Who drives with goggle map / voice on?

[look 171]

I do not and don't use the map at all. I try to look before I start my drive. When I get near, I use my phone then find the place. No voice, it drives me nuts. My wife gets really upset at me for not using it because I always seem to miss a turn when I am nearby. She's an excellence driver and know her way around LA well, but when she need to go a new address, that fooking is on.

[rwest]

I have a two GPS rule.

If it is somewhere I will probably go to on a regular basis, I can use the Tom Tom the first two times, then I need to have figured it out.

I don’t want to be GPS dumb. A friend of mine has been to my house literally dozens of times and he has to use his GPS every time to find it!

[masraum]

I use Waze exclusively. I leave Waze on pretty much any time that I'm driving, and enable it when I'm going to work or coming home, but really only to warn me about cops, accidents, traffic. I have Waze set to only speak when there's a hazard: "object in road ahead", "police ahead", etc.... I have missed a warning and reroute about an accident once that REALLY sucked (stuck in place for 4+ hours). If I'm going someplace that I haven't been, I'll use waze and enable traffic once I get close and it starts routing me on surface streets near the destination since it will often send me unusual routes to get around traffic.

So, I have maps going most of the time, but usually only have the speech going to warn me about police.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by rwest

I have a two GPS rule.

If it is somewhere I will probably go to on a regular basis, I can use the Tom Tom the first two times, then I need to have figured it out.

Right, once or twice and I should be able to get there without GPS. But depending upon where I'm going, I may let the GPS do it's thing. I've been routed ways that I wouldn't have thought of to save me being stuck in traffic which is great.

I don’t want to be GPS dumb. A friend of mine has been to my house literally dozens of times and he has to use his GPS every time to find it!

That's scary.

[look 171]

Friend bought a smaller retirement house up in the hilly section in a city near by. After living there for the past two years, his poor wife still works and sometimes miss the fwy exit. She must use GPS to find her way home after that. I couldn't stop laughing at dinner. Poor girl. TAlk about GPs dumb.

I have yet tried Waze. Tell you the truth, I don't know how to use it or set it up. It seems to be useful especially in crazy LA traffic. Its neither dead stopped or flowing at 10 mph so what's the point. I do like the warning of police present. How much time do you have upon warning, Steve?

[JeremyD]

I use WAZE exclusively, I travel for business - so use gps with voice all the time. Currently have British "Kate" who tells me when to turn and I like it. Police call outs are the best. It's crowd sourced Look - so people report hazards or police. I've missed chunks of tires and debris in the middle of the roads because someone has reported it ahead of me.

[p911dad]

I tend to review the route on Google Maps on my Thinkpad before the trip, then rely on my memory to navigate during the trip. I like Waze at times if I get stuck but I am so dumb I can never get the thing to disconnect and go away until text time.

[pavulon]

Google maps (users) can now report police car locations also.

[Cajundaddy]

I use Waze mostly in town and Google maps out on the highway. Waze is better for LEO alerts and detours, GM seems better in rural areas. "Voice on" directions usually if it is a first time visit. We have lived in this area 4 years and I stlll don't know many best routes. In SoCal I could mostly drive anywhere with a quick look at a map or route.

[Arizona_928]

The only benefit to the gps apps is the data it steals from you to determine traffic flow then to change to faster routes. Dumb gps (old tom toms) works really well without the data theft.

I drive coast to coast without gps. Preplan the route with the highways wanted and just follow the signs. When i get closer to the destination, I’ll plug in the hotel address or the fine details into Waze. I don’t speed, but it’s nice not to be surprised by a speed trap.

[GH85Carrera]

Around town, I never use a GPS device at all, unless I am going to a place I have never been, or the address is cryptic.

I have my phone to use the Australian accent. It is funny to hear her pronounce some of the Indian names of roads. Pottawatomie road is not even close to right in her accent.

And yes, I like the voice directions.

In Boca Raton, we were returning from a tour, trying to get to the hotel. The road was closed with some emergency water leak. My GPS kept routing us to the same closed road. My brother used his phone to find a different way, and I used my phone as well. All of sudden we had three women giving us directions, and non were the same! At one intersection we has one say turn left, one turn right, and the other go straight. My brother and I were laughing about it. Three women, and all of them were wrong!
All led to other closed roads.

I could see the hotel off in the distance, so we drove by dead reckoning, just like the pioneers!

[onewhippedpuppy]

I prefer Waze, but Google bought Waze several years ago and has been incorporating their functionality into Google Maps. I travel a lot for work, once in a while Waze will get confused and I have to change apps.

I try not to use GPS at all, especially in areas I want to become familiar with. But I will use voice in high congestion areas like downtown DC where it’s easy to get lost, and not safe to always be looking at the screen.

[dlockhart]

I often do. I like the updates and because I mostly have non oem sized tire, knowing my GPS speed is nice. I have had it fail me in areas with limited cell coverage. If I have a interesting destination in mind, I often have topographic maps and grids to get me within 500m.

[A930Rocket]

I use Waze, Maps, and Google maps, on my iPhone, depending on where I’m going. I was using Maps one time, when it had me get off I-95 to what I thought was avoid traffic one time.

At the end of the exit, there were two cars in front of me. We all turned right and took the first left. After a short distance, we veered to the right and went down a dirt road. The dirt road brought us back onto the paved road and we got back on I-95 south. There was no traffic!

Edit: I rarely use the voice directions

[masraum]

Originally Posted by look 171

Friend bought a smaller retirement house up in the hilly section in a city near by. After living there for the past two years, his poor wife still works and sometimes miss the fwy exit. She must use GPS to find her way home after that. I couldn't stop laughing at dinner. Poor girl. TAlk about GPs dumb.

I have yet tried Waze. Tell you the truth, I don't know how to use it or set it up. It seems to be useful especially in crazy LA traffic. Its neither dead stopped or flowing at 10 mph so what's the point. I do like the warning of police present. How much time do you have upon warning, Steve?

The warnings for cops are usually about 1/2 mile out. I have my Waze set to a mode (private, maybe) where other wazers can't see me. I can't initiate a new issue, but I can confirm or deny an existing issue.

I think they wanted you to setup a username and password when I first got it. I don't remember because it's been years and I've never had to login on my phone since.
What has been nice is that Waze has routed me off of the major roads and through routes that I would have never in a million years have taken that have saved me time.

Originally Posted by JeremyD

I use WAZE exclusively, I travel for business - so use gps with voice all the time. Currently have British "Kate" who tells me when to turn and I like it. Police call outs are the best. It's crowd sourced Look - so people report hazards or police. I've missed chunks of tires and debris in the middle of the roads because someone has reported it ahead of me.

LMAO! I also have mine set to British Kate! Some of her pronunciations are entertaining, but her voice is less grating on the ear than some of the other voices. I wish there was a nice Scottish Lass voice (although there is Jim from Glasgow)! I was curious, so just checked, there are a TON of new voices (most won't do street names).

[Zeke]

Originally Posted by look 171

Friend bought a smaller retirement house up in the hilly section in a city near by. After living there for the past two years, his poor wife still works and sometimes miss the fwy exit. She must use GPS to find her way home after that. I couldn't stop laughing at dinner. Poor girl. TAlk about GPs dumb.

I have yet tried Waze. Tell you the truth, I don't know how to use it or set it up. It seems to be useful especially in crazy LA traffic. Its neither dead stopped or flowing at 10 mph so what's the point. I do like the warning of police present. How much time do you have upon warning, Steve?

You know that is really not funny at all. That was the first sign of my wife's Alzheimer's.

[Arizona_928]

Or just large metropolitan areas where the waffle grid city layouts are not a thing.

[masraum]

Originally Posted by Zeke

You know that is really not funny at all. That was the first sign of my wife's Alzheimer's.

But it's not always. My wife did that a lot (passed her exit) when she was younger. She'd start thinking about something and lose focus on where she was going and then snap out of her internal monologue to realize that she had passed a turn. She does it occasionally now, but much, much less.

[look 171]

Sorry to hear about your wife, Milt.

This girl is maybe 50 this year. We have know her for over 20 years when they were dating. Never pay any attention when driving even if she was looking ahead. Some people are jus tpoor with directions.

[Ovdee]

I barely use Google map