I like Nokia Drive but it's terrible

[jkrc717]

It's very inaccurate..

It always takes me way out of my way.

If I want to drive somewhere that's 10min away, it'll take me on a weird route. It'll take me North first when I need to start south and the trip will end up being 15-18min.

I searched for a verizon store once and it took me to someones residence.

I really hope Nokia improves this app to rival others like Telenav, Navigon and Garmin.

 

[justreason]

And I wouldn't suppose this came about due to Apples maps being horrible?!?

Sent from my Lumia 900 using Board Express

 

[palandri]

I don't know where you're driving from and to, or what's happening.

I bought the $99 Telenav subscription for 2 years and used it on my Palm Treo Pro and it was very good.

I then upgraded to my Nokia N8 and Nokia Drive has been very accurate for me. Just as accurate as Telenav was.

 

[jkrc717]

I have high hopes for Nokia Drive. My little review of it and other Nav apps

I like Nokia drive,

Nice voices and lots to choose from in many different languages. I hope they continue to add voices and languages like my parents native language(Albanian).

However, Nokia drive is very inaccurate. It always takes me way out of my way.

If I want to drive somewhere that's 10min away, it'll take me on a weird route. It'll take me North first when I need to start South and the trip will end up being 15-18min.

I searched for a verizon store once and it took me to someones residence.

I really hope Nokia improves this app to rival others like Telenav, Navigon and Garmin.

I have high hopes for Nokia Drive.

Telenav doesn't have the best interface and it doesn't have many options, but it is extremely reliable and accurate. No other Nav app compares. No other Nav apps compares to how accurate it's search function is. Only has the one voice, but extremely pleasant and not robotic. It's $9.99 a month.

Garmin Streetpilot is good, but the voices are very bad. They offer some funny voices like a squirelle, evil guy, and a guy that tells you "your the best driver I ever had", but they are not funny. They are very annoying. The only voices that gives you street names is a very robotic one. The search could be better. The interface is pretty good. Has plenty of options. Also this app makes your phone very hot. Cost is $30.

Navigon has the most beautiful interface. Lots of options. They only have one english voice that is female, but very pleasant. They offer UK voices and others such as an Indian voice, Scottish voice and few others. However, those voices are bad. The accents sound fake and the female voices sound like a bunch of old ladies(no offense). Seaching for an address is a headache. The search function is a head ache period. Also tells you yards and not feet for those who live in the US. Cost is $50.

Thanks for reading.

 

[TheNerdlyKnight]

Not sure if you realize but Nokia Drive is powered by Naviteq same for Garmin. Could this be a location specific issue your encountering? Have the roads changed in the last two years? I can tell you their CA, NV, TX, and LA maps have all been fine for me.

Sent from my Lumia 710 using Board Express

 

[jkrc717]

Not sure if you realize but Nokia Drive is powered by Naviteq same for Garmin. Could this be a location specific issue your encountering? Have the roads changed in the last two years? I can tell you their CA, NV, TX, and LA maps have all been fine for me.

Sent from my Lumia 710 using Board Express

All the other Nav apps give me better and faster directions. Nokia drive does not. It takes me out of my way.

It's not just one location. It's all locations.

I live in Michigan.

 

[palandri]

All the other Nav apps give me better and faster directions. Nokia drive does not. It takes me out of my way.

It's not just one location. It's all locations.

I live in Michigan.

That's odd. It's been very accurate for me in Illinois, driving from Illinois to Maryland and when I have used it in France.

You're using your phone on AT&T correct? not on Straight Talk, or H2OWireless or Red Pocket correct?

You're not roaming when you use it correct?

 

[textomatic]

Nokia Drive works well for me. Not perfect but good. The one thing it's missing is spoken street names when making turns. If it had that it would make it complete.

 

[jkrc717]

That's odd. It's been very accurate for me in Illinois, driving from Illinois to Maryland and when I have used it in France.

You're using your phone on AT&T correct? not on Straight Talk, or H2OWireless or Red Pocket correct?

You're not roaming when you use it correct?

I use the 710 for T-Mobile on a contract.

No I'm not roaming.

Like I mentioned, I tested it on routes that are 10min away from me.

 

[GoodThings2Life]

All the other Nav apps give me better and faster directions. Nokia drive does not. It takes me out of my way.

It's not just one location. It's all locations.

I live in Michigan.

By definition of words in English, you're suggesting it IS region specific... because if nobody else is having problems with it, and you're the only one suggest it is, but your location is different than everyone else's, that would suggest something about the area.

Is it possible maybe you've turned on/off options in the app that have made it less efficient? What apps are you comparing it too that are "better"? What part of Michigan? I have family up around Lake Michigan, so I could ask if they have trouble with their Lumia 900.

 

[jkrc717]

I'm going to delete it and re-install.. see if that makes a difference

 

[Big Supes]

And I wouldn't suppose this came about due to Apples maps being horrible?!?

Sent from my Lumia 900 using Board Express

No offence to the OP intended, but I thought exactly the same...

How coincidental...

 

[jkrc717]

By definition of words in English, you're suggesting it IS region specific... because if nobody else is having problems with it, and you're the only one suggest it is, but your location is different than everyone else's, that would suggest something about the area.

Is it possible maybe you've turned on/off options in the app that have made it less efficient? What apps are you comparing it too that are "better"? What part of Michigan? I have family up around Lake Michigan, so I could ask if they have trouble with their Lumia 900.

Telenav, Navigon and Garmin Streetpilot.

I live in the metro detroit area.

I don't know about the settings you suggested. It doesn't have very many options for anything. I don't see anything that would make any of this a problem.

 

[jkrc717]

No offence to the OP intended, but I thought exactly the same...

How coincidental...

no

 

[larrynj]

Works great for me all over from DC to NYC.

I always take different routes locally than any GPS I ever used. I think that is very common.

 

[tissotti]

Nokia Maps got by far superior coverage here in Sweden at least.

I travel quite a bit inside Europe because of my work so Nokia's true offline maps have always been a savior for me.

Granted the Map suite wasn't up to speed right away, something that was kind of expected as Nokia had to build the app from ground compared to the Symbian one that was build in 4-6 years. There's still things that need to improve and i hope with the more versatile WP8 Nokia and MS will implement them.


Nokia is kind of in a special situation here as Apple needs to license it's app from the likes of Nokia, Google in a other hand funds it's maps from advertising. Nokia in a other hand is world largest map provider and maps is funded by licensing to others and people buying Nokia phones.

Myself totally tied to Nokia because of maps alone here in Europe.

 

[jhoff80]

Personally, I've had a few issues with searching for points of interest on occasion. Bing usually finds them when Nokia can't, so I hope that gets improved in WP8 when everything is integrated.

Also, the lack of traffic data / re-routing is horrible. Again, hoping that improves, since Bing Maps has traffic data.

And then finally, since I live in a city, I hate that it doesn't have turn-by-turn directions for walking. On top of that, strangely enough, none of the Windows Phone navigation apps have voice directions when in walking mode, which is honestly ridiculous to me because every other program / device I'd used before this had that. Sure, when I'm holding my phone in my hand and only have the loudspeaker, then I don't want it speaking directions to me, but when I'm walking somewhere with my phone in my pocket and wearing headphones / listening to music, it should tell me "turn right on xxxxxxxxxxx" just like when I'm driving.

 

[GoodThings2Life]

Telenav, Navigon and Garmin Streetpilot.

I live in the metro detroit area.

I don't know about the settings you suggested. It doesn't have very many options for anything. I don't see anything that would make any of this a problem.

Interesting. Unfortunately I don't know anyone in that area to see if they have any similar issues. What might be interesting, though, is if you can list out routes according to each app to see some differences. Also, see about reporting your mapping issues to Nokia... it may be something they need to investigate.

In the mean time, use what works for you, obviously.

 

[ImmortalWarrior]

I find that, for the most part, Nokia Drive is pretty good.

When I was in school I did delivery driving for Boston Pizza. I used the provided garmin for that and found that, in Kitchener/Waterloo Ontario, the Nokia Drive functions equally to, and better, than Garmin's did.

Now the Garmin maps were at least 2 years old, so the problems occurred when there were new subdivisions etc. But Nokia maps are pretty damn accurate in this area.

I went to Italy in May of this year and took my 900 with me, got a vodafone sim, and used Nokia drive in Rome, Florence, Naples, and Nokia Maps in Venice (no drivable roads there really....though I should have tried it to see if it even worked there... missed opportunity!). Nokia Drive saved our asses in much of the small towns in the mountains of the Florence area. It even had the tiny town of Donnini and all its little roads. The addresses were almost dead on.

I do, however, have three major gripes with it currently.

1. No custom routing preferences. ie. No way to make it not choose Toll routes. This is a pain in the *** when I drive to Oakville because it always wants to force me to take the 407 Express Toll Route. I want to be able to set it to not take Toll routes, set it to avoid major highways, etc.

2. I get the occasional hiccup in how it identifies routes.

Two examples: near my home, there is a standard intersection but the crossing road enters slightly offset. Barely 10 feet offset. Nokia Drive treats this as a T-intersection. So when you approach from the offset road, it says, turn left, then immediately turn right, and follow the course of the road. In reality, there is no need to turn at all.

Second example, when driving on the MacDonald Carter Freeway to the 401, it tries to make me take the exit at Maple Groove, then immediately puts me back on the Freeway....No point to that at all.

So these are minor bugs, annoying bugs. I expect these sorts of bugs in all routing software though.

3. Where the **** is my My Commute and traffic integration!? I've been trying to find some sort of info when it is coming to Canada but there is no information.

 

[GoodThings2Life]

Personally speaking, I'm deeply concerned by the lack of street names for turning. "In 0.1 miles, turn right" doesn't help me when I can't see the map and don't get a street names. I have to rest my phone in my center cupholders, so looking down isn't an option. I know a lot of areas like mine where streets can run real close together, so distance isn't a very good indicator of when to turn.

I really hope that's an improvement in WP8's version. Given the choice, I'd love to use Bing Maps as-is in WP7.5 without the "tap" nonsense. If they just got rid of that, I'd already have the best map solution for my needs.