You can actually operate Google maps with no internet connection: https://support.google.com/maps/answer/6291838?hl=en&co=GENI...
This will not have the same feature set but the UI will let you know that this is operating with reduced data. Route planning is still very good offline. I had to use this feature because for some time part of my route home had no cell signal.
It is GPS.
Also, "GPS" in the United States colloquially refers what people in the UK would call "sat-nav" not to the satellites + protocol (what it actually means on paper).
Maybe? When hiking it makes some sense to forego GPS to save battery power. I didn't consider that possibility when I commented earlier, but in my defense the context of the comment is using maps without an internet connection.
> Also, "GPS" in the United States colloquially refers what people in the UK would call "sat-nav"
Sure, but sat-nav doesn't require internet service...
If I had to guess, these conflations of cell service with GPS are a product of misleading UX created by Google. OSMAnd makes the nature of GPS clear, displaying a count of satellites it's managed to hear. Enough satellites to get a location good enough for car navigation almost always takes less than a minute.
Couple that with point clouds of the sea floor, manual input from humans, etc, you can do quite well.
Couple this with the lack of good maps of certain sections of the sea floor, and human error, and a collision every couple of years becomes probable.