I’ve been using a new in-car GPS for about 2 months now, and I wanted to share my thoughts in case other people are on the fence. I think these units have come a long way since the last time I seriously looked at them, and they’re pretty effective at getting you to where you are going.
I’ll write this from the perspective that you haven’t taken a serious look at what a recent unit can do, so I’ll list out what I think are the key features.
- A flexible route-generation algorithm. Stuck in traffic? Click the “detour” button and have it route you around the area you are currently entering. Take a wrong turn and it can generate a new route for you in a few seconds.
- A large, searchable index of locations, stores, parks, restaurants, museums etc. It can be searchable both near where you are, near your destination, or find matches along your current route. As an example, my wife and I were just out running errands and remembered that we needed to buy a new bed frame. I typed “mattress” into the GPS and it pulled up the name, address and phone number of half a dozen nearby stores.
- A map that you can scroll through by touch-screen. Drag your finger on the screen and the map drags with you to allow you to see nearby map areas without zooming out.
I found that pretty much all of the units I looked at had the same features listed regardless of price, but when I actually used them in the store there were huge differences in the implementation of those features.
Continue reading ‘Thoughts on Car Navigation Systems’