Crapping navigation system

What I didn’t like about the navigation option (pak required to get it) was the $2000 price tag.

 

While doing DoorDash the other day, the GPS on my phone almost directed me down a hill...

Another time, the GPS was screwed up and directed me to a house that had a chain blocking the driveway; I came within inches of taking out that chain and probably two fence posts along with it!

 

Its possible, but it requires some dark arts, like aligning some metal with the magnetic fields of earth and comparing esoteric drawings to your surroundings. Before the invention of GPS, most people were just always lost.

Fun fact: Most people don't realize that once Garmin brought the first automotive GPS unit to market, the instances of roadside ruptured colons dropped by 98%.

 

Not a knock on Toyota's nav system, seems to work well enough, just a general dislike of all car company navs. Don't like having first to up buy hardware to get this feature, then pay to update maps. Only good thing about it is off-cell service and "convenience" of nice bug HUD map.

However, you can pretty much do better with Google maps or Waze (owned by Google). now with live road alerts, and off line capable with a bit of pre-planning. I just don't see factory nav to be necessary on any level. and suspect that will go the way of cassette players soon. Wish car manufacturers would just do screen mirroring, and better steering wheel controls for phones. Now that would be worth paying extra for.

 

Divorce rates went down with the advent of GPS. I had a GF that could not read a map. I’d show her where we were and she couldn’t navigate us in the last 5 miles.

 

My dad wouldn't let me take the car out by myself until he could pick a random address on the other side of Houston and have me drive him there using nothing but the map.

Navigation is a skill, and like so many things these days, we're replacing learned skills with a reliance on technology. Its not always bad, but we need to be aware of what we're losing.

 

Okay..

I usually plan out a route or at least get a general idea of where I am going and the streets before I go somewhere I'm unfamiliar with before I plug it into the gps unit. Sometimes it won't recognize a street address, so I use a different one. It's good for exits and roads in unfamiliar areas, but i trust myself more than that unit

 

Yeah. To be clear I'm not rallying against GPS units here, just toying with the idea of overreliance on them. They provide a ton of benefit.

When using one, I look at a map before hand so i know the major NSEW roads in the area i'm driving, then put the address in google, hook it up to bluetooth, and turn the screen off. Voice prompts are enough, and I find that if I'm looking at the screen, I don't learn the area as well.

 

Agreed. I know people that use them here to get around in their own city and Reno is not that big.

 

Apple, Google and waze are analyzing real time traffic, if there is an accident you don't know about it can route you around it. Can be handy if there are big jams.
I live in the country so no big deal for me either way.

 

1. buy a new head unit with GARMIN Navi

 

I use GPS when I travel around the country otherwise I use my god given brain to learn the areas I live in, if I can’t do that I might as well turn my man card in.

 

Truth, but I will check Waze for quickest route before leaving the driveway. That way I don’t commit to a highway that’s at a standstill.

 

Don’t really have that issue where I live always another way to go then the freeway. I actually try to avoid the freeway if I can don’t really feel like driving my truck in a nascar race.