Nokia Drive isn't all that great

[tboggs13]

This sounds like the phone lost the GPS connection and just "guessed" where you are within 500m radius. Did you have a-gps active? .

I would agree with you except for the fact that the onscreen map tracked me perfectly. It was the spoken and written instructions that were wrong the whole time.

 

[gbbg]

Did anyone of you had a text list of the route? It was weird that I could not review the route listing nor the route itself before starting. Not to mention when you use the map to the check the route, there is no "current location" button to get back to where you're at. Anyone confirm this behavior? I was super impressed having the whole Texas map on the phone. The TomTom will have to sit out more I guess.

 

[E Lizzle]

Nokia Drive's routing leaves a lot to be desired, it's the worst routing of any navigation device I've ever used. It also doesn't re-route down the current road readily enough. If I decide to take a different route other than the one suggested, it spends the next 15 minutes asking me to make uturns down nonexistent roads, instead of coming up with a new route based on my current path. Even aside from that, the routes it is selecting is roughly equivalent to what was generated by navigation systems 15 years ago... sticking to highways, seemingly oblivious to any faster routes. Sometimes it will even route me in the opposite direction from my destination just to get me on a highway as soon as possible. Their routing strategy doesn't seem to be based on real world travel times, it seems to be instead based on posted road speed limits with weighting towards highways. That routing strategy is outdated.

 

[omniusovermind]

Apparently making a kicka** mapping application isn't all that difficult, too bad nobody told MS:

Blackberry 10 Maps

:devil::grincry:

 

[E Lizzle]

Apparently making a kicka** mapping application isn't all that difficult, too bad nobody told MS:

Blackberry 10 Maps

:devil::grincry:

Did you miss the reference article where they compare, in detail, a half dozen map APIs and find that Bing is the best? And the Bing control is just like the BB one and can load multiple providers' maps (the GMaps app uses it)... so, for those keeping score at home... MS has a map API and BB doesn't, and MS's map control is functionally identical to BBs. Seems to me that MS wins in this case.

-E

 

[omniusovermind]

Did you miss the reference article where they compare, in detail, a half dozen map APIs and find that Bing is the best? And the Bing control is just like the BB one and can load multiple providers' maps (the GMaps app uses it)... so, for those keeping score at home... MS has a map API and BB doesn't, and MS's map control is functionally identical to BBs. Seems to me that MS wins in this case.

-E

Lol he didn't say Bing was the best mapping provider, he said it was the best at using less data when built into an app. Two totally different things.

Pretty sure the title of this thread had the words nokia drive. Before you say "yeah but u said MS bro!" MS makes WP8, nokia drive is on a flagship wp8 phone.

 

[rpm1984]

I have had none of the problems you are talking about. I have used it quite a bit. I even commented to my wife how fast it rerouted us and she was like yeah way faster than google. I have been very impressed with it as I hated google which was inferior to even vz nav.

 

[mpelti]

and most of all - traffic conditions - any idea when this might be integrated into the actual routing?

Yeah, for me live traffic is far more important than directions, I know where I"m going most of the time, but knowing when to take an alternate route due to traffic is vital.

I was an iphone user and had Navigon and Waze. Nokia Drive is a joke and should come with a happy meal. The UI is clunky and not intuitive. The maps are not that great and had me going far out of my way. Traffic service?

I miss Waze on my android to an absurd degree. The live traffic was great, and it found alternate routes better than any other nav I've used.

 

[Pwnisher]

Nokia Drive is excellent - works flawless for me!

 

[wizuriel]

Go "settings", "navigation voice", "download new", "English (US) announced street names". There is a male and a female voice.

Guessing the feature just doesn't work in Canada then

 

[NokFromApp]

I think Nokia knows how critical updating Nokia Drive is. i just read this..Interview: Pino Bonetti talks the future of Nokia Drive+ for Windows Phone 8 | NokNok.tv

Though there was no valuable information in the interview, I am hoping that they will release the full version soon.

 

[gbbg]

Yeah, for me live traffic is far more important than directions, I know where I"m going most of the time, but knowing when to take an alternate route due to traffic is vital.



I miss Waze on my android to an absurd degree. The live traffic was great, and it found alternate routes better than any other nav I've used.

I asked Waze devs on twitter if they're looking to extend waze to WP8 but met with a firm NO. I for one would like to have multiple options and I jumped on the Waze bandwagon pretty early.

 

[fulnix]

I wrote them an email and they said maybe?? I would love to see waze come back!

 

[gbbg]

Well if they do, it would be interesting to see the adoption/usage rates against drive+

 

[david90531]

I tested it a few times already and it's working amazingly. Don't forget that this is still in Beta stage.
I loved OVI maps when I was using the 5800, so I knew this would be great to have again

 

[AngryNil]

Nokia reps have said TTS is coming as some point or another.

Nokia Drive isn't all that great because it doesn't fully replace a dedicated GPS unit that allows you to navigate to intersections, finds a bunch of POIs, and can tell you where petrol stations are.

 

[anon(5399450)]

Nokia Drive isn't all that great because it doesn't fully replace a dedicated GPS unit that allows you to navigate to intersections, finds a bunch of POIs, and can tell you where petrol stations are.

True, but with that logic ALL smartphones are disappointments and not that great since they never really fully replace dedicated units of anything they "simulate". i.e. camera, camcorder, music player, alarm, radio, weather channel, calculator etc. Some of those are obvious but the list goes on forever. Just saying.

 

[AngryNil]

True, but with that logic ALL smartphones are disappointments and not that great since they never really fully replace dedicated units of anything they "simulate". i.e. camera, camcorder, music player, alarm, radio, weather channel, calculator etc. Some of those are obvious but the list goes on forever. Just saying.

I think Nokia has been pushing their navigation offerings a lot, and that it really should have something close to feature parity with my 2006 TomTom. Similarly, playing up the camera so much caused the 920 to "flop", even though it still takes fantastic, ground-breaking shots. Never said it was a proper disappointment, just not all that great :]

I disagree with your list.
- Cameraphones these days do take decent pictures compared to 2006 camera offerings (obviously not the highest end, but I think my point still stands).
- I think modern audio playback offers a better experience than an old portable CD player, especially through digital advantages such as streaming.
- My phone's a better alarm than my alarm clock - I can set several alarms, I choose the sound, etc.
- Phones can be portable radios without a silly antenna.
- Weather can be delivered in a far more concise and accessible manner through weather apps than through a channel.
- Calculators benefit from physical buttons, and really don't need to be enhanced that far. That said, you could have a far better UI - easy way to store and access values, better navigation within graphs, etc.

 

[theorbo]

Did anyone of you had a text list of the route? It was weird that I could not review the route listing nor the route itself before starting.

Did you ever figure out how to get the text listing of the directions?? Thanks!

 

[Mark Boys]

I cant get the voice navigation to work at all. I have downloaded the voice and have it enabled, but when i enter a destination and set off there is only written directions, no voice directions. Has anyone had this problem? I an sure it is just a setting somewhere in my phone but cant for the life of me find it. Any help would be greatly appreciated.