Hacker News Reader

Comment by macjohnmcc | Hacker News Reader

We bought a Gamin GPS for my wife as she prefers it over using a phone for navigation. It has lifetime map updates and costs less than the map update for my car's built in navigation. It's also far superior in several ways including knowing the speed limit on more roads, showing the name of the upcoming cross streets and better multi-lane information. I personally tend to use Waze on my phone but like the Garmin navigation experience more overall.

View on HN

Previously I had used my phone, but after taking a few small trips and the phone's GPS either placed me on an incorrect street, or was unable to get a steady signal - I decided I needed a Garmin.

I've been happy with it thus far, and with the lifetime map updates it's pretty nice. I do with the model I got had weather overlays, but that's just me being picky.

Better multi lane information is great. I would also like better info on which lane to be in for a turn taking account of the fact that soon after I need to make another turn and don't want to have to cut across a lane to make it

This can't be said often enough! Whenever I am driving somewhere new I constantly have to look at the screen to see on the map what the turn after the upcoming one is going to be so that I can chose the right lane. For that very reason my wife and I still tend to have the passenger navigate which comes down to supplementing the Waze directions which information about what lane to likely chose depending on the turn after the next. To me this seems like a obvious short coming and I am surprised it's not a feature one can commonly expect.

I got annoyed by how poor Apple and Google Maps were here in Japan so I tried a local third-party app, and the navigation in it blows anything else I've seen out of the water. Just the lane guidance is amazingly good, and it does things like highlighting your destination on the road signs you're looking at

Screenshots: https://c2.staticflickr.com/4/3855/14390588297_f2743d8f05_b....

https://c2.staticflickr.com/6/5233/14573660131_396715c2bf_b....

Is the Garmin smart enough so if two routes temporarily share a stretch of road it doesn't tell you to get off the route you were coming from? For example you are traveling east on route 2, route 202 merges into 2. Rt 2 and 202 are the same road for a few miles, then rt 202 splits off (you are going to continue going east on rt. 2). My GPS tells me to get off Rt2 and to "turn right" on to 202. My ideal GPS wouldn't say a damn thing in this situation since I am staying on the same road.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com