Innovations in GPS technology.. What more can they do ? (1 Viewer)

[Moodybrook]

See here put this in Google


golf gps app

That's brill, just need a smart phone now ! maybe Santa will be good to me

 

[Gellyneck]

That would only be a tiny step if any of them wanted to do it. You can already have graphical POIs so it wouldn't take much to have something flash up as you approached one. I suppose people may argue that it would be a distraction/safety issue

That's what worries me! Dangle advertising revenues in front of then and ...............
Don't disagree with your distraction point but will that stop them?

 

[makems]

If all sat navs were connected to a central network they could help manage congestion by sharing the traffic between a number of different roads.
It would also be good if they offered an option to take a scenic route
And also suggest the best times to make a trip based on known rush hour data

Our Garmin has this already . It will show if there are delays on the planned route, where the delays are and how many minutes and will suggest an alternative route.
We have used this feature a few times. It updates as well so for example if the delay is 100 miles ahead, you sometimes find that the delay has cleared by the time you get there. The display shows the changing situation.

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[Dogsense]

A SatNav App on smart phone, needs a 3G/4G Data connection to work (very expensive when Roaming Abroad), whilst a dedicated SatNav works on its own where you have the maps for (no extra data cost).

 

[mjltigger]

A SatNav App on smart phone, needs a 3G/4G Data connection to work (very expensive when Roaming Abroad), whilst a dedicated SatNav works on its own where you have the maps for (no extra data cost).

I have a number of apps that use offline mapping. The thing you lose offline is the traffic etc.. how does that work on a stand alone unit? When I had a TomTom you had to connect it to the phone to use the phones data connection if you wanted traffic updates...

 

[hilldweller]

A SatNav App on smart phone, needs a 3G/4G Data connection.

Copilot Live does not for navigation, all maps stored on phone/tablet. Ditto Nav Free.

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[scotjimland]

A SatNav App on smart phone, needs a 3G/4G Data connection to work (very expensive when Roaming Abroad), whilst a dedicated SatNav works on its own where you have the maps for (no extra data cost).

Not so.. Only true if using Google maps.. Co-Pilot (and others) does not require a data connection as the maps are on the phone

edit .. Brian beat me to it

 

[Masman]

A sat nav that you can save a full journey and then transfer or share it to another sat nav.Then when funsters find a great route to say from Calais to Lake Garda,it can be shared with others.

 

[wizzer59]

I think TomTom is taking the p***. They're resting on their laurels as market leader. They use a resistive touch screen (disappeared from anything else more than 5 years ago), updates are abysmally slow, the CPU is slow & it has 'black & white' routing (two options - fastest and shortest). fastest is what you would expect but shortest is line-of-sight and will lead you through a 20mph housing estate complete with speed humps to save a couple of hundred yards. Microsoft AutoRoute is miles ahead with its preference sliders which it used even before Microsoft bought it.

Not so sure they are and if they are why? I wouldn't have another Tomtom if you gave it to me

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[peterc10]

Copilot Live does not for navigation, all maps stored on phone/tablet. Ditto Nav Free.

And Tom Tom and Sygic.

Many of the things that people saying they want for the future is already here. Heads up display, crowd source traffic (used by TT traffic app) etc already exist, certainly in the smartphone app market. Another advantage of using a smartphone is that the apps can read your electronic address book and you can choose to navigate to any address in there.

In fact all the sat nav manufacturers have known for some time that the market for dedicated sat nav units for road vehicles is shrinking very quickly, and has been for several years. They are caught in a pincer trap between cheap (and free) Smartphone apps and built in sat nav becoming standard in many medium range cars.

Other makers, such as Garmin, have always had niche markets such as hiking, cycling, marine and aeronautics to fall back on, but Tom Tom have been very badly hit because of their almost total reliance upon road vehicle based systems. They were very slow at getting their smartphone apps to market (especially Android) and lost huge market share because of that (lost me forever because of it), which is very ironic given that Tom Tom started life as a software business working on Microsoft based PDAs and early "smart phones". They have been frantically trying to catch up by selling OEM units to car makers, but that is never going to make the huge profits they were used to in the PND market. Their share price has therefore suffered over the last few years.

 

[StitchesnFluff]

They will soon have "welcome to ......." As you enter a town letting you where all the local hostelries are

 

[Jaws]

A sat nav that you can save a full journey and then transfer or share it to another sat nav.Then when funsters find a great route to say from Calais to Lake Garda,it can be shared with others.

Oddly that used to be a feature on all the Garmins
The Garmin Quest was one of the first 'dedicated' units for bikers, and it was pretty common to download a route so someone else could use it

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[GWAYGWAY]

I bought a new tomtom 600 and it has a big screen that I do not need to peer at,but the problem with it is that there is no downloading POI so it was a waste of time for me. I cannot get googleworld on my lap top without a special dongle and account so I now end up peering in dark corners to park up as I cannot get the Wildcamping sites. Also it does not know how far a hundred metres actually is, normally just going pasr and then if you miss it takes you across the country to try and bring you back there rather than recalculate.

 

[Gellyneck]

Not so.. Only true if using Google maps.. Co-Pilot (and others) does not require a data connection as the maps are on the phone

edit .. Brian beat me to it

But you don't get, I believe, live traffic updates as you do on a dedicated sat nav that enables you to divert \ reroute to avoid.

 

[Gellyneck]

A sat nav that you can save a full journey and then transfer or share it to another sat nav.Then when funsters find a great route to say from Calais to Lake Garda,it can be shared with others.

You can sort of do this with some Garmin models that are compatible with their free PC map software (BaseCamp) albeit it's only the calculated route by either the sat nav or the PC, not the actual route driven.

We construct a route on the PC where it calculates (like the sat nav) the suggested route and then drag this about to the way we actually want to go. This is then loaded to the sat nav (and can be shared with anyone with the BaseCamp software either via Garmin online or as a file attachment to an e-mail).

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[Minxy]

Our Garmin has this already . It will show if there are delays on the planned route, where the delays are and how many minutes and will suggest an alternative route.
We have used this feature a few times. It updates as well so for example if the delay is 100 miles ahead, you sometimes find that the delay has cleared by the time you get there. The display shows the changing situation.

Our Tom Tom sat nav tells us where there is a delay too with a scale on the right showing how far ahead it is, it also looks for a workaround/quicker route and if there is one asks you if you want to take it.

I think TomTom is taking the p***. They're resting on their laurels as market leader. They use a resistive touch screen (disappeared from anything else more than 5 years ago), updates are abysmally slow, the CPU is slow & it has 'black & white' routing (two options - fastest and shortest). fastest is what you would expect but shortest is line-of-sight and will lead you through a 20mph housing estate complete with speed humps to save a couple of hundred yards. Microsoft AutoRoute is miles ahead with its preference sliders which it used even before Microsoft bought it.

Our Tom Tom has Fastest, Shortest and Eco routing too and this is the one we use most. I do agree that the screen is much less responsive on our current unit that it was on the previous one, so we have to press harder, also the little light to show whether it's charging is now on top of the unit so can't easily be seen, this has meant that the unit has dies due to the battery being depleted when we didn't realise that the charger wasn't working.

What I don't like now is that the postcode has been reduced to just the first 4 letters/numbers now, instead of the full postcode location search, which is a really backward step, also the compass can only be set to work as a 'pure' compass and NOT be changed to your direction of travel as it you used to be able to.

 

[john kyte]

I know that its already possible,I think all new vehicles should have their speed controlled by sat nav technology

 

[Reallyretired]

I have three dedicated satnavs (tomtom snooper and chinese cheapy), plus nav apps on 3 phones and two tablets. My car also has built in satnav. Do I still get lost? Yes sometimes.

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[mjltigger]

But you don't get, I believe, live traffic updates as you do on a dedicated sat nav that enables you to divert \ reroute to avoid.

This is my confusion. My old TomTom which I keep in my glove box for emergencies has to be Bluetooth connected to my phone in order to access the internet for traffic and speed camera updates... So in Europe without roaming switched in surely that won't work either.. or am I missing something clever the newer devices have?

 

[peterc10]

I have three dedicated satnavs (tomtom snooper and chinese cheapy), plus nav apps on 3 phones and two tablets. My car also has built in satnav. Do I still get lost? Yes sometimes.

Not surprised - you must spend all your time looking at the screens rather than where you are going

 

[Jaws]

This is my confusion. My old TomTom which I keep in my glove box for emergencies has to be Bluetooth connected to my phone in order to access the internet for traffic and speed camera updates... So in Europe without roaming switched in surely that won't work either.. or am I missing something clever the newer devices have?

No idea about older tomtoms, but later ones ( such as the 1005 I currently use ) has the ability to give you traffic info on its own ( so to speak ) .. It uses the internationally available traffic info system .
In the UK that is what all those blue poles with what looks like, and is, a couple of cameras on top of them.
Unfortunately after the first free year I am asked to pay £40 per annum for the facility, and in all honesty I never rated it that much other than the novelty value to start with !

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[joncris]

With our Sat Nav if its not already in the memory I'm able to put in any POI that I find and it remembers It also retains all journeys in its history memory which saves having to enter a same address repeatedly It also has Word, Note Book Wifi, Bluetooth and an Internet Browser plus numerous other apps

 

[tonyidle]

Not so sure they are and if they are why? I wouldn't have another Tomtom if you gave it to me

See: http://www.thedrum.com/news/2013/10...r-category-which-getting-smaller-tomtom-rolls
....... and I don't know why either.

 

[tonyidle]

I know that its already possible,I think all new vehicles should have their speed controlled by sat nav technology

Probably too dangerous - there are occasions (a misjudged overtake for example) when exceeding the speed limit is necessary. What would be more useful (but I'd hate it to happen) is to include a GPS unit in the car ECU. That would, in conjunction with systems already within the ECU, offer a black box facility in the event of an accident. It's possible, cheap, and available now. Far too 'big brother' IMO but I'm amazed it hasn't been suggested.

Anyway, when I were a lad, even the Police regarded speed limits as advisory. Not that there were many. My argument with limits and auto enforcement is that they're arbitrary, take no account of conditions, and nowadays don't even have experienced Traffic Officers to decide whether to prosecute or not. Despite Government propaganda appropriate speed doesn't kill.

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[TheBig1]

what would I add to the tomtom live offering? well how about the features added to the chinese satnavs at a fraction of the price. everything from rearview camera monitor through to a video player which works only when stationary. one item I would love added is a realtime fuel status monitor for the vehicle and link this to a poi database for nearest fuel forecourt, which could be customised for vehicles like motorhomes. its not rocket science and would just need an obd II reader/transmitter plugged in (about £7)

if the chinese can make excellent full featured satnavs with all the toys for a £50 budget, why not build the same with better quality parts.

as for head up displays, theres plenty already available that simply plug into the OBD II port. gives all the info in realtime, beamed direct on the screen. again very cheap starting about £20

black box technology is already being rolled out and in many cases young drivers need to have it fitted to keep insurance prices down. I dont see it as "big brother" watching, more as a safety and evidence device no different to a dashcam

 

[jongood]

I know that its already possible,I think all new vehicles should have their speed controlled by sat nav technology

Why??

The only effect this would have is bunching - like the lorries. imagine that in all lanes on every road.

Would increase the market for older vehicles though.

btw they already know where you are - if they know your phone number.

 

[Pudsey Bear]

I'd like to see more unlimited trial Sat nav apps that are actually any good, Google play has dozens but they're mostly junk, and why does Tom Tom only have the paid apps, no trial at all, I though they were supposed to be struggling it is my fave, as it is so easy to use, which has to be a plus for beginners, but they prefer to let the likes of CoPilot or Sygic take sales away from them, for casual users this means free as they don't need any of the twiddly bits.

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[peterc10]

No idea about older tomtoms, but later ones ( such as the 1005 I currently use ) has the ability to give you traffic info on its own ( so to speak ) .. It uses the internationally available traffic info system .
In the UK that is what all those blue poles with what looks like, and is, a couple of cameras on top of them.
Unfortunately after the first free year I am asked to pay £40 per annum for the facility, and in all honesty I never rated it that much other than the novelty value to start with !

TT traffic works by itself and I do not think is uses the Trafficmaster data you refer to. If it does it is not its main source of traffic information. It has its own built in SIM card and uses mobile data from one of the main operators (Vodafone I think, but I may be wrong on that) to regularly send traffic information to your unit. That is why you pay £40 a year for it.

But the same SIM card also constantly sends information about your position and speed back to Tom Tom. They then use that information as the main source of information about traffic jams. If there is a whole lot of units saying that they are doing 2mph on the same place on the M1 then they report that as a jam. Of course it is a lot more complicated than that and needs a huge amount of computer power, as well as a lot of base data about average speeds on the network, but I think that that is the basis of the way that it is done. I am not sure if it is the same with the TT app on phones though.

BTW Tom Tom sell their traffic data to others. So Sygic uses TT's data, but charges you a lot less to use it on your smartphone, because, of course, you, not them, are paying for the data download to your phone.

 

[mjltigger]

TT traffic works by itself and I do not think is uses the Trafficmaster data you refer to. If it does it is not its main source of traffic information. It has its own built in SIM card and uses mobile data from one of the main operators (Vodafone I think, but I may be wrong on that) to regularly send traffic information to your unit. That is why you pay £40 a year for it.

But the same SIM card also constantly sends information about your position and speed back to Tom Tom. They then use that information as the main source of information about traffic jams. If there is a whole lot of units saying that they are doing 2mph on the same place on the M1 then they report that as a jam. Of course it is a lot more complicated than that and needs a huge amount of computer power, as well as a lot of base data about average speeds on the network, but I think that that is the basis of the way that it is done. I am not sure if it is the same with the TT app on phones though.

BTW Tom Tom sell their traffic data to others. So Sygic uses TT's data, but charges you a lot less to use it on your smartphone, because, of course, you, not them, are paying for the data download to your phone.

Thank you.. well that's certainly a reason to consider a stand alone device.. although in 2016 when roaming charges are banned in Europe it will be very difficult for smart phone owners to justify the outlay on either hardware or subscription I suspect.. let's see what TomTom et al have up their sleeves to keep themselves in business..

 

[Jaws]

Thanks for that Peter..
Teach me to listen to the idiots at Tomtom !!!

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