Is Nokia Here Drive a GPS replacement?

[Paul May]

following

but you better get a car stand maybe with a charger, because you dont want you mobile phone out of charge when you reach your destination.

Speaking of this. Any car charger I used wouldn't keep up on charging the phone as fast as it would deplete while using the gps. I ended up buying an AC adapter for the car and used the wall charger and this worked fine.

 

[Mark Dart]

As of now yes, that is the only way to get traffic information. But I find this a little silly because they already have the traffic data. So why not display it while doing regular navigation and not have to set up a commute.

I was sure that previously they did have this but after the update it changed

 

[Jerry A]

As of now yes, that is the only way to get traffic information. But I find this a little silly because they already have the traffic data. So why not display it while doing regular navigation and not have to set up a commute.

My guess is to have the one-button convenience of a Live Tile (as well as the ! on said tile to let you know it's going to be a rough commute).

 

[MrWhiteman]

Here Drive has a couple of things missing which I would like. Speed camera warnings and lane displays (shows you what lane to be in).

 

[blzr409]

I usually carry a separate GPS in my car, but I recently went to West Palm Beach and forgot it. Here Drive was a life saver. Never had any problems with any wrong directions or anything. Worked really well for a free program and the offline maps are great.

 

[Billy Gun]

Thanks for all the answers, I bought a Lumia 920 last mondey, was the best thing I did, the GPS/map is real good, no need internet conection for me to find maps, directions to places. I have a GPS on my can, but I'm not always with it.

I agree that there is lot of room for improvements, hope they come.

Thanks everybody.

 

[gsquared]

Smartphones (all of them) have made GPS units obsolete for the most part. At least for the general public.

 

[Mark Dart]

Looks like the update gave us back live traffic

 

[BaritoneGuy]

For those that just want traffic without setting up a commute there is a great app called Inrix that is free to use

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Mobile Nations mobile app

 

[Optiplex330]

Thank you very much Replay0, this is what I want to know, if it realy works well. I own a "car" GPS, but the phone will be always on my hand, so one day that I'm not on my car, I can easily find directions.

+ Good camera
+ MS Office
+ GPS (without net conection)

This Is what made me decide for a Windows Phone


Thanks again

I presume if offline maps is important to you and so is MS Office, then having good Internet connection might be important to you also. If that being the case, I hope you realize with MS Office, many things are done through the cloud (Skydrive) and if you don't have good internet connection, there are some serious limitation you should be aware of.

 

[SlideWRX]

I just drove from Michigan to Florida and back for the holidays, and Drive+ was all I used. I downloaded all the state maps in between before leaving. I was pleased with how well it did; no wrong turns or odd routes over ~3000 miles. We took a different route back from the route down. Some minor complaints:

1. My power adapter couldn't quite keep up with the drain from GPS; after eight hours most of my battery drained. It never stopped working, though.
2. It needs to call out a road name & turn a bit sooner than it does. In some sections it felt like I was very close to the intersection before it said the road name. The icon in the corner always shows the next turn, and eventually I realized it showed the next road name across the top.
3.I had downloaded Ohio several months ago. I checked for updates, and it said everything was up to date. Ohio had a lot of roads that the speed limit in Drive was different from what was posted. All the other states were fine. Could be Ohio though...

One thing I liked a lot was entering addresses. You could paste an address in and it would figure it out. My Garmin needs several steps to get an address entered; enter the street number, then name, then state, then town, etc. Very slow. With the Nokia I copied the address for the hotel from email, pasted it in and it found it.

 

[kg93678]

1. My power adapter couldn't quite keep up with the drain from GPS; after eight hours most of my battery drained. It never stopped working, though.

The same happened to me, then I tried it with a new car charger and it stayed at 100% battery the whole trip.

 

[etad putta]

Thanks for all the answers, I bought a Lumia 920 last mondey, was the best thing I did, the GPS/map is real good, no need internet conection for me to find maps, directions to places. I have a GPS on my can, but I'm not always with it.

I agree that there is lot of room for improvements, hope they come.

Thanks everybody.

Not that i roll that way, but i am interested to see the gps on your can. Cutting edge tech is always interesting.

 

[hemanlive]

I am in India, Delhi to be precise, and I do have a problem with here maps/drive. The traffic info for the city is not correct. There seems to be a certain pattern for a particular time of the day and it simply feeds the same traffic pattern day in and day out. Google is much better in that regard. Highly reliable for traffic updates (at least in Delhi). I have got a free app called G-maps+. it is not an official google app but uses the offline here maps and pulls up traffic data from google. So I have got the best app for my daily commute.
Talking specifically about navigation, Here Drive + seems like a very adamant navigation system to me. I would want it to give me option of at least two or three alternative routes and let me chose which one is better.
Having said all this, I still use g-maps + for traffic related info like my daily commute to office. When I am out of Delhi, where there is no traffic data available anyways, I use here maps/drive+ for navigation. I agree with all the positives mentioned in earlier posts and I don't think there is any need to have separate GPS on a car if you have a Lumia phone. Best part obviously is that it wont use any data and works even in places where you don't have a network coverage at all!

 

[Vikram Dinesh]

Talking specifically about navigation, Here Drive + seems like a very adamant navigation system to me. I would want it to give me option of at least two or three alternative routes and let me chose which one is better.

This is not true at all. Use the commute feature everyday for a month and see the difference. The Commute feature learns all the various routes you take and then gives you the option to take any that you like. Not only that, it also shows you various deviations that you take when you reach the start point of that diversion/deviation.

For example check out the screenshot of Commute on my phone. It shows me all the diversion that I regularly take to avoid traffic.

 

[Kevin Rush]

Here Drive has a couple of things missing which I would like. Speed camera warnings and lane displays (shows you what lane to be in).

The Navigon app has lane assistance and many other great features. The app is definitely worth every dollar so I support the developer.

 

[Christian Holmstedt]

Here Drive+ running on a Lumia 810 works great as a GPS Navigator replacement..... because it is a GPS.

Edit:
It uses a lot of power so an adapter for the car is needed if you plan on using it for several hours.

 

[hemanlive]

This is not true at all. Use the commute feature everyday for a month and see the difference. The Commute feature learns all the various routes you take and then gives you the option to take any that you like. Not only that, it also shows you various deviations that you take when you reach the start point of that diversion/deviation.

For example check out the screenshot of Commute on my phone. It shows me all the diversion that I regularly take to avoid traffic.

View attachment 53808

I think there is some problem with Delhi Maps and Traffic. I have couple of issues here in Delhi. While using Drive+, it shows only one route. I have checked it at various times during the day but it just shows one route only. Google on the other hand gives at least three alternatives.
Second issue that for some reason Nokia's traffic information of Delhi has not been updated for over an year now. It always shows the same traffic pattern all over the city at all times. It has no bearing with real traffic conditions. I use an app called G-maps+. It uses the offline maps of Nokia (HERE Maps) and gives accurate information about traffic conditions. It is my savior during my commute as Delhi traffic can become real bad at times. For an experienced driver like me, just having the traffic update is enough as I can figure alternate routes myself. However, Nokia should look into Delhi traffic data and routes given for Delhi on Drive+. All the other users of Lumia in my knowledge no longer use Here Drive+ or HERE Maps within Delhi for this reason.

 

[hemanlive]

The same happened to me, then I tried it with a new car charger and it stayed at 100% battery the whole trip.

I, and a friend of mine, had the same problem. It got resolved when we switched to new Adapters on our cars. If you plan to use maps and navigation, a good car adapter is a must.