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Google's Free Satnav Outperforms TomTom
Barence writes "A real-world road test of several different satnav systems has found that the free Google Maps Navigation outperformed TomTom's premium GPS unit. PC Pro put the satnavs through four different real-world tests, covering country roads, inner-city traffic and motorway driving. The Google satnav finished the four tests more than half an hour ahead of the top of the range TomTom Go 950 Live. 'For those in rural areas or people who spend hours in their car every day, we believe the investment in a dedicated satnav device or software will still pay off,' PC Pro concludes. 'But for the recreational user, it's amazing what you can get for free.'"
I love using Google Navigation on my Android Phone, but it's short-sighted to say that just because I'm not paying extra for "Navigation" that the cost of this service is completely free. It's all part of the relatively expensive "Google Smart Phone" bundle.
So the free google offering out performed the rest, but they still recommend buying one rather then the google offering?
With the enormous caveat that:
'As yet, there's also no way of downloading [Google] maps to a memory card for offline navigation, so you could have major problems in areas without a 3G signal'
"For those in rural areas or people who spend hours in their car every day, we believe the investment in a dedicated satnav device or software will still pay off,"
really? I grew up in a rural area, and I spent hours in a car commuting because things were so far away... and I question this. There were two possible routes south from my hometown, one was about 150km to the closest big down, the other route was about 250km to the same place.
gee, hard choice there, better get out the GPS...
The more rural the area, the fewer route choices, and thusly the less importance a GPS due to the lack of choice.
the preceding post was not spell checked... suck it.
http://www.fakesteve.net/2009/10/gps-makers-jubilant-as-google-validates.html
I have been using a dedicated tomtom device and now also google nav on the Nexus 1. And I agree in most nav cases Google nav is better, if you have an online connection. Thats the biggest issue, roaming forget it, having a flakey 3g connection forget it, as soon as you have to go offroads you need the connection to recalculate the route.
The pathfinding on googles solution is up to par to Tomtom or even slightly better, but the voice output is where it shines. At least for the german tomtom the voice output is sometimes kindof weird and while using a Tomtom I often give a last final look at a voice command which is not drive left or right to check whether the voice output is the same as the display. That never happened on googles nav to me, the voice output always has been preceise. Add to that that Tomtom never added text2speech to my OneXL or I never got a combined european map (while they sold new devices with exactly the same map), and I will retire it soon, one customer lost to Tomtom who will never return thanks to their arrogance regarding their products.
For offline driving I am still undecided whether I will stick with Copilot but I will probably switch to Navigon, which still has way better voice output than anything Tomtom ever delivered.
Is that Google's solution is not free because it requires a data connection on your phone. When traveling in foreign countries this is usually prohibitively expensive.
With TomTom you can purchase foreign maps and use them without "per use" data charges.
Actually, Nokia likely has the best solution in this regard - they give you free maps/navigation on your own phone (so nothing to purchase) but you can pick the countries and pre-load their maps on your phone. You then do not need an active data connection to navigate.
For what it's worth - TomTom and other standalone makers are probably the losers in this. These devices are consolidating and phone manufacturers are emerging as winners.
This reminds me of something I've contemplated numerous times before, which is the realm of generic, multipurpose hardware. Everything is converging - GPS receivers, phones, PDAs, cameras - because it simply makes sense. There are two problems with this.
One is that there are certain physical controls and form factors that are more conducive to certain uses. For example, many phones aren't the best cameras because it's too easy to cover the lens, the "shutter" button is not in an ergonomic location, etc.
The other is that often the devices need to be used simultaneously. And I don't mean multitasking, I mean two devices visible and usable at the exact same time.
I just can't help but wonder if, as the price of components drop (like all-in-one chipsets, LCD panels, etc), if there will be a market for iPad / iPod Touch like devices that are essentially generic computing devices with integrated connectivity, GPS, camera, etc. There would be various physical form factors available - like touchscreen only, buttons on the sides, fold out keyboard, an SLR sort of design. Thus I would buy a $150 generic device and designate it as the GPS in my car. Obviously most people can't afford cellular service for every piece of hardware, so these devices would have to operate in an offline / standalone mode, like as a GPS. Or better yet they would all "tether" via bluetooth or wifi off of my actual cellular device.
Anyway I'm just wondering when or if this will happen. Obviously with companies like Apple charging a premium for a generic device (iPad / iPod Touch) that's not going to happen soon. But I'm sure there are manufactures that could produce the equivalent hardware, today, for $199.
Better known as 318230.
Driving around Edinburgh, it kept trying to tell me to turn off the North Bridge onto Market Street. Great, except they're separated by about 20 metres vertically. Going along Market Street, it told me to turn left onto North Bridge - what, in a helicopter, or something?
Who knows what other hideous failings it might have? Telling people to drive off cliffs, or into the sea? "Oh but it *looks like* you can..."
My Droid does have a windshield mount, but its navigation UI needs a lot of help:
- small buttons
- not as responsive as tomtom
- no way to route around traffic delays
- requires a data connection (yes, there are a few places in the US that doesn't have good data service)
- useless if you get an incoming call or want to make an outbound call
- no way of storing favorites (with three taps I can find my way home or get a list of favorites on my tomtom)
That's not to say that Google Navigation is really poor. I like having constantly updated maps and more timely traffic information, and I'd prefer to have only one device on my windshield, but until those above problems get fixed, I'll keep my TomTom.
I have my Ovi Maps, and it is completely free. No hidden costs, no fine print. And i have downloaded all the maps on my 8GB microSD. Trough my PC. Of course, there are still some strange glitches, but who does not?
I have a really old TomTom (It has depth like a very small TV). It works well enough.
But I got the Mr. T voice. I don't need to turn the radio down, when Mr. T speaks you listen! (fool!)
The results are not entirely surprising as it appears Google is using its needed data connection to feed data back into its traffic routing/monitoring which one hopes they use for routing calculations. The lack of this connection on a stand alone unit make it a problem.
The Nav companies see whats coming, thus the software version for smart phones and Garmin making a phone..
Please Steve? :)
AirSpeak - http://itunes.com/apps/AirSpeak
Free software running on free maps (OSM) would be fair to call free. Then we could argue about the quality of the maps or the quality of the navigation, but I'm still waiting for this option which is likely to be the only free solution.
In the comparison, they chose CoPilot Live v8 on the iPhone. Anybody who has ever used it or read any reviews already knows that CoPilot is a nice, cheap alternative for the iPhone (and many other platforms including Android), but it has its issues with choosing routes at times (at least my North America edition does). A better comparison would be Navigon, which is pricey for an app but its maps and navigation capability is as good or better than many of the standalone GPS units. One common complaint about iPhone GPS apps, though, is the POI selection, which is typically incomplete and dated, especially compared to Google Maps.
That said, standalone units are a lot more accurate with their GPS signal but there are great advantages to an application installed on the phone you are already carrying. I would much prefer something like CoPilot Live or Navigon vs. Google simply because of the preloaded maps. Google navigation is useless where there is no cell phone signal (try driving in the mountains some time) but you cannot complain about an application that comes preloaded on your phone, especially if it works as well as they say it does.
Oh. Wait.
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
Why was Garmin left out of this analysis? Does it have a smaller market share in the UK? It's number one here in the US.
The article is astoundingly hard to read. Apparently they took a bunch of GPS devices, gave each one to a driver, who was in a different car. They all started at the same place and time, and were told to go to the same destination. They had to follow the instructions of their device and follow the speed limit. OK. Sounds good.
But they all did this only one time. You would need to do this many times before you could start to draw conclusions from it. Sure, it is fun to play scientist and get out in the world and do some sciency fieldwork, but seriously. Anybody who has taken basic statistics ought to understand that meaningful conclusions can't be drawn from this because of the huge variance of travel times as a function of local traffic. Sure, the cars all start and end at the same spots, but they take different paths. If one path that would otherwise be the fastest is slowed down because of a car accident or an adorable family of ducks is walking on the roadside, that will skew the results for this single trial only.
It makes me sad that this sort of thing passes for research, and it makes me even sadder that people don't think critically enough to realize it is not reliable.
When comparing these applications then you need to keep in mind that you have to pay a lot of 3G roaming fees if you travel to a different country. The maps software also needs to download each chunk of a map via 3G service. This is way too expensive. I prefer my TomTom even with out-of-date maps.
I have used nokia navigation on my 5800 on several occasions, and it worked quite well. Of course I preloaded maps for the countries I was driving in- being hit by roaming charges for downloading maps on-demand abroad would have been atrocious. This is the main drawback of google maps- you cannot afford to use it in another country due to roaming charges. Nokia provides free maps for most of the world, and they are quite detailed and accurate.
Oh, and they should have doublechecked that assisted GPS works on all phones. GPS without assistance from the newtork is several times slower to get a lock.
--Coder
Mountain region - no phone signal - that's when you really get lost with google navigation.
Also 10% of the time Magic (mytouch) completely looses ability to GPS -- need to reboot -- on the highway! Tomtom6 never did that to me.
So since the "free" google service is better, you should pay for something if you happen to do it alot?!
In other words, a professional should use the worse tool and pay for it as well? Confusing, somewhat.
I really, really love the /. editors, good folk they are...
Since the maps on google are in the cloud, they will always outperform the database that can be loaded into the device.
The enormous caveat mentioned here above is pretty true, especially in some countries... rendering the google app basically useless when out of town.
As someone that is somewhat knowledgeable about in-car navigation systems, sure, go ahead and compare some free web service to TomTom. While you are at it, compare Magellen as well. They are going to be about the same.
You can also compare most of the in-car systems (built-in and aftermarket) and see they are all about the same - mostly crap but often much better than a paper map. The displays aren't terrific and can be hard to see sometimes in direct sun. Also, the routing is debatable and the POI (Point Of Interest) listings are usually out of date, when available at all.
Yes, there may be updates, but it takes the company long enough to build the map database from source materials that it is assured to be out of date by the time the user gets it. This is very, very annoying when trying to use such systems in areas experiencing significant growth.
So now you have a uniformly negative opinion of navigation systems, right? Then compare what you have seen with a Garmin unit. Their processing path for the data gets current data out to the user much, much faster than other companies doing this. The POI database is much more usable and the UI is much better. Yeah, I carry a Garmin around with me.
So please, if you are going to compare systems, compare something real that works for the user. TomTom is cheap and pretty popular, but it doesn't have the UI or the data to really do a good job.
No, I didn't use to work for Garmin - I worked for a US-based map data vendor. And we helped a lot of people build in-car systems and were usually disappointed at some of the choices they made. But we had to remain pretty neutral.
You need to test it to make sure it’s safe, so the obvious thing to do is manufacture huge amounts of the stuff and use it on every farm in the country. That way, if every plant turns yellow and dies after two weeks, shortly before farmers and their families start developing strange and deadly new cancers, you’re up shit creek without a paddle. But you can at least say that your heart was in the right place.
If you think that sounds wrong, you’re obviously not a liberal
Not a Republican either, since that's how Big Business does just about everything. Enjoy your fucked up gulf coast, losers.
Yeah, really?
Don't know about US, but here in Europe Nokia offers FREE navigation software with every GPS capable mobile phone sold. It's not trial version or anything, it's free for life. So please check your facts.
http://maps.nokia.com/services-and-apps/ovi-maps/ovi-maps-main
Maybe you should check your facts. That's only on current phone models.
I got the free upgrade to the Maps application on my N95, but if I try to use the navigation routing feature, it wants me to buy a license. (I got about three free uses of routing before it decided I had to pay for it.)
Putting moderation advice in your
Would it be possible to add 3G and GPS capability to a Netbook so that you get a larger, more readable, display that has the advantages of Google mapping with real-time location information? Or maybe that's a Tablet question? Now, we just need a way to mount it on the car dashboard... (Add a phone app with Bluetooth and I won't need my phone...)
I understand the convenience of using GPS units for avoiding construction and major traffic delays.
But, what's wrong with people actually looking at a map before the trip, familiarizing themselves with the roads they'll be encountering, and then driving to their destination. Or actually paying enough attention to their surroundings to know which direction they're going, and reading the signs that the government has spent billions of dollars to install on the highways?
I can't count the times in the last year or two when I've been nearly killed by people fiddling with technology in their vehicles. Talking, texting, pressing buttons, changing channels, putting in the next DVD, etc... Driving is not a right, it is a privilege that carries a responsibility to be aware of one's surroundings at all times, and should be treated as such. The convergence of a lot of technologies into easily obtainable handheld devices is making travel even more dangerous, because lots of people take so much for granted.
I use Google's navigation stuff all the time, it's great! But it almost seems like the people who rely on the gadgets in their vehicle are the ones causing the accidents that the GPS units are trying to route around.
If you can read this, you are most likely close enough.
My friend had a Garmin. In our unscientific side by side comparison, unit's shit compared to google navigation on my G1.
While our tests have been a point for friendly competition, it's always been done in a city or suburb, never in the woods or while camping. So I can'tr comment on that.
The Kruger Dunning explains most post on
I'm a Google groopie but I fear Google Navigation just doesn't cut it in Europe. It costs you a fortune once you need to cross a border. Both EU and Euro don't prevent service providers charging ridiculous prices for roaming.
On a side note, I take pride in memorising routes -through several countries if necessary- and for me a navigator simply is a luxury I will do without.
I hadn't the slightest objection to his spending his time planning massacres for the bourgeoisie... (P.G. Wodehouse)
I'd go crazy if I had to drive around LA without Tom Tom with traffic. The traffic out here changes very rapidly, and there are plenty of alternative side roads that can be used.
I would welcome our Googly overlords but, they've been here for a while.
iburnaga.blogspot.com
I'd say that it is free. You would have bought the phone anyway, and there's (effectively) zero marginal cost to add the extra navigation features.
Side note: I was looking at cheap geocaching GPSes and was stunned to see what Garmin charges for GPS updates. Holy crap! It's like the razor-and-blade business model, except that the razor is also ludicrously priced. I can't think of a single reason why I would buy a dedicated GPS unit instead of putting those few hundred dollars towards a smartphone and having all the extra features they offer.
Dewey, what part of this looks like authorities should be involved?
Like the Android Market purchasing, Google Maps navigation doesn't work globally yet.
So, until Google Maps works also in all the countries on Earth I wouldn't say anything about outperforming a dedicated navigator that will navigate you anywhere for which location you have the maps in the device.
I own a Droid, prior to buying the Droid I had purchased a TomTom for about $99 as it was "last year's model" at Best Buy. I took it home and updated the maps for free.
I like the TomTom, when I first got it it was slow to find Satellites, after an update it finds the sats much faster now. I really like the TomTom, the estimated time of arrival in + or - minutes from your scheduled arrival time.
However I left the TomTom in my Wife's car once and had to resort to the Google Maps on my Droid while driving somewhere to pick a Craigslist listing. The Google Maps did the job just fine. If you're in the city and they have a Citysearch image of your destination its even handier if you aren't sure about the address for some reason, like it on a corner or something. I also really saying the address into the phone and letting Google figure out the address instead of typing it into the TomTom. It works most of the time.
Then I was on an audit in Pittsburgh, and driving around with a coworker and his Garmin, we were downtown the Garmin never picked up Sats, I put the same address in the Droid, and it had locations from the Phone network almost immediately. Sometimes the Garmin would get a sat one or two turns before the destination, I also hate the Garmin interface.
So overall I really like my TomTom, I never update it though as its always in my truck, so I know my maps are old again.
The Google Maps voice is agrivating, and sometimes sounds like its just guessing how to pronounce a word. Also around DC there is a 3-4 way interchange (Springfield), when you drive through it still tells you to go straight at "sign 1", "sign 2", "sign 3", "Sign 4" interchange and I think if someone didn't already know they were going the phone would still be listing possible exit ramps when you should be changing lanes.
I like the Droid because its always on me, and its always up to date.
Get Navit. OSM and open source software all downloaded on the phone FTW
You're not old until regret takes the place of your dreams.
There's many issues with your arguments. Some TomTom's offer a feature when the end user can correct errors that may pop up right on the GPS unit its self (insert POI's, correct a road if it's a one way, etc). This gets uploaded to a community database at TomTom when the unit is plugged into the PC.
As for Google Maps, they only compared it on ONE system. What about Windows Mobile, BlackBerry, or iPhones? I know google maps on the iPhone really lacks a ton of features. On my BlackBerry, it doesn't give voice prompts (and only ONE out of the many, many GPS apps for the BlackBerry I have tried over the years claims to do this, but I never got it to work in the 7 day fully functional demo).
The Garmin app on the BlackBerry is really nice, as it has the same layout as a Garmin SatNav system. It even integrates Panoramio, so any photos that have been uploaded to Panoramio to be placed on Google Maps can be pulled up in the Garmin app and give you directions to anything you see that may interest you in the area you're currently in.
As for the Google Maps app, you DO NOT need 3g. It's just slow to load the maps if you don't have it. My current setup is a BlackBerry Storm from Verizon I had unlocked and moved to Immix (a GSM provider). The Storm only supports 3g in the 2100MHz band, and the services I'm able to use (Immix towers, AT&T towers, T-Mobile towers, plus 10 other smaller GSM providers) use 1900MHz for the 3g. Google Maps has worked fine on EDGE and GPRS, although like I said it's slow to update.
The Latitude feature built into Google Maps is also very handy. The first time I went to my friends cabin I had to use Latitude to really find my way. There's no real address there, and since he was already out there fishing, I was able to just pulled him up on Latitude and hit Directions To. Made it easy to find may way. It also came in handy in Atlantic City when half of our group went to a club at one casino, and we went to hit the slots and what not at another casino. When it was time we wanted to meet up (around 1:30am), we just Latitude'd my one friend and it made tracking down where they were at a ton easier.
So while Google Maps does have a ton of pluses to it (free, traffic info, driving, walking, and biking directions, latitude etc), it also has many downsides (no voice prompts unless it's an android phone, no latitude on iPhone.. at least not that my friend was ever able to find, doesn't work fully without cell service.. if you lose data yes you're route is still shown but the map around you can't be updated/filled in).
I just think if the author of the article really wanted to compare, they should have used more than just a TomTom as Garmin and TomTom use different maps (or last time I checked they had, one used TeleAtlas while the other used Navteq), as well as Google Maps on different phones other than just an android based phone. While they were at it they should have also tried TomTom and Garmin's apps for the various phones. I know there's a way to get the Garmin app onto an SD card and have it work with Windows Mobile so the data signal isn't needed other than to first calculate the route IIRC.
And last but not least, when we left Brigantine, NJ to head back to central PA, google maps was having us go back into AC to catch the Atlantic City Expressway, on a Sunday afternoon. My friend accidentally took 30 West, and we pulled over to tell my wife behind us to lead since his iPhone with Google Maps was having issues with the AT&T service down there, and my BlackBerry's battery had died. The Pioneer AVIC-N3's nav system actually told them to take 30 West anyhow, which my friend who travels in Jersey a lot said was a much smarter route, instead of traveling farther in AC and catching all the people leaving the beach. In the end it did work out well.
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Comment removed based on user account deletion
No, I didn't use to work for Garmin - I worked for a US-based map data vendor
Oh lord dude, I hope to hell it isn't Navteq. Getting them to update bad data when you report it through their web interface is like walking on broken glass. I've at least gotten a human response from Google before when reporting issues, never a response from Navteq though.
GPS is only a tool for navigation. It will *probably* help you find a route, but ultimately it is your responsibility as a driver to use what it tells you safety and effectively. If your SatNav tells you to go down a remote mountain logging road during a snowstorm, you should probably not do that. Likewise, the smart traveler should probably decide on his/her route prior to getting in the car so that you don't have any nasty surprises. Even the crappiest SatNav or phone navigation program puts a lot of information at your fingertips, so by all means use them. Just use them with a grain of salt.
:)
..."
Now for my rant. I have a Tom Tom OneXL, and while I initially liked it, the more I use it the more I find in inadequate. Both the unit itself and the maps. While my map update is admittedly more than a year old, it frequently misses "new" roads that have been in place for 5-10 years. This is annoying but understandable. I was sold a product that was incomplete. Nothing new from technology companies
But what really bugs me is the TomTom One's poor GUI (map navigation is a nightmare and you can't set the zoom level while in 2-D mode) and terrible route time estimation. I travel a lot (both work and to visit far flung families and friends) and so spend a lot of time in the car. There have been several times when I have let my TomTom talk me into questionable routing that cost me many miles and not a few hours. That is because it has really, really bad route estimation settings that you can't change in the head unit. It normally doubles estimate vs. the actual time for 2 lane/rural travel and will therefore drive you WAY out of you way to use the interstate rather than just drive a more direct route. I don't know how many times more that this will happen before I can no longer restrain the urge to disassemble it into the finest pieces with a hammer and mail it back to TomTom in a shoebox. But I already have the note planned: "Dear TomTom. This is not a warranty issue
I used to be a Google Maps user (not the mobile kind though) until Google, in their infinite wisdom, decided to scrap the "saved locations" feature.
When users started complaining on the help forum and elswhere, Google chose to ignore them.
Needless to say, I now go to Bing for driving directions.
I find this hard to believe. In Sydney (Australia) the Google stuff gets if wrong ALL the time. U-turns on major highways, not knowing about no left or no right turns and missing some connecting roads. So far (knock on wood), my TomTom has NEVER instructed me to do something impossible. Now comparing which gives the best route is almost impossible in Sydney. The traffic is so unpredictable the only sure way to device which was the best route would be to send out two cars simultaneously, with drivers of similar "style".
My last trip to Europe, I had planned on using my iPhone's MapQuest app. Works great, integrated with everything, dirt cheap.
Then I got ready to leave, and got a note from IT that I needed to turn off my Data function. Seems international data rates were something like $20/MB. not GB. Last person who came here racked up a $1500 bill...
Suddenly my "nav system" could only give me latitude and longitude with no streets or directions...you forget how spoiled you are with unlimited data in the US! (Glad I'm grandfathered in with AT&T)
Now I own a $230 Garmin that came with North American and European maps. And, as a courtesy, it has built-in bluetooth, so I don't lose the integration. Oh, and it's MUCH better at the primary function: navigation. Bigger, brighter screen, better touchscreen interface, lane assist (very underrated feature, especially in a place like Switzerland), louder speaker, better chase view...
Moral of the story: It's always worth having something that can stand alone, and there are nontrivial advantages to purpose-built hardware. Now I have no fear of lack of 3G coverage between cities, or getting blindsided by data rates.