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GPS While Driving...

nickspohn

nickspohn

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Jun 9, 2007
3,592
0
Alright so last night i had to find my way to a place i had never been before and it was a lengthy drive. It was at night, it's been raining for the passed 3 days straight (not even kidding, i live outside of Chicago) so the roads are flooded. As i was driving in my car, which has t tops by the way so i get a clear view of the sky, not to mention i had my phone sitting above the dash. Streets would come up that i need to turn on, and the GPS would LAG so i would realize i missed the street after i already passed it.

Boy did that piss me off. Happened about 6 times. :(


/end rant.
 
It is so hard to read street signs when there is like a hurricane occurring haha.


It's just a convenience that causes more work. You get ready to turn onto the street and you realized you already passed it because the GPS will still updating. Then RIGHT after i would pass the street it would catch up again :(
 
You should read the street names, usually works!

However, the current Google Maps wasn't designed for Turn-By-Turn driving.
 
In defense of the iPhone GPS, I've only had experience one time with a commercial in-car GPS unit and that seemed to lag behind at times as well, just like the iPhone. That said the only difference is that a commercial GPS unit will alert you some 100 yards before a turn is coming up allowing you to be alert for the short stretch.

I'm still waiting for TomTom to release their GPS app though, I'll be the first one to shell out $40-50 for it.
 
I borrowed the garmin nuvi system once and it was awesome. Worked perfectly. And yes people that's what street signs are there for, DUH, but it would be nice to use the iPhone sometimes as well. I'd still have to look at my phone for the street names because i relied on it to take me to my destination. :cool:
 
Any GPS is subject to bad performance in Bad Weather

The GPS & Map are features I have found very useful.

I had a Garmin GPS device pre-iPhone, and was constantly losing signal, and experiencing the 'lag' you did, in great weather!

The iPhone 3G has proven much superior over my old device, although in driving rains, on heavily treed roads, I have experienced the 'lag', primarily due to loss of the GPS signal altogether, or during re-acquisition.

You did not mention using Map directions with Locate on. I do.

Once I map the route, I select the Locate icon. It will locate you, and zoom in to your current location on your route. As you travel, the map screen will redraw, keeping your location centered on the screen. As you move, you can see the coming turns, and, depending on the zoom level, see streets pass as you follow the route. To look further ahead, double tap with two fingers to zoom out. Single tap to zoom in again.

Of course, this depends on the data rate being sufficiently high to redraw the map. As you have a 3G iPhone, I assume you were in a 3G area, and not on EDGE. Even on EDGE, screen updates are usually quick enough to keep up.

Describe more what signal strength you were experiencing, whether you were on 3G or EDGE, or if the roads you travelled were heavily treed.
 
I used the GPS and google maps today for the first time whilst driving. I set directions to my home address from my current location. on map view I set off and it was pretty accurate (certainly within a couple of metres).
I even went onto edge or less and got my maps updated (almost) before I dissappeared off the edge of the last loaded map.

my only gripe (and I know that google maps wasnt designed for it but it is sooooo close) was that the instructions at the top of the screen didnt update automatically as i drove along. If they could change as you got nearer the turn (300-500 yards before) it would be as good as I need for satnav in my car. I have a Smartnav (hate it) and a tomtom in the past (loved it but it was BIG) and on both i had the sound turned off and relied on the arrows on the map.

I guess there are several reasons why google maps cant or wont do this but it is frustrating to be so close with something that is already there. I guess tomtom (or similar) will produce something soon but at great expense. oh well

Anyone have any thoughts on google and apple pairing up to produce a working satnav system (by satnav I mean turn by turn)
 
This was were the 2.1 upgrade was expected to help but didn't.

The fix they were going to put in for GPS would have taken into account speed and direction you where going when the GPS signal is lost.

This is what's needed for turn by turn instructions, so that when the signal is intermittently dropped which happens a lot in built up areas the mapping/satnav program can predict when to tell you to turn off.

Hopefully this fix and the notification service are still on the cards and will appear before long.

M.
 
MikeDTyke said:
This was were the 2.1 upgrade was expected to help but didn't.

The fix they were going to put in for GPS would have taken into account speed and direction you where going when the GPS signal is lost.

This is what's needed for turn by turn instructions, so that when the signal is intermittently dropped which happens a lot in built up areas the mapping/satnav program can predict when to tell you to turn off.

Hopefully this fix and the notification service are still on the cards and will appear before long.

M.
Click to expand...


I bloomin' well hope so. The phone is perfect for me at the moment apart from turn by turn (I am not interested in MMS as most peopl I know are now getting iphones cos i raved about them so much, copy and paste - no need for me)
 
Knowing that there is Lag in the GPS keeping up with where you are should have prepared you to be creative. I have had my 3G for almost a week now and before that had adapted to using google maps with my classic for a whole year. As a recruiter in the Army you use maps A LOT to find the houses of applicants.

As you stated, our cities and counties see fit to drive everyone insane by making street signs unreadable by either being way to small or non-reflective. For the most part Google Maps is fairly accurate to the number of streets there are and for the most part are unreadable. However, there are frequent stops within a city due to stop lights/signs where you have the time to re-orient yourself.

My solution is to count the number of left or right turns (streets) before my next turn. I also pick out two or three street names that are "before" my turn in case there are some new streets. By driving by a street and seeing a name I picked out I then know how many more there are. This has worked 95% of the time.

It is also not a very good idea to keep looking at your little blue blinking dot and trying to read microscopic street names "while driving".

Be pro-active, not re-active in navigation...to many people are relying on being "told" when to turn and have forgot the basics in navigation. Always know where you are going and what is there before departing and you will arrive on time and alive.

Just food for thought, and a recommendation...not a cut-down!
 
Actually I meant to ask as well.

i had the phone mounted in a Kensington car mount with the GPS on and the screen lock off. It wasnt charging but when I lifted the phone off the cradle it felt warm like it had been charging. It wasnt sunny and the heaters in my car were on low.

Is this normal?
 
Doesn't full-on turn-by-turn with high precision consume a lot of power? All the dedicated GPS units I've tried so far have all had miserable battery life, despite having a bigger Li-Ion battery than the iPhone. My Navigon 8110 is supposed to run 4 hours on battery (which is high, specs on such devices usually say 2 hours), but just like the claim that iPhone will do 250 hours of standby (10½ days!), it's BS... the 8110 runs for 1 hour on battery, tops.
 
Were you updating with the next buttons? It usually shows a circle of where the next turn is. It's a bit easier than trying to guess the streets. Of course the rain storm might have had something to do with it also.
 
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