SatNav or iPhoneNav FOR A CAR??

[John Roberts]

Off on holiday soon, flying to Turkey then renting a car and I'm wondering whether to get another TomTom, Garmin, or whatever or to use my iPhone 12 with Waze.

• Daughter swears by Waze- does Waze need loads of (possibly expensive- three weeks' worth) of Roaming data?
• TomTom has 'European' cover but only a small part of Turkey is in Europe, the rest is in Asia, and I believe I'll have to buy extra cover for complete coverage.

I've already asked the 'coverage' question on the Argos forum, no reply so far.

PS Remember that this post is about a device for a car rather than a bike if that makes any difference.

 

[stever1]

Doesn’t Tom Tom come with access to world maps ?

 

[Wapping]

Waze’s data usage is minimal.

You might as well just download Google maps to a half decent phone and use them.

 

[John Roberts]

Waze’s data usage is minimal.

You might as well just download Google maps to a half decent phone and use them.

Eh? Are you saying that Google Maps is all I need rather than a TomTom? I know next to nothing about it so excuse what could be a pretty dumb question. What are the drawbacks, e.g. no displays of speed limits, speed cameras, distances, estimated time of arrival, those sorts of things. Given the choice of the two systems which would you choose?

 

[MrC99]

TBH Google maps would probably do most/all of what you require and you can download areas in advance to cut down data requirements. There are others such as Copilot (which we use in the car and on the bike for point-to-point) or Sygic, both of which have downloadable maps and only use the net for things like traffic monitoring. I believe Copilot (and probably others) do a free trial, and I like Copilot on Android as you can customise what it displays (such as ETA, distances, etc). Try the apps in the UK first to get a feel for what you prefer as sat nav s/w is a bit of a personal thing so you might actually prefer Waze !

Also, don't know about iThings but most modern Androids will monitor network data usage at the app level to give you a feel for how much it might cost before you actually use them in Türkiye.

 

[Wapping]

Google maps’ data usesge on a phone is very low. To reduce that low figure further, download the map areas you‘ll need. I doubt very much that you’ll need the whole of Turkey. Speed limits and speed cameras? 1000’s of people hire cars every day, without a need for these.

“How do I download Google Maps for offline use?” - Ask Google that very question.

Try it out before you go. You can’t break it.

 

[John Roberts]

TBH Google maps would probably do most/all of what you require and you can download areas in advance to cut down data requirements. There are others such as Copilot (which we use in the car and on the bike for point-to-point) or Sygic, both of which have downloadable maps and only use the net for things like traffic monitoring. I believe Copilot (and probably others) do a free trial, and I like Copilot on Android as you can customise what it displays (such as ETA, distances, etc). Try the apps in the UK first to get a feel for what you prefer as sat nav s/w is a bit of a personal thing so you might actually prefer Waze !

Also, don't know about iThings but most modern Androids will monitor network data usage at the app level to give you a feel for how much it might cost before you actually use them in Türkiye.

It seems I really ought to have started investigating the issue some time ago as we’re leaving in ten days’ time and now it could be that I’ll have to try all the different ways they will inevitably have to see which one suits me best. Dammit, will I ever learn…

Oh, by “point-to-point”, what do you mean exactly, all my journeys will be point-to-point, if you see what I mean (please don’t think I’m trying to be clever here, I’m not.)

Are there any websites with tutorials specialising in these different apps perhaps?

 

[MrC99]

Oh, by “point-to-point”, what do you mean exactly, all my journeys will be point-to-point, if you see what I mean (please don’t think I’m trying to be clever here, I’m not.)

Point-to-point (or A to B) is just that - starting point to destination usually via the quickest route. Most if not all apps allow you to add in intermediate stopping places (waypoints), or weight the route towards scenic, or fuel efficient, or whatever the app specialises in.

Are there any websites with tutorials specialising in these different apps perhaps?

Rather than spending time on websites getting other people's opinions I'd just download a couple and try them over the same route in the UK. Jut load them, get in the car and put in a destination and go. For basic routing they're all fairly simple really. Google maps has the big advantage that it covers pretty well everywhere and it's free. And as Wapping says you can't break them !

 

[John Roberts]

Well that seems to cover everything really, thank you very much for your help gentlemen.

Oh, by websites I was thinking of instructional ones really, tutorials and so on. I'll Google them.

 

[Wapping]

I am with MrC99 on this.

John, I think MrC99’s well intentioned mention of Copilot and Sygic might only have served to confuse you. Rather than muck about, try the perfectly functional Google Maps suggestion. Try it over the next few days, here at home, using it on your phone. Try it using with downloaded maps and without the downloaded maps. If it works here, it will work just the same in Istanbul, Lost Gulch, Arizona and downtown Sydney, Australia. Or just buy a half decent local map.

 

[AndyB_11]

I’ll be very surprised if the hire car doesn’t have Apple & Google Car Play so I’d just use that. Take charging cables for both normal and USB -C because some hire cars are now only giving you USB-C for the Car Play connection and you’ll be fine.

I’ll be flying out to Turkey in 3 weeks and that’s what I’ll be using and I’ll be making sure that I’ve clicked the no toll roads option because car hire companies will forward your name so you can be charged and they’ll charge you about £30 every time they need to do so.

 

[Arsey]

Your iPhone 12 supports esims so download an esim from Airalo

$8 for a month !!! 3Gb data would be plenty then just use Google Maps or Waze.

Get a young person to install the esim for you


Sent from my Nokia 3310 using Thetwatcantalk

 

[John Roberts]

It’s just occurred to me - does Google Maps give you spoken instructions like a SatNav?
Andy_B: yep, been caught like that myself in the States, bastards!!

 

[Wapping]

It’s just occurred to me - does Google Maps give you spoken instructions like a SatNav?

Android:

Use navigation in Google Maps - Android - Google Maps Help

To get easy, turn-by-turn navigation to places, use the Google Maps app. Maps shows you directions and uses real-time traffic information to find the best route to your destination. With voice naviga

support.google.com

Apple:

Use navigation in Google Maps - iPhone & iPad - Google Maps Help

To get easy, turn-by-turn navigation to places, use the Google Maps app. Maps shows you directions and uses real-time traffic information to find the best route to your destination. With voice naviga

support.google.com

 

[MrC99]

It’s just occurred to me - does Google Maps give you spoken instructions like a SatNav?

Yes. You can also set up a route preview so you can set up a sample route that you're going to use (say in Turkey) and it'll play it for you. Most if not all phone apps will do this. Not sure if Google maps will let you save a route though (I think you can pin starting and end points).

 

[Hoggyf]

Google maps on an android phone worked fine for me abroad, just the same as any other sat nav, last time was gran canaria and it linked through the cars head unit but we had to try several leads for it to work.

 

[Rasher]

I use MRA on the phone for the car, very slick, not much data useage (amd you can pull all of Europe map with 16GB file - cheap on android where you can get a 64GB microsd for the cost of a pint in London - or about £3,000 extra for the I-Phone that does not have fuck all storage.

The voice prompts and lane assist is way better than my Zumo XT, they have really made Garmin / Tom Tom look stupid by building a faqr superior navigating system on generic phone hardware within a few years, bypass Garmin / Tom Tom 20+ years of "experience". Live traffic and speed camera alerts too.

Considering a ruggedized Android and running MRA on bike instead of dedicated Garmin / using phone (not waterproof, wont work with gloves, small scrren, prone to vibrating to bits)