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I prefer to plan my own routes. But I sometimes use maps before I set out because:

1. Map apps give duration information about different routes - this is interesting as it calibrates my own mental model of potential routes. However I also often optimise my routes for things apart from time.

2. I am in a hurry, and map apps are better at avoiding roadworks and traffic jams than my own mental model. I ignored a route suggestion the other day because I thought I knew better, which delayed me by 15 minutes because a flyover I wanted to use was temporarily closed.

3. Map Apps are great when I am travelling across town on a route I would rarely drive, so I am unfamiliar with the possible routes (e.g. I often go to A, and I often go to B, but I rarely go from A to B).

4. Edit: and map apps are fantastically safer in cities or towns you have no familiarity with. You can pay attention to your driving and not be distracted looking for street names or other route waypoints.

> It's dangerous and unnecessary. Pay attention to the damn road.

Opinion or fact? My opinion is that voice directions makes it possible to pay attention to the traffic, and I am not stressed, and I don’t have to have uncertainty about road choices (which is safer). It certainly makes looking for unknown street numbers or businesses safer - scanning for street numbers or business frontages is very distracting.

Use your tools sensibly and safely - don’t use them like a fool.

>I rarely drive anywhere that I don't already know how to get to. I certainly don't need a navigation system to get to work, home, my favorite bar, the homes of friends or family, the local supermarket or other stores I frequent, etc. I only need navigation a handful of times a year, and even then, I usually wish I'd reviewed and memorized the directions ahead of time rather than relied on blindly following step-by-step directions.

This just means that you're blindly following older, possibly out-of-date directions. What happens when you discover that a road is closed? Do you pull over, pull out your maps, and try to guess what the next best path is, possibly involving a fair amount of backtracking? I've done that before - I drove east to west across the US with just printed maps - and it's not anything I look back on with nostalgia.

I can't recall the last time I drove somewhere and was impacted by a road closure that wasn't clearly marked with a detour, or there wasn't an immediately-obvious alternate route. If you're not blindly following GPS navigation, and pay attention to signs and what's going on around you, it's not an issue.

I use Google Maps navigation from time to time and I get that it can be helpful negotiating new territory. Of all the newfangled gadgets in cars, that's the one that has the most value, but it should be a supplemental tool; you shouldn't be lost and hopeless without it.

Your experiences don't generalize to everyone. Just yesterday I drove home from an errand without navigation and discovered that the bridge across the lake was closed in one direction. This wasn't signed well at all and meant that I lost 10-15 minutes turning around and taking another route. Being able to have the car tell me when a turn is approaching rather than having to look at every street sign along the way wondering if this is my turn keeps me focused on the road and prevents the worries of "did I miss it?". It's strictly an improvement.

I know my city like the back of my hand and can chart my own course across it on a whim thank you. I don't just decide where I'm going, but I also choose how to get there. Sometimes the course is more important than the destination.

Reliance on online nav systems is an excuse for poor roadwork planning and lazy accident management. I want robots and helicopters to take of the roads as I know them, not constantly updated paths that need to be tracked. Learned mental map of the territory should prevail. Else we'll end up being floated over non-euclidian chaotic trajectories for reasons of economic efficiency.

Maps on AC is a game changer for me. Anytime I've never been to a place I use it, and I sometimes use it for other things like if I'm in an unfamiliar place and want to stop for food or find a store. Simple voice command. New route, done. Also the real time traffic updates is huge - so many times now I check just in case there is an accident that will cause a huge delay.

I do agree that for car functions I like physical knobs, but for infotainment? being able to say "hey siri play X" is awesome.

> There's no need to view, listen to, or reply to messages while you're driving. It's dangerous, even hands-free. You shouldn't even be having voice conversations while driving. Sure, we all do it from time to time, but it should be rare and under exceptional circumstances. It's dangerous and unnecessary. Pay attention to the damn road.

You know people are going to do it, so it should be made less dangerous, no?