[benbsb29]

Originally Posted by nandrive

How do you resist the temptation of giving feedback about police or road hazards every time its displayed on the head unit? The timer for feedback makes me restless and found it very very distracting, for the same reason I have completely stopped using Waze. Other than this as you said its one of the best navigation apps out there.

2 clicks and i can report police presence, so that's easy. Traffic reporting is easy as its the icon always at the center on the third click. Hazards are slightly more complex as you need to say if on the road, side of the road etc.

When i have passengers along, they do the reporting on my behalf.

I haven't noticed the timer, maybe because i haven't focussed on it in detail. You could just click anywhere on the screen and the alert goes off.

[JoshMachine]

Voted for Google Maps, like the majority of voters.
It is THE champion companion when driving . No two doubts about that!

However, my single biggest grouse is this lovely application is not adopted as the mainstream navigation option by manufacturers. Nothing comes close to real-time updates as Google Maps does it.

And even if this to be integrated into the centre headunit somehow, there is the additional pain of not being able to relay it onto the 'virtual cockpit'.

[haisaikat]

Originally Posted by swiftdiesel

Voted Apple Maps.

Thanks for letting this forum know on Apple Maps, if you post a few pictures next time you drive that will be great and also benefit others. My wife has a iphone and we never tried A-Maps

Originally Posted by vivekkp

Voted for Waze, .. Google maps does not have this feature yet.

Each county has its own best map app, in India the speed limit was first offered by Here Maps on Nokia Lumia series and was accurate. But last time I used Waze in India the speed limits set on map were not accurate on NHAI roads.

[ABHI_1512]

Google maps is already the default navigation system for majority of people. However, Apple Maps have evolved over the years and is now the primary navigation system for me whenever I need one at a new place. The details are much more sharper then Google and one can get many more details about the place required in the Map itself.

Google Maps has its advantages and the offline mode is one of its good points. I have travelled through Bhutan primarily using Google maps without any network and through GPS mode. Apple Maps was a disaster earlier but ever since the revamp happened, it’s one of the best around now.

[tilt]

I used to trust google maps completely, but starting from the recent past I am not too happy with Google Maps. Reasons are below:

I have a pet theory that (since google does not have a "bike" option, only "car") all bikers/two-wheelers spoil the navigation for car users. They take all the small, tiny, narrow, back-roads; and google, being very crowd-sourced, recommends majorly such roads for cars too.

I experienced this last week when I went to Eranakulam/Cochin - a city I am totally unfamiliar with. From Google, my impression of Ernakulam/Cochin is as follows:

1. The city has no main/wide roads at all, none, zero, nada, zilch.

2. The city has ONLY small narrow tiny twisty back-roads where one car has to pull over with one set of wheels in the ditch and stop to let an oncoming vehicle pass.

When I managed to reach my hotel (a very prominent one in a big tech-park) it routed me to the back entrance on a small street. Upon finally reaching the lobby and asking, I was told that I could have just come in on the main road, that it was one straight road and a wide one and why did I ever choose to come through the back-roads. Well, Google did not route me through it.

Visiting a friend who told me to come on MG Road and it was easy to find his place. According to Google, there was no MG Road at all. I drove to his house through said narrow back-alleys (probablly because it was maybe 200 metres shorter?); and then from his balcony he showed me MG Road, a nice wide oh-so-obvious-how-could-you-miss-it roads.

A slight correction - google sometimes did show multiple route options, all with "Similar ETA", so there was no incentive to pick anything other than the default Blue route (especially considering I had no idea about the city) - I mean, how would I even know that the Grey route was a "main" road? I would expect google to recommend the easy route.

Cheers

[benbsb29]

Why i love Waze. Works perfect for my needs.

[ashwinprakas]

The more one travels in India the more he/she realizes that completely depending on Google Maps is an unsafe means to go about.

I've personally been guided on to shady locations where the path abruptly ends, or directed on to a bridge that has not yet been constructed, the most memorable was being stopped at gunpoint when we were directed into a secured based where civilian access was restricted.

So yeah, I've got my fare share of experiences with Google having used it extensively for my drives and rides in the past;



Now if you ask me what service I'd prefer to use if I were to go out on an adventure then my choice would be the RoutO Maps by HVK.

The shift after sticking to GMaps for more than a decade is due to a shift in priorities and risk appetite, before every wrong detour was a story to share and laugh over drinks but now I travel with my better half and I simply cannot take a fraction of the risk I used to take being single and independent.

For a period of a month I had travelled to Mumbai and was roaming around nearby destinations clocking a total of 7.5k km's including to and fro runs from Trivandrum, Kerala that roughly came up to 2k km's per side.



All the while I was depending on RoutO to get me places, the advantages of RoutO are that;

1. Tried and Tested routes with location specific tips i.e retain private toll tickets, speed limits etc.

2. Customized routes, at the time of requesting maps you would have to share details pertaining to your mode of transport, this really helps when it comes to clocking better average speeds. Even in the screen shot shared above you can see that the suggested route is via Nagercoil whereas there are shorter routes via Thenkasi and the even shorter route via KL, but the Nagercoil route was suggested as it helped by shaving off some times due to better average speeds.

3. Hotel Booking Assistance, on Day 1 of my ride to as well as from Mumbai we had met with difficulties i.e when going to Mumbai I had ignored advices and set my start and stop time as per my motorcycling experience and this led to me facing quite a bit of traffic and as a result I was barely able to clock about 1k km's, even though I was falling short the HVK Team modified my hotel booking accordingly. On my return leg we had faced multiple instances of farmer protests and hence in spite of better roads and starting time we barely clocked around 800 km's the first day and the HVK Team once again modified our booking seamlessly to suit our location, and to note these are tried and tested reliable hotels hence there are no unpleasant surprises like when booking via OYO.

4. Realtime location monitoring and support, during our return leg we had faced multiple instances of farmer protests where the highway was blocked by the police, at that time we were given invaluable advice that helps us cover as much distance as we could, this was crucial for me as I was travelling with my wife and hence couldn't afford to take risks in the middle of nowhere, and not surprisingly the detours we took to evade the blocks were not even registered on Google Maps.

Having spoken of the main advantages it would be unfair to not mention the cons as well cause nothing is perfect.

1. The maps are not beginner friendly, these are digitized route guidelines so turn by turn navigation is not spoon fed as on Google Maps even though it is present, so a little bit of road experience helps make things easier.

2. The service is not available on iOS which I see a lot of people complaining about, this was not an issue for me as we had both.

3. Maps need to be requested in advance, the reason for the same is because since the maps are manually plotted based on latest user experiences they are generated only after you raise a request for them via the app, again not an issue for me as I'd raised requests before the travel dates and the maps were duly provided.

So that's about it.

The service is not free to use like Google Maps as it is part of the HVK Club 12 Membership which is an annual subscription plan, but is worth way more than every penny spent on it.

Again do note, I'm sharing this from my own experience and not promoting something for personal gains.

Hope that helps.

Drive/Ride Safe,
A.P.

[harry10]

We have gotten so use to of Google maps that we often forget the best way to navigate an unknown road is a simple process, ask the locals. Whenever I drive to an unknown route and if Google maps make me go out of the highway I always consult with locals to take that route or not. Google maps can't be blamed as it's programmed to show the shortest route. It's better to be aware of your surroundings and act accordingly.

[cryptarchy]

I have both Google and Apple maps installed. I mostly use Apple maps because unlike Google it sticks to main roads and does not suggest wild shortcuts.

[adisan]

It is possible for users to give feedback to Google Maps regarding one-ways, closed roads etc. It will be a big favour for everyone, if people can help to keep Google Maps updated.

As for keeping away from small / minor roads, I had submitted a request to Google Maps to introduce an option to allow to stick to major roads only.

[Surprise]

Originally Posted by ABHI_1512

Google Maps has its advantages and the offline mode is one of its good points. I have travelled through Bhutan primarily using Google maps without any network and through GPS mode. Apple Maps was a disaster earlier but ever since the revamp happened, it’s one of the best around now.

Upon clicking the profile pic in GMAPS, I open the offline maps to access the already downloaded maps. The list is shown & upon clicking the desirable map, it asks whether to delete or update with expiry date (unless updated) Have to choose one the option. If there is no internet, it just gets stuck at downloading - 0%, if on internet, says "Download is complete use the maps normally even when you are not connected to internet" Is this option not available now?

[Dr.AD]

Originally Posted by Surprise

The list is shown & upon clicking the desirable map, it asks whether to delete or update with expiry date (unless updated) Have to choose one the option. If there is no internet, it just gets stuck at downloading - 0%, if on internet, says "Download is complete use the maps normally even when you are not connected to internet" Is this option not available now?

This option is still available and works absolutely fine. I use this all the time in my road trips.

If there is no internet, obviously the offline map will not download. You have to download the offline maps in advance when you have internet, and then they can be used later in areas without internet.

When you go to areas without internet, you do not have to click and select the specific offline map from your list. If you go to that list and click on a map tile (as you mentioned in your post), it will give options to either delete or update. Update again requires internet connection. But none of this is required to use the offline maps.

The offline maps are automatically used by Google Maps Navigation when you are without internet, and are in an area for which you already have downloaded offline maps. You do not have to click on that map. Just continue using Google Maps Navigation and it will fetch the data from the offline maps and navigate you. You do not have to do anything to switch from online to offline maps. That happens automatically in the background if and when required.

[Surprise]

Originally Posted by Dr.AD

The offline maps are automatically used by Google Maps Navigation when you are without internet, and are in an area for which you already have downloaded offline maps. You do not have to click on that map. Just continue using Google Maps Navigation and it will fetch the data from the offline maps and navigate you. You do not have to do anything to switch from online to offline maps. That happens automatically in the background if and when required.

Thanks. If I have a downloaded version, once i start the trip with navigation on, it will work even if I switch off my mobile network in that case..am I right?

As mentioned in earlier posts, the biggest disadvantage with GMaps is always picking up the shortest route navigating through poor narrow and risker route.

[airbus]

Voted for Google Maps, without it many of my long drives would have been difficult.

On couple of occasions though Google Maps diverted me to narrow roads via paddy fields to reach another major road. I also check route options before hand on Team-BHP and WhatsApp groups while planning for long drives and did not face any issue in the recent past.

[Dr.AD]

Originally Posted by Surprise

Thanks. If I have a downloaded version, once i start the trip with navigation on, it will work even if I switch off my mobile network in that case..am I right?

Correct. If you have already downloaded a map containing the location you are at, then Google maps will automatically switch to that if you switch off your mobile network. You will continue to get navigational directions using the local offline map you had downloaded.

However, please remember that this will be just the "basic offline navigation". You will not get any live traffic information, any alerts of traffic jams or road blocks ahead, and it will not find alternative routes dynamically.