Who else is Royalty?

[drewf]

Ahem....

One is now officially Royalty.

One has a crown.

One is apparently in the top 1%.



Who else uses Waze navigation?


Been using it for a couple of months, and in that short time I've driven enough to put me in the annual top 1% of UK drivers. Bearing in mind that most of the other Royal users are truckers/cabbies/other full-time drivers, and many have been using Waze for two years to build up their score, it's a sad reflection on how many miles I put on the cars in a week. However, it's far and away the most impressive nav I've used for up to date traffic information and rerouting. Last night in London I did the same journey from Heathrow as a colleague - only difference was he knew where he was going and I didn't. Using Waze I arrived in 23 minutes. It took him 57. Destination? A pub just 200m from his house in Wembley... A journey he has apparently honed to perfection. Or not, as it turns out

 

[drewf]

Not another single user? I'm astonished, given that it's on both Android and iOS. In that case, is there a better nav system I'm missing out on?

 

[2b1ask1]

Can't say I've ever heard of it Drew! I am still using my faithful old Tom Tom 200 (circa 2001/2) in the van and I back it up in other situations with Google maps on the iphone... Boring I know but it works for me but both do suffer with weak batteries!

 

[CatmanV2]

Never heard of it either. I have TomTom for iOS and Co-pilot for France.

C

 

[DaveT]

Did try it and others like M8 nav in the past.

Found it good but lots of features I won't use like Facebook integration and the community reporting routes of etc etc. Maybe I'm just too antisocial!

Always end up coming back to Googlemaps as it's the best out there in my experience for the relatively few times I need nav - data usage notwithstanding.
Waze is also now owned by Google IIRC.

Good to see alternatives out there though.

 

[conaero]

I bought the TomTom Western European app for the iPhone, its cost £70 but its the best £70 I have ever spent.

Its always in your pocket, can use it for cycling or walking routes, or in any car, is not network dependant as it stores the map (2GB) on the phone and uses the GPS and not the GSM signal.

It updates all the time so is always up to date, and you can subscribe to TRAFFIC if thats your bag.

Its honestly brilliant.....gave my TomTom XL to my dad for fathers day, don't think he has used it yet.

What cars need to do now is integrate the smartphone fully in....have a dock on or in the dash that utilises the phone, music, apps etc, I think this is the next big market for them and Apple are already investing in this as are Android.

Some systems are already out there, but they are not there yet IMHO.

 

[DaveT]

Yes right there Matt re integration.

My company is working with lots of the main Euro manufacturers training their staff on the new integrated systems they have that mostly "mirror" your phone apps onto a 7" screen on the dash.
Work on the premise that people on average change car every 3-4 years but phone every 18 months so built in kit (Nav systems DAB etc) in the dash quickly becomes old tech/obselete and of course expensive to buy in the first place.

Far better to connect to/mirror phone and it works whenever you update phone - they just have to work on app compatability.

Mostly they have teamed up with Apple but systems compatible with all main platforms inc Android, Windows Phone and BB.

In car stuff changing rapidly.

 

[Felonious Crud]

Matt / other TomTom users - is it acceptable to les hommes en bleu? The App store says it comes with free off-line speed cameras, pre-installed and updated with every release.

 

[2b1ask1]

I have to say I have not updated my Tom Tom since about 2008 and it still barks out warnings for roadwork cameras on motorways that are nearly worn out again! It happily barks out warnings across the continent too even in le frog....

 

[dem maser]

Tom tom from 2006...never let me down

 

[drewf]

The problem I have with with TomTom and Garmin systems is the traffic feed. Navigation is excellent on both, but the traffic info is the prime reason for me using a navigation system at all 99% of the time. I usually know exactly where I'm going, having driven the routes many times - the added value for me is the knowledge that the road is slower than normal, or even completely blocked. That's the key for me, and where the phone systems are really pulling ahead I think. Waze/Google are able to draw on massive crowd sourcing of the apparent traffic density and speed, with almost no delay. I can't see any real reason now to purchase a nav app, given that this is free.

Declared interest - I developed a moving map system years ago, the rights to which were purchased by Garmin and used within their navigation systems. I can't imagine now buying a Garmin/TomTom product...

 

[Felonious Crud]

TomTom buys mobile network traffic density data from Vodafone. It draws its conclusions on vehicle traffic density, speeds, delays and so on from the speed and direction of Vodafone phones, combined with other sources of traffic data. So in theory it should be pretty acccurate.

 

[midlifecrisis]

The problem I have with android apps, is the fact that you HAVE to agree to them reading YOUR data on YOUR phone. Calendar, phone contacts text messages etc. Which means that since I have some of your phone numbers I'm effectively passing on your data. There's no way of getting out of it and its really unnecessary to use a computer program.

 

[drewf]

Yep, agree with that. One of the main reasons Facebook has just bought WhatsApp - that's notorious for slurping all the contacts and uploading to their/FB's servers.

 

[midlifecrisis]

http://m.timesofindia.com/tech/tech...rs-your-address-book/articleshow/30845355.cms