, you kept quiet in the back seat

Impossible. I was wedged in there with my younger sister and brother. Repeated invasion of personal space was a loud affair.

I learned to sit directly behind dad as he couldn't reach me without stopping the car and once he laid on the foot feed he hated to stop for anything.

We kids learned bladder control at an early age.

 

[DWalt]

Almost 40 years ago, in Fort Worth I was stopped in a parking lot by three elderly ladies in a car who were lost. One of them asked me to show her where they were on a map. She gave me an old Esso service station road map of Texas that had to be from no later than the 1950s, so old it didn’t even show the interstate highways. I knew where they were trying to go (Weatherford) and showed them how to get there. Strange how I can remember something like that so clearly after 40 years.

 

[Golddollar]

I remember the days (and I'm talking about the 90's) where you could send off to AAA, tell them where you are starting from , where you want to go and what stops you want to make and they would send you an actual booklet made up of a series of maps outlining your route. Probably still have a couple lying around somewhere.

I remember getting one of those old Trip-Tiks when I went to Memphis back in the 1990s. All I had to say to AAA was "I want to go to Graceland," and they fixed me up for the trip.

I'm still old school. There will always be a Rand McNally atlas in my cars.

 

[swsig]

I remember the days of being packed in the car, on the highway, windows down, mom in the co-pilot seat, wrestling with a 3' square origami folding map trying to figure out where dad went wrong.

When I was a kid, we had a subscription to National Geographic magazine. As a result, I learned to love maps, and became a map nerd. Because Mom didn't drive and was "directionally challenged", I became the navigator for our family vacations at an early age. And, yes, those Chevron/Standard Oil road maps were a handful with a 100 degree blast of air coming through the window at highway speeds. Nevertheless, as the navigator, I always kept us on the correct course.