[tilt]

I wish there were an India-specific road-trip planning app that works on iOS also, not just android. It could use Google's map data and traffic info for routes maybe, or OpenStreet Maps or MapMyIndia or Apple Maps etc.

Yes I know Google has Google MyMaps that helps planning road-trips, but unfortunately that does not serve any purpose becasuse it lacks optimisation features and the interface (plus transferring routes and plans to others is very clunky).

Yes I am aware that HVK has an android-based app for something like this, but not being on Android, I have no idea on what features and issues that app has.

Hence this post. This is what I would like to see (and I remember some website many years ago that did this for Europe and North America).

1. When I input origin and destination that would take, say three or four days to drive, I would like it to suggest night halt locations (city/town would suffice) based on speed-limits/average driving speeds/known delays enroute like for constructions etc.

Google currently does not do that (and nor does Google MyMaps) - I have to estimate it myself by way of asking for suggestions here on TBHP.

2. If my travel progress changes during my drive (say I am travelling faster or slower than Google's predictions), it should suggest a different night halt.

3. It should take my inputs as to my preferred starting time every day and my preferred halting time or how many hours I wish to drive to suggest night-halts and break-times for stretching my legs.

4. It should also suggest refuelling points based on the car's fuel ecomony and also based on how low on the fuel-gauge I wish to go (say I might want to fill when it's 2/3rds empty) or decide for itself based on the availabilty of fuel stations. This is because even if I want to wait until I only have a quarter tank, if there would be no fuel stations, it should recommend that I fill in when my tank is only half-empty.

Now for the nice-to-have features:

5. Points on the map for clean and comfortable (preferably western) toilets

If I had the capability to develop this app/website on my own, I would do it.

Cheers

[aargee]

10 years ago, I wish I had a sophisticated camera like a live tracking using satellite & wish to see me traveling by my family & get to know my every update minute by minute, if not seconds...

These days, I'm happy with a simply WhatsApp live location sharing; may be a turn ON/OFF feature without a restriction on number of hours.

I found true adventure (and a little bit of misadventures) lies in encountering the unexpected rather than predictable outcomes

[lsjey]

Originally Posted by tilt

Yes I am aware that HVK has an android-based app for something like this,

What app is this on Android? Can you please share? It'll be useful for people using Android.

Although Google Maps has many features, proper documentation and tutorials are hard to come by. Ex: How do you transfer a route planned to your phone and stick to that route? Google Maps has its own mind in suggesting you routes and optimizing routes. Given these troubles, a good travel planning which includes interfaces to book stay will really help.

Regards,
lsjey

[ampere]

Today I think such an app would be available as a paid service. As the info in such apps cannot be static. So not sure how it such details can be inculcated.


For the rest we have our travel/routes forum for static planning!


PS: Its definitely a good idea for an app. But I think its some thing which people would like to monetise on.

[mayukh42]

Originally Posted by tilt

night halt locations

refuelling points

clean and comfortable (preferably western) toilets

These are really good ideas for Google to implement in their Maps. If they can suggest routes bypassing tolls, the above seem to be much simpler. In fact in the details section of every route, they list out each point where to take a turn, so they do analyze the route and break it into points.

At every km of the route, they just need a spatial search for hotels and pitstops, give us a list, and we can select from there based on our progress/ rate them later. This is easily done in parallel, and they can leverage their cloud platform (a much better usage than Stadia )

I too looked for such an app some years back, but over the years have realized that there is no substitute for experience, because several requirements are too subjective for a formal definition before one can start developing it.

So I try to capture the highlights of every road trip or long drives in a very simple events format in a Notes app - time, odo, pitstop duration. Then back home another 10-15 mins and they go into specific excel sheets - capturing the full car history.

An app which automatically captures the timestamp when entering a line item, using the location and odo (linked to the car's electronics), or just capturing the halts based on speed, then the user reviews the data, rates the pitstops, and uploads the data to Google Maps which then updates the locations can be an effective way to crowdsource it too.

Just thinking out loud. But thanks for bringing out this topic

[tilt]

Originally Posted by lsjey

What app is this on Android? Can you please share? It'll be useful for people using Android.

*SNIP*

lsjey

I think this is called Routo or something like that, and I believe it is made available only to those who buy a trip-plan dfrom them, but I may be mistaken.

Originally Posted by ampere

Today I think such an app would be available as a paid service. As the info in such apps cannot be static. So not sure how it such details can be inculcated. *SNIP*

Of course. I would not mind paying for something like this - not looking for it to be free. Trouble is, I am unable to find something like this.

Plus, remember, my main pain point is not about finding facilities (those are mainly a nice-to-have) - my main pain point is about the app suggesting cities/towns (not hotels) to break the journey - and that can be free based on the current workings of any navigation app - based on my own inputs of fuel-consumption, driving duration per day, and the alrerady-known speed-limits on the roads.

Originally Posted by mayukh42

These are really good ideas for Google to implement in their Maps. If they can suggest routes bypassing tolls, the above seem to be much simpler. In fact in the details section of every route, they list out each point where to take a turn, so they do analyze the route and break it into points.

Isn't there already a setting to avoid tolls? And yes - my main points would be easy for google or any other nav app to implement.

Originally Posted by mayukh42

At every km of the route, they just need a spatial search for hotels and pitstops, give us a list, and we can select from there based on our progress/ rate them later. This is easily done in parallel, and they can leverage their cloud platform (a much better usage than Stadia )

I believe this is also available in tne "search along route" setting. No?

Originally Posted by mayukh42

*SNIP*

So I try to capture the highlights of every road trip or long drives in a very simple events format in a Notes app - time, odo, pitstop duration. Then back home another 10-15 mins and they go into specific excel sheets - capturing the full car history.

*SNIP*

This works if one has travelled already. However, for someone who has not, say, if I wanted to plan a multi-day drive from Bangalore to the East or North-East and have never been before, your method will not help since I have no data.

However, this brings up another question - how difficult is it to develop and populate a POI database for google maps, publish those somewhere so that people could just download them and add them to their google maps? Is this something someone non-technical as me, could create and add?

People here who have travelled and people such as you who have detailed information in Notes or something could publish or add to such POI databases.

This could include clean toilets, coffee places such as Cafe Coffee Day which has coffee and toilets, BP fuel pumps, HP fuel pumps, Essar fuel pumps, or even one for just COCO pumps, decent food places, night-halt places with decent parking, etc.

Hell, corporates could do this as part of their marketing. Essar could create a POI database for their pumps and make it available for download, hotels could could do this for their chains etc.

[lsjey]

@tilt have you tried the MyMaps planning tool from Google? It is helpful for planning multi day trips. Essentially it involves the following:

1. Helps to create layers to put in information on Google Maps. Layers can be created to store pins of places that you want to visit. You can add your photos and videos for the same. A separate layer for planning driving directions to any of the places you are interested can also be done.
2. You can create a separate layer for drawing lines to mark out a shopping market path or a trail for trekking is possible. You can also create a box for marking out an area.
3. One can collaborate with others in developing the plan
4. You can create multiple day plans with as many layers. The max layers allowed as of now is 10.
5. You can pin up your hotel bookings as well. I'm not sure how integrated it is to hotel booking apps though. But all things Google are integrated.

I'm still learning the My Maps google tool. This tool is available only through PC. The URL is: mymaps.google.com

Please google around for tutorials on my maps from Google for more detailed information.

Regards,
lsjey

[mayukh42]

Originally Posted by tilt

Isn't there already a setting to avoid tolls?

Yes, I meant "if they already have a setting, then it is easy to ..."

Originally Posted by tilt

I believe this is also available in tne "search along route" setting. No?

Is it? I have not seen such an option yet.

Originally Posted by tilt

If I wanted to plan a multi-day drive from Bangalore to the East or North-East and have never been before, your method will not help since I have no data.

Right. The records need to be shared publicly to make it work.

Originally Posted by tilt

However, this brings up another question - how difficult is it to develop and populate a POI database for google maps, publish those somewhere so that people could just download them and add them to their google maps?

Depends on the format. On the producer side we need an app to capture the info, and Google Maps can be the consumer which the app sends when user wants it to. Route IDs, Lat/ Long, and Duration can be used to tag it to the respective map and travel time.

For now of course there is manual review of the places on GMaps, where one can put latest observations. I have done so for a few places, occasionally I get some stats from Google thanking me that some million people have used it, but this is not done on regular basis - I doubt if anyone is up for it - so it is not a substitute

[Aniket Verma]

Originally Posted by tilt

Yes I know Google has Google MyMaps that helps planning road-trips, but unfortunately that does not serve any purpose becasuse it lacks optimisation features and the interface (plus transferring routes and plans to others is very clunky).

One can always share the planned route to Whatsapp & Gmail (Both can be addressed to a group or an individual)

1. When I input origin and destination that would take, say three or four days to drive, I would like it to suggest night halt locations (city/town would suffice) based on speed-limits/average driving speeds/known delays enroute like for constructions etc.


2. If my travel progress changes during my drive (say I am travelling faster or slower than Google's predictions), it should suggest a different night halt.

Journey breaks depends upon individual as each has different Stamina and Comfort level. Some may like to take frequent breaks, whereas many prefer long continuous drives.

Google does allows one to add destinations, which can be fed as a pre journey plan.

For 1000 KM+ or Multi day journeys, I break the journey in multiple 200/300 Km segments and keep track of ideal travel time against actual arrival time for a given section and re-plan accordingly.

3. It should take my inputs as to my preferred starting time every day and my preferred halting time or how many hours I wish to drive to suggest night-halts and break-times for stretching my legs.

4. It should also suggest refuelling points based on the car's fuel ecomony and also based on how low on the fuel-gauge I wish to go (say I might want to fill when it's 2/3rds empty) or decide for itself based on the availabilty of fuel stations. This is because even if I want to wait until I only have a quarter tank, if there would be no fuel stations, it should recommend that I fill in when my tank is only half-empty.

5. Points on the map for clean and comfortable (preferably western) toilets

Google allows you to change Starting time and Arrive Time, while reviewing the route.

Similarly, Google can show Petrol Bunks, Restaurants & Cafes, Groceries & ATMs along the route.

P.S.: I am using Life360 for live location sharing. The app provides following information along with regular location, Mobile Battery, Travel time, Current Speed, Emergency Braking & Rapid acceleration.

[ike]

Originally Posted by tilt

I think this is called Routo or something like that, and I believe it is made available only to those who buy a trip-plan dfrom them, but I may be mistaken.

I have tried using this once, paid 250 bucks for a map from Thrissur to Mysore via Dhimbam. The app is (was) crude, has a very tacky interface and kept crashing. I think the USP is that it (might) works offline even when there's no connectivity.

[androdev]

Real time location of speed cameras and cop stations :-)

[pd1108]

Originally Posted by lsjey

@tilt have you tried the MyMaps planning tool from Google? It is helpful for planning multi day trips. Essentially it involves the following:

1. Helps to create layers to put in information on Google Maps. Layers can be created to store pins of places that you want to visit. You can add your photos and videos for the same. A separate layer for planning driving directions to any of the places you are interested can also be done.
2. You can create a separate layer for drawing lines to mark out a shopping market path or a trail for trekking is possible. You can also create a box for marking out an area.
3. One can collaborate with others in developing the plan
4. You can create multiple day plans with as many layers. The max layers allowed as of now is 10.
5. You can pin up your hotel bookings as well. I'm not sure how integrated it is to hotel booking apps though. But all things Google are integrated.

I'm still learning the My Maps google tool. This tool is available only through PC. The URL is: mymaps.google.com

Please google around for tutorials on my maps from Google for more detailed information.

Regards,
lsjey

There is a useful YouTube video that explains how to use Google MyMaps. Hope this is useful. It is fairly detailed.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKv0kaxY2JE

[am1m]

I think most of what is required from a travel app Google maps already does. Personally, I wouldn't pay for another one when GMaps is free. Can't really think of anything outside of what GMaps already does that I would need. But then again, that may not be the majority view.

[tilt]

Originally Posted by lsjey

@tilt have you tried the MyMaps planning tool from Google? It is helpful for planning multi day trips. *SNIP*

Originally Posted by Aniket Verma

*SNIP*

Journey breaks depends upon individual as each has different Stamina and Comfort level. Some may like to take frequent breaks, whereas many prefer long continuous drives.

Google does allows one to add destinations, which can be fed as a pre journey plan.

For 1000 KM+ or Multi day journeys, I break the journey in multiple 200/300 Km segments and keep track of ideal travel time against actual arrival time for a given section and re-plan accordingly.

Google allows you to change Starting time and Arrive Time, while reviewing the route.
*SNIP*

Originally Posted by pd1108

There is a useful YouTube video that explains how to use Google MyMaps. Hope this is useful. It is fairly detailed.

Originally Posted by am1m

I think most of what is required from a travel app Google maps already does.*SNIP*

Thank you all for responding; but all of you have missed the point. If you read my original post, I did discuss Google MyMaps and how it does not serve the purpose. I have already checked MyMaps before I posted this thread and have seen what it can and cannot do.

I need stuff to be done automatically, not manually. MyMaps requires me to do all of this manually.

Neither Google Maps nor Google MyMaps serves the purpose for what my wishlist states. I am not talking about the nice-to-haves here, I am talking about doing all of this automatically, not manually.

Cheers

[TheHelix0202]

I thought of an app that allows biker groups to see where their group members are on the way to a particular destination. This will save people such as myself a huge amount of time and energy while on long rides. This can also sort of be used as a G-Maps add-on maybe.

I don’t know the finer specifics, I hope to either develop this someday myself or use an app like this if it exists. Do let me know if anything like this is already present on IOS and Android.