Using Cell Phone As Your GPS

I have both a Garmin GPS (at least my 4th Garmin) and Android phone with Google Maps. The only place the GPS has an advantage is when there is no cell signal (and Google Maps tries to prevent that problem by loading maps ahead). With Verizon cell service, I seldom encounter a situation where Google Maps can't navigate. With cell coverage ever improving and Google Maps constantly improving, it only gets better.

My main issue with the GPS is the user interface. I can find a destination almost instantly on the phone, with the GPS it is usually a frustrating experience. Google Maps quickly fills in what you are trying to find while the GPS keeps telling you it can't find that location, place, etc. I use the GPS mainly as my speedometer as my RV is off 3-4 miles/hr. If it weren't for that, I would not use it at all except in emergency cell gaps. And Google Maps recently added speed limits.

Google maps (since it knows all about what everyone is doing :) ) has saved me quite a few times from traffic accidents or just heavy congestion and it turns the route yellow and red to indicate congested areas. Just recently it routed me around an accident on an Interstate highway without me doing anything but giving permission to alter the route. I quit even connecting my Garmin cable for traffic data because it seldom helped.

Anyway, I certainly would not buy stock in a GPS company.

When no cell service the phone has no internal data available. (NAVIGON app was the exception with download of all states available, but has been discontinued.) Dedicated GPS has all of the map data internal but must be updated from time to time. It works all the time and does not require a cell signal.

As to the phone, google maps was significantly superior to Apple maps, but recently has improved ten fold and is now pretty much an equal, and occasionally better than google maps.

Having both dedicated gps and phone maps is ideal.

GPS service on the cell, requires a lot of data, be certain you data package can handle it.

K Charles wrote:
If I use my phone for a GPS the screen will turn off and the Google lady will still tell me when to turn.

Beware the Google Lady. She has led us into some rather odd places, especially if she thinks there's a tenth of a mile to be saved.

ScottG wrote:
You may find yourself where there is no cell coverage but there's always GPS satelite coverage.

The phone actually HAS a GPS chip in it and is not dependent on cell service for most of it's operation.

It only needs the cell network to download a new section of map every so often......since it doesn't store the whole map internally like a "real" GPS does.

EV2 wrote:
When no cell service the phone has no internal data available.

Yes it does. It has the last "chunk" of map that it downloaded.
It is NOT constantly using the cell network to plot your progress.

GordonThree wrote:
I try not to leave my phone plugged in "all the time" - this is the #1 killer of cell phones. Doesn't matter how smart the phone, battery, charger, etc is, charging it all the time shortens the batteries life. Charging it to 100% drastically shortens the life. But that's a different subject.

Document? Where did you hear that? From all I understand. NOT TRUE.

I have found that we need a mix to be effective. The thing a smartphone is great at is with that and Gasbuddy, you can reduce the effort of travel greatly - as long as you are in an area where coverage is good. We tried to go with just a smartphone (Android), but that not great for planning because of the screen size and limited information. We are also not "Blue Roads" people. This caused us to frequently be off the edge of the map data. Even if you pre-load the map data for where you think you will be, this does not always work as planned.

On the bridge of out coach, we have a standalone up to date GPS with the most recent updates. That gets loaded with the day's plan before we even get underway. This one has the traffic service, and it is pretty good, but not great. It does have the advantage of never driving off the edge of the world.

The standalone is a Garmin and routing they provide is way less than ideal for us. Google maps is even worse. Street Atlas that is running on the navigator's laptop is far the best for this because you can see the entire route in detail as soon as it plots. The big problem there is that the chart data is now five years out of date and there is no update available. The smartphone is also being an access point when needed, but even with a high repeater and a high mounted antenna we frequently totally out of bars.

I have been trying to change routing to Furkot for planning and as it is an online thing, trying to use it for navigation underway is at best problematic. I have also have no success getting either it or Google maps to read from a USB GPS realtime.

The loss of SA and the tables of waypoints (POI) is a vast inconvenience. I marvel that the technology has gotten so far along that I often have to go back to my paper charts. I am distressed that Garmin killed it without a replacement. And no, the Garmin computer apps are terrible and problematic at best.

Matt

wa8yxm wrote:

GordonThree wrote:
I try not to leave my phone plugged in "all the time" - this is the #1 killer of cell phones. Doesn't matter how smart the phone, battery, charger, etc is, charging it all the time shortens the batteries life. Charging it to 100% drastically shortens the life. But that's a different subject.

Document? Where did you hear that? From all I understand. NOT TRUE.

Easy to find on Google. Micro-cycling is one side affect, and other is driving "whiskers" deeper into the electrode structures, making them less likely to dissolve in future recharge cycles.

drsteve wrote:

K Charles wrote:
If I use my phone for a GPS the screen will turn off and the Google lady will still tell me when to turn.

Beware the Google Lady. She has led us into some rather odd places, especially if she thinks there's a tenth of a mile to be saved.

That is my problem with Google, sometimes in an effort to find a shorter route, I get led down a questionable road.
TYpically not a big deal until you're towing a 40', 5'er