Mapping and GPS Recommendations Needed
We are considering purchasing a GPS unit when we restart taking long trips. I love the old state Gazetteer map books, but I also like being able to see where the next gas station is located, as well ...
Forum Discussion
Gdetrailer wrote:
Not ALL tablets include GPS radios either.
Also noticed that when using CoPilot, the Tablet just ate right through the battery and the second the charger was plugged in, Copilot would freeze and then reboot the Tablet..
Betting your life on a buggy OS like Android and a highly buggy "app" is pretty risky.
If you needed the Tablet for anything else, you had to shut down Copilot, then once done with the other App you had to restart Copilot from the beginning and setup the trip again and again..
GPS is only a "tool", it can and will make mistakes, best to not 100% depend on it and use backup paper and your eyes and mind on the road signs..
A far better idea we found was to scan in our Paper Atlas as JPGs and DW can view the JPGs on her Tablet. Allows her to to zoom in closely like a magnifying glass or zoom out depending on level of detail she wants to look at. We still keep the paper Atlas also..
You will be hard pressed to find a tablet for sale that doesn't include GPS.
All mapping systems need to be plugged in unless you are driving only very short distances.
How is it risky? Your worst case is to pull over and ask for directions...but really, you can always pull out your phone and check on google maps.
Tablets are cheap, if you are worried about using it for something else taking the map off line...just leave one in the car as a dedicated GPS system.
Even zoomed in, a scan of a paper map will never be as accurate or as up to date as an online mapping system. I've yet to see a paper map that indicates the lane I'm best choosing when entering a complicated interchange.
