Originally Posted by Busybee (Post 3217874)

I use prepaid ATT on my cell with unlimited data which does not allow to use the phone as hotspot.

Originally Posted by J1Avs (Post 3217939)

Rather than paying more money for a hotspot, you could also just look up the directions, remember them, print them out, etc. You know, how people figured out how to get places before GPS. No offense, but people’s reliability on GPS to even get around their own town makes me sick - and I’m not even old!

Originally Posted by J1Avs (Post 3217939)

Google Maps still provides turn by turn instructions via a banner when the app isn’t open on CarPlay. Moreover, it also can speak to you to provide those turn by turn instructions, when something else is on the screen.

Rather than paying more money for a hotspot, you could also just look up the directions, remember them, print them out, etc. You know, how people figured out how to get places before GPS. No offense, but people’s reliability on GPS to even get around their own town makes me sick - and I’m not even old!

Side note - what are you doing watching and searching YouTube videos when you are driving??

Originally Posted by extrashaky (Post 3217946)

Then upgrade your plan, your phone, or both. Or root your phone and use the mobile hot spot without AT&T's permission.



Part of the kit I would receive on the first day of each of my television jobs was a thick map book of the city. I wouldn't go back to that for anything. Used along with some common sense, Google Maps is a vast improvement.

People who want to go back to paper maps probably buy hand drills and reel lawnmowers.

Originally Posted by extrashaky (Post 3217946)

Then upgrade your plan, your phone, or both. Or root your phone and use the mobile hot spot without AT&T's permission.



Part of the kit I would receive on the first day of each of my television jobs was a thick map book of the city. I wouldn't go back to that for anything. Used along with some common sense, Google Maps is a vast improvement.

People who want to go back to paper maps probably buy hand drills and reel lawnmowers.

Originally Posted by Tcoat (Post 3217962)

100% agree! Those that think paper maps or directions are better are out of their mind. Using electronic GPS devices is not being lazy or incompetent but is simply more efficient. Especially those that update traffic condition, construction, closures, etc. I will indeed use my GPS to drive the same route I have every day for 20 years just to know what is going on ahead of me. This very morning it saved me sitting stopped on the highway for 45 minutes or so because they had a section closed for repair. If I hadn't had the GPS on I would not have known and been able to avoid it.


No doubt there are many millennial hipsters that feel paper is the way to go though.

Originally Posted by J1Avs (Post 3217973)

Additionally because Google Maps and Waze also have a tendency to route everyone to same way, it increases traffic flow on those routes and often routes you through areas that were not built for that traffic flow.

Originally Posted by J1Avs (Post 3217973)

I often find going my own route, that google maps and waze will fight the whole time, gets me home quicker than what they quoted me on when I started my trip.

Originally Posted by extrashaky (Post 3217994)

Waze is crap. It sent me to the wrong place so many times I just gave up and uninstalled it.

Google Maps selects the best route based on travel time for the current conditions. If it routes people through streets that were not designed for the traffic, that's a failing of the government entity that didn't properly maintain those streets. If the streets really can't handle the traffic, the traffic speed will slow down, Google will detect the change, and Google Maps will route people away from there.

Five years ago Google would often do stupid things. Now it has gotten really, really good. I use it frequently enough to notice the difference.



My dad and brother both do this. They have all these "short cuts" they think cuts minutes and hours off their driving time. Then, when we're moving around in multiple cars, they don't understand how I'm sitting there waiting for them when they arrive. I like to say, "What took so long? Did you take one of your long cuts?"

I drive too much to waste time on delusions.

Originally Posted by extrashaky (Post 3217994)

Waze is crap. It sent me to the wrong place so many times I just gave up and uninstalled it.

Google Maps selects the best route based on travel time for the current conditions. If it routes people through streets that were not designed for the traffic, that's a failing of the government entity that didn't properly maintain those streets. If the streets really can't handle the traffic, the traffic speed will slow down, Google will detect the change, and Google Maps will route people away from there.

Five years ago Google would often do stupid things. Now it has gotten really, really good. I use it frequently enough to notice the difference.



My dad and brother both do this. They have all these "short cuts" they think cuts minutes and hours off their driving time. Then, when we're moving around in multiple cars, they don't understand how I'm sitting there waiting for them when they arrive. I like to say, "What took so long? Did you take one of your long cuts?"

I drive too much to waste time on delusions.

Originally Posted by J1Avs (Post 3218003)

I’ll also caveat that we likely live in very different areas, where traffic patterns, as well as the sheer volume of traffic affects how successful these routing programs are. .

Originally Posted by J1Avs (Post 3218005)

And hey, sometimes the long cut, is a less stressful ride. I’d take 5 minutes of extra time on the road to not sit in bumper to bumper traffic any day.

Originally Posted by Tcoat (Post 3218010)

This works both ways. There are people (like I) where the GPS is the far better option since traffic on the routes can vary significantly from day to day. To say that just knowing a route there does not work as well for me. This is also why many Uber drivers use a GPS even if they may know the roads perfectly well. The presumption that everybody uses them because they don't know where they are going or can't be bothered to memorize directions is a bit pretentious. People that like to use their own "shortcuts" always feel they have figured out some trick when in reality if it is such a good shortcut then everybody would use it and it would no longer be shorter.

Originally Posted by J1Avs (Post 3218015)

Tell that to the 75% of Uber drivers who followed their GPS to the tee and went to 10th St, even though my address was very clearly 11th St. :bonk: . Again, I’ll caveat that the Uber drivers in DC are a whole different beast than Uber drivers I’ve experienced almost anywhere else in the country.

There is blindly using a GPS, and then using a GPS with some common sense attached - I am of the latter population.

Again my only qualms with using GPS is when people solely rely on it for getting, quite literally everywhere, because they wouldn’t know how to get there without it. That’s not pretentious, that’s irresponsible, and quite frankly unsafe. Being able to land navigate is a pretty critical skill.

And clearly no one figures out the shortcuts because everyone keeps following their GPS :).

Originally Posted by J1Avs (Post 3218015)

Tell that to the 75% of Uber drivers who followed their GPS to the tee and went to 10th St, even though my address was very clearly 11th St. :bonk: . Again, I’ll caveat that the Uber drivers in DC are a whole different beast than Uber drivers I’ve experienced almost anywhere else in the country.

There is blindly using a GPS, and then using a GPS with some common sense attached - I am of the latter population.

Originally Posted by mav1178 (Post 3218038)

Just upgrade your phone as others have mentioned already. I have a hotspot on my work phone and use it for whatever devices I want to use that I don't want to risk with a public hotspot. If you pick the right service you'll also get great coverage on the road... I've had Verizon since day 1 and have never had major issues. For about 3 years they were also the only decent cell phone carrier up in Mammoth Lakes, so all my friends with ATT had to make due without service while on the slopes.




The problem with Uber is that when you enter an address for pickup or dropoff, it uses an older version of Google Maps that is not as efficient. If you use a third party navigation app (Waze/Google Maps/Apple Maps) it pushes the address to latitude and longitude coordinates, and the app then navigates to that exact point on the map. If your location or property is closer to the street behind you (instead of where your address should be facing), often times it navigates the driver to the wrong location.

As someone who's driven Uber part-time for almost 5 years, this is something that I constantly have to explain to people. Part of the issue also is that the app allows you to drop a pin anywhere for pickup, so the only way to get an address for that sometimes is to convert to coordinates... not every driver realizes this.

-alex

Originally Posted by Tcoat (Post 3218000)

The few times I forced it to use my "shorter" route it always ended up being a couple of minutes slower. It dashed my preconceived notions of decades to little bits.

Originally Posted by Tcoat (Post 3218010)

People that like to use their own "shortcuts" always feel they have figured out some trick when in reality if it is such a good shortcut then everybody would use it and it would no longer be shorter.

Originally Posted by J1Avs (Post 3218005)

And hey, sometimes the long cut, is a less stressful ride. I’d take 5 minutes of extra time on the road to not sit in bumper to bumper traffic any day.