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Comment by petitmiam | Hacker News Reader

I do like that it tries to address the problem of phones advancing during the lifespan of the car. The hardware would have to be generic enough though, that it can be useful and adaptable in the long term.

I'm not sure if it's feasible though. to use Android as an example, not every Android ever released can run jellybean. It still requires newer hardware at some point.

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This is why I will ensure my next car does not have GPS and similar stuff in it. It will be obsolete long before the (at least) 10 year lifespan of the car. I've heard all sorts of prices quoted for annual map updates of in car GPS data, but the lowest number I ever heard was $200. That would easily buy you a brand new GPS (and with better functionality/usability). Or the money would be better put towards connectivity and mobile devices.

I had a car with built-in navigation before. For the very same reasons you've mentioned I got a new car without one. I regret it a lot!

Phone or portable navigation is such a pain to use. Charging cables, mounts, don't forget to hide it when parked in a not-so-nice-area, don't forget to put it back.

I miss always present, always charged and nicely integrated with the car audio built-in nav system.

I buy a Garmin every few years at Costco, where price ranges from $150 to $350. It comes with a mount etc and I never hide it. I don't think it has much worth to thieves since they are obsolete not too much later. I also don't frequent dodgy areas (to my knowledge). I do use the PIN protection so even if someone stole it the device wouldn't be useful as is, and they wouldn't be able to get my home address out of it.

Every time I ride with someone who has in car GPS they moan about the user interface and often don't use it anyway due to stale map and POI data.

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