August 22, 2009

Highway navigation

Last week, I looked at Sygic Mobile Maps. Overall I found it quite useful for navigating around town. This week I had the opportunity to take it to the highway and check some very specific features.

To begin my trip, I opened iPod and started some some random music playing. We then hit the road playing at a respectable volume for a car full of 50-60 somethings to hear. The opening song started quietly, and there was no question when "in 200 yards, turn left" was heard. Unfortunately, as the music got louder, it was in direct competition to "go to the left." In other words, the music did not dim for the directions. I know this is an issue for a number of people. Personally, if I’m navigating an unknown area, I don’t turn on music in the first place as I want to concentrate on finding my way to my destination. This is another reason I like the route preview – I want to know I’m going to be on an interstate for 400 miles so that I can exit the navigation application and enjoy music until I get close to needing directions again.

The map itself, meanwhile, had missed the fact that the city (county?) had replaced a turn with concrete in order to lengthen a turn lane. So I was still anxious to see if the interstate exit – which was newer – had made it to the map.

Having the speed limit show on the map is a great idea. Unfortunately, the correct speed limit isn’t always indicated. This screenshot was taken while on I-10. As you can see, we were traveling at 70 mph, the posted speed limit, yet the screen informs us that the speed limit is 45 (on a major interstate?!), and shows a gold exclamation point to warn that we are going too fast.

This happened several times. Most often I noticed the slow speed limit was picked up when approximating an exit (over eager gps?), but as with the pictured example,it happened regularly when traveling an open section of highway with no exits in sight. This also happened off interstate, on roads where the speed limit was actually 50 or 55, and the application somehow interpreted the speed limit as much slower. (Maybe it assumed with the collected ages of the passengers of the vehicle, we needed geriatric speed limits?)

When I plotted the course for this destination, I decided to use the POI feature. I easily found the restaurant I wanted, and routed directly from there. I couldn’t imagine why, a mile before the restaurant, I kept getting "make a u-turn" prompts. Although this particular restaurant has been in the same location since it opened, the POI listing has it at 9122/9123 Highway 90, when it is actually at 9091 Highway 90.

The next test was receiving a phone call in the middle of navigation. This is another one of those things that is a very personal preference. If I’m in a strange place, I will let a call go to voicemail until I reach my destination rather than risk missing a turn. Nonetheless, I was curious to see how Mobile Maps would handle the interruption. So I had one of my friends in the car call me. I answered, and when we hung up, Mobile Maps started right up again. It got to the red acceptance screen, and waited until I once again acknowledged that I wouldn’t use it while driving. Once I’d tapped the "I agree" button, my course resumed where it had left off.

It is arguable whether one route is, indeed, faster or shorter than another. Regardless of my perception, I am willing to believe what maps tell me on the subject, so I wasn’t quite sure what to even request in order to get to the restaurant using my usual route. I decided that once we were on the interstate, rerouting would be simple enough, and it would still let me know if we took an exit that wasn’t on the map. We had fun coming up with different ways to holler "NO!" every time the voice instructed us to take the exit. As a matter of fact, by the time we actually came to the exit we wanted, we had grown tired of saying no. The good news is, it did recognize the exit as existing! The bad news is, it wanted us to take a dirt road at the end of the exit, instead of following the bypass to the next highway. If I recall correctly, the dirt road used to be something more than that, but has fallen into disuse in the last 1-2 years with the addition of this interstate exit.

We followed Mobile Maps’ directions on the way home, and passed the entrance ramp we would normally have taken to drive on a one-lane around the interstate, and enter two exits closer to home.

The final issue I want to address is an important one when driving in a strange area. (And after all, how many of us need navigation applications to help us when driving in familiar territory!)

If you’ll look at this screenshot, you’ll see that we were driving east on I-10, with exit 20 to I-65 coming up (and the wrong speed limit again indicated). While normally interstate exits are to the right, every once in a while you find one that is to the left, as in the case of exit 20. In cases like this, it would have been extremely helpful to have heard "exit LEFT to exit 20," instead of just "take the exit 20." Most drivers would have assumed the right lane for an upcoming exit (even though signs are quite good here to let motorists know you have to stay left.) I have missed exits too often driving on I-10 around New Orleans, and really appreciate that simple added direction. Highway departments don’t always put up enough signage early enough to get you into the correct lane.

I would love to see lane support added to Sygic Mobile Maps. Obviously, cutting edge maps are vital, although I know from using other mapping software this will depend on location – large metropolitan areas are usually more up to date than places like the gulf coast.

In the meanwhile, Sygic has made its US only version (1.43 GB) available for only $39.99 until the end of August in the app store.

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