In-car Navigation Alternatives

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sbowness

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#222535 16-Aug-2017 12:31

I'm in the process of buying a new Mazda2 (in gorgeous Soul Red because red cars go faster). It comes with a very good navigation system except that it does not have traffic, which makes it pretty redundant in Auckland. In my old car, I've been using TomTom's GO app for iPhone, which I've found to be pretty good. My old car doesn't have Bluetooth and I've been using the TomTom cradle. However, there have been complaints for a number of years that GO uses the A2DP channel rather than HFP. That means that unless you are playing something the iPhone you don't hear the announcements over the car's stereo, making it rather useless.

As having traffic is rather important when driving in Auckland, there seem to be two alternatives:

Use a different app that does use HFP. The two that seem to be the best are Here WeGo (which I already have and is free) or the new Navigon (which I don't have and costs $67 - I do have the old one but that doesn't have traffic), or
but a new dedicated device from TomTom or Garmin.

Does anyone have any suggestions or recommendations, please?

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#1847618 16-Aug-2017 15:08

If your Mazda2 is anything like my Mazda3 then you will find that it actually does support live traffic information, however whether you can get it to work is another matter.

It requires a connection to a Wifi hotspot, but it refuses to connect to my iPhone and is still unreliable when using a dedicated portable router.

sbowness

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#1847631 16-Aug-2017 15:47

OK, that's interesting. I'll see what happens when I get the car.

Senecio

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#1847636 16-Aug-2017 15:56

I had a company car that I've just handed the keys back that had traffic management. I found it infuriating. Every time the southern motorway got heavy on my commute home it would try to direct me off the motorway only to drive through the overpass roundabout and back down the on ramp to rejoin the motorway 100 cars further back in the queue.

kryptonjohn

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#1847637 16-Aug-2017 15:58

I just use Google Maps on Android (it's available on Apple, isn't it?)

Not only does the traffic info work great, but you can also navigate to just about anything that has an address on the web page - e.g. "OK Google, navigate to Bunnings in Mount Wellington" just works - assume something similar applies on Apple?

eluSiveNZ

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#1847638 16-Aug-2017 16:06

sbowness:

OK, that's interesting. I'll see what happens when I get the car.

You will get a 60 day trial to use the "Connected Services" https://mazda-4a.naviextras.com/shop/portal/newCatalog?view=item&salesPackageCode=68799

I don't travel motorways, and found it ok for peak hour, but dont travel enough to justify a yearly subscription.

sbowness

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#1847799 16-Aug-2017 21:52

kryptonjohn:
I just use Google Maps on Android (it's available on Apple, isn't it?)

Not only does the traffic info work great, but you can also navigate to just about anything that has an address on the web page - e.g. "OK Google, navigate to Bunnings in Mount Wellington" just works - assume something similar applies on Apple?

Google Maps is fine but it does eat into your data. I like offline apps, particularly when travelling into the countryside.

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sbowness

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#1847800 16-Aug-2017 21:56

eluSiveNZ:
sbowness:

OK, that's interesting. I'll see what happens when I get the car.

You will get a 60 day trial to use the "Connected Services" https://mazda-4a.naviextras.com/shop/portal/newCatalog?view=item&salesPackageCode=68799

I don't travel motorways, and found it ok for peak hour, but dont travel enough to justify a yearly subscription.

Thanks for that. If it works, it looks promising. As @alasta points out, there are a lot of reports of people having trouble maintaining a stable wifi connection, although that was supposed to be fixed with the latest hardware.

Technofreak

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#1847803 16-Aug-2017 22:16

I'm a Here We Go fan. Offline maps but also traffic updates.

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sonyxperiageek

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#1847806 16-Aug-2017 22:35

sbowness:
kryptonjohn:

I just use Google Maps on Android (it's available on Apple, isn't it?)

Not only does the traffic info work great, but you can also navigate to just about anything that has an address on the web page - e.g. "OK Google, navigate to Bunnings in Mount Wellington" just works - assume something similar applies on Apple?

Google Maps is fine but it does eat into your data. I like offline apps, particularly when travelling into the countryside.

Google Maps shouldn't eat into that much data...

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#1847807 16-Aug-2017 22:43

I usually use waze rather than google maps since it is better at telling you about things like police and roadworks.

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Technofreak

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#1847808 16-Aug-2017 22:46

sonyxperiageek:

sbowness:
kryptonjohn:

I just use Google Maps on Android (it's available on Apple, isn't it?)

Not only does the traffic info work great, but you can also navigate to just about anything that has an address on the web page - e.g. "OK Google, navigate to Bunnings in Mount Wellington" just works - assume something similar applies on Apple?

Google Maps is fine but it does eat into your data. I like offline apps, particularly when travelling into the countryside.

Google Maps shouldn't eat into that much data...

There are places I drive where there's no mobile coverage, so whether or not G Maps chews data, offline maps are important.

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#1847811 16-Aug-2017 22:51

Technofreak: There are places I drive where there's no mobile coverage, so whether or not G Maps chews data, offline maps are important.

G Maps has got you covered: Download areas and navigate offline

PS Isn't 'no mobile coverage' and 'traffic data' requirements that conflict.

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raytaylor

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#1847838 17-Aug-2017 01:08

I love my android head unit

When I turn on the car in the morning, it connects to the wifi and syncs my calendar for the day.

I have Next maps app loaded on with offline maps since I do a lot of driving out of cellphone coverage.

Next will connect to google services when it can hotspot to your phone and get traffic updates.

https://www.aliexpress.com/wholesale?catId=0&initiative_id=SB_20170816050559&SearchText=mazda2+android+2016

The only problem with these units is they dont always work if your car has some engine management systems running through the head unit.

Here is mine on youtube

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zvd-Qp6foAQ

I wouldnt want a car unless it runs android now.

These units have also improved quite a bit over the last 2-3 years. The model I have in my car is now an old android 4.2 version which is now quite out dated.

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#1847850 17-Aug-2017 06:00

i use google maps daily for my drive, and i have used 44mb of mobile data in the last month (30 days). I have pretty much all of Auckland saved as an offline area so it reduces data usage. I have about 200mb of offline maps saved. When i go outside of auckland or overseas i just download the maps for where im going and im set. Has worked well in Samoa and Rarotonga.

I was using waze, and i did like the roadworks/police/etc feature but i found when navigating the traffic density indications on the screen to be rather lacking, and it usually picked a different route to google maps, which isnt faster.

dickytim

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#1847855 17-Aug-2017 06:47

alasta:

If your Mazda2 is anything like my Mazda3 then you will find that it actually does support live traffic information, however whether you can get it to work is another matter.

It requires a connection to a Wifi hotspot, but it refuses to connect to my iPhone and is still unreliable when using a dedicated portable router.

Traffic is a paid service also.

I find in my Mazda 6 I have to reset the hotspot for it to connect.

I am out at Mazda today so will ask them about options to have it automatically connect, I had thought it was my iPhone that was the problem.

BTW Soul Red is beautiful but needs to be kept clean to appreciate it!

There was also talk about Mazda eventually offering car play, however there seems to be some technical issues around it as Apple doesn't allow it to work over Bluetooth (this information is from Google not directly from Mazda)

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