Simple question, Is Windows Phone 8 "Road" Ready?

[Jazmac]

I know is has GPS and maps but as a mobile device, do you believe it is really road warrior ready? For me, its not there yet.

 

[berty6294]

Not sure what the requirements are.... but I'm an avid road tripper and I'd say it is more than ready!

It does what every other phone does, but the inclusion of Nokia Drive, City Lens, the fabulous cameras and Local Scout ... I'd say it beats the competition!

 

[James8561]

HERE Drive+ is wonderful and I believe they're taking it out of beta. I've never get bad directions from it and it is always very fast, accurate, and sharp (the voice guidance)
Dedicated GPS can't compete with Nokia.

 

[Jazmac]

It has maps, gps and local scout. All decent features. I has nothing for those of us who fly often.its 2013 for gods sake. Would be great to know things like, based on geographical location of where you are and your flight for your phone to calculate based on road conditions to make your flight. The thing that was touted to be in WP7 that never appeared. However, is currently built into the GS4. Still not in WP8.
My observation is this, Microsoft under Gates was one hungry company. They were always in the community asking what we wanted and did what they had to get it to us FIRST. Under Balmer, they seem to do only just enough to "qualify". Anyway, this is one of the many reasons why I don't feel its "road" ready, yet. But this isn't to bash my Lumia 920. I need it to do things it doesn't yet know how to do.

 

[kokola95]

I personally like all the Nokia HERE services (maps, drive, transit, city lens) more than what google maps offers. They support more worldwide, when google maps only support indoor mapping and navigation in europe/usa only (not sure). And the best thing is, we can access the map without data (if the maps have been downloaded)

 

[Laura Knotek]

It has maps, gps and local scout. All decent features. I has nothing for those of us who fly often.its 2013 for gods sake. Would be great to know things like, based on geographical location of where you are and your flight for your phone to calculate based on road conditions to make your flight. The thing that was touted to be in WP7 that never appeared. However, is currently built into the GS4. Still not in WP8.
My observation is this, Microsoft under Gates was one hungry company. They were always in the community asking what we wanted and did what they had to get it to us FIRST. Under Balmer, they seem to do only just enough to "qualify". Anyway, this is one of the many reasons why I don't feel its "road" ready, yet. But this isn't to bash my Lumia 920. I need it to do things it doesn't yet know how to do.

Gotcha. When you said "road ready", I thought you meant driving, not flying.

I'd agree with berty6294 wrt road travel. I do not fly often, so I wouldn't know about air travel apps.

 

[anon(5346288)]

I used Nokia Drive+ and my brother who has a GS3 was very impressed at how accurate it was. The whole trip he just stared at it with awe. I know the features you are referring to and have seen it before. Even from android I don't see them or OEMs putting a big emphasis on this particular feature but I can clearly see why it would be beneficial to some users. Hopefully it is an easy update Microsoft can implement to the WP8 devices in the near future.

 

[clbarker10]

When we travel to Vegas from Texas, I lose signal most of the way through New Mexico and part of Arizona when maps are needed. Offline Maps alone make my Lumia more of a "road warrior" than anything other phone. I say yes!

 

[rider2040]

I would say that it is not road ready. Every time that I travel, Here Maps fails me at least once.

This week I was in Seattle, headed to Alderbrook Resort. Even though Here was able to find my destination, it was unable to compute a route from the airport to the resort - it simply thought for about five minutes before saying that it was unable to find a route from my current location.

So, I had my client use google maps on his iPhone and we were given three different routes and full traffic information, approximate travel times for those routes.

The entire mapping experience on WP8 is about 5 years behind the other platforms. There's just not enough users to generate enough data to make the system work.

 

[rider2040]

So, I just tried again to get directions from my current location and the phone just locked up on "getting directions", it got very hot, and then the phone shut down.

Mapping on this phone is simply not up to snuff at this point. This is the chief reason that I will not recommend this phone to my coworkers.

 

[anon(5346288)]

So, I just tried again to get directions from my current location and the phone just locked up on "getting directions", it got very hot, and then the phone shut down.

Mapping on this phone is simply not up to snuff at this point. This is the chief reason that I will not recommend this phone to my coworkers.

Seems odd... What phone are you using? Also you said you are using Here maps but are you also using Nokia drive+? Just curious because Here maps will always prompt you to open another app to "drive to" Works that way on my Nokia Lumia 810 and on my mother's 8X and never had an issue with either. Also another possibility is outdated maps,of the region but that I would not know...

 

[rider2040]

I'm on a 920 ob ATT in the US. In fact I am currently sitting in SeaTac, leas than twenty miles from the Microsoft campus. Maps are up to date.

In Here Maps, you first click on your destination, then hit get directions, once that is done you have the option to navigate using here drive.

In this particular instance, my phone keeps getting stuck on "getting directions".

 

[anon(5346288)]

I'm on a 920 ob ATT in the US. In fact I am currently sitting in SeaTac, leas than twenty miles from the Microsoft campus. Maps are up to date.

In Here Maps, you first click on your destination, then hit get directions, once that is done you have the option to navigate using here drive.

In this particular instance, my phone keeps getting stuck on "getting directions".

Seems quite strange indeed. The only thing I know is that GPS chips in any phone will get a bit warm and use extra juice but they won't shut down like that unless they get too warm beyond the "fail safe" limit and then it shuts down to prevent any further damage. I'm no expert but it sounds like possibly a hardware issue? That's my two cents. Now Il let someone else hop in and give their input. Could also be a corrupt install of the app because on occasion, installs don't always go smoothly even though they appear to do so. The obvious question now is have you uninstalled the app (or apps) and reinstalled them?

 

[rider2040]

It doesn't make sense that it's a problem with the GPS, because the phone has no difficulty in finding my current location.

This doesn't always happen. In this case, it appears that the app can't figure out how to get from here to there.

I have uninstalled and reinstalled this app several times over the past six months.

 

[jleebiker]

I'm on a 920 ob ATT in the US. In fact I am currently sitting in SeaTac, leas than twenty miles from the Microsoft campus. Maps are up to date.

In Here Maps, you first click on your destination, then hit get directions, once that is done you have the option to navigate using here drive.

In this particular instance, my phone keeps getting stuck on "getting directions".

I just put in "seatac airport" in the destination from where I am and within 20 seconds, it calculated a route to Seattle-Tacoma Int'l Airport (SEA).

I'm on a 928.

BTW, I'm over 1000mi and several states away.

 

[anon(5346288)]

It doesn't make sense that it's a problem with the GPS, because the phone has no difficulty in finding my current location.

This doesn't always happen. In this case, it appears that the app can't figure out how to get from here to there.

I have uninstalled and reinstalled this app several times over the past six months.

Part of me doubted it was a hardware issue otherwise you would of known by now.

My only other concern is when you reinstalled the app did you do it from the general store or the Nokia Collection?

Even though WP8 all have the same general hardware, etc the apps in the Nokia Collection are usually optimized for Nokia devices versus the same app from the general store. Seems strange but it is the case with some apps. That's all I got... Good luck :-S

 

[Arjun KR]

HERE drive is pretty accurate,but I have problems with HERE Maps satellite view,it doesn't have full zoom level of many areas around me,and few mis-spelt or misplaced locations,I had contacted Nokia India regarding this,they asked my address and exact location,I gave it but didn't got response further,neither the maps were corrected

 

[spaulagain]

I love the Here Drive app except one thing, getting me to the location in the last 500 ft. It is very vague about the location when you are really close. It doesn't say "on the left" etc. Also, from my experience it doesn't show you the address. So if you are looking for a house in a neighborhood, you have go through the menu to find the address you entered.

 

[Osama204]

It's VERY road ready to me, after testing that in a 9 hours road trip to Dubai, I never got lost in this city with this app,
except in one incident when it seems the GPS signal wasn't available or strong enough, so I relied on the road signs.

 

[KrightonX]

It struggles a bit for me here in Southern California. Anaheim to Torrance is a little foreign to it. It's not sure what's a freeway and what's a side street. The other crucial part is it's ability to rotate the camera. Am I making a right or a left? I can't tell because it' has oriented properly until after I've made a turn (oh ****, I'm going the wrong way, thanks)

Furthermore, lack of traffic makes the app useless. It's not 28 minutes from Anaheim to Torrance. It'll never be 28 minutes but because it's not accounting for any of the 8 trillion people on the road, it think it's right.

No word or hope on an update from Nokia for this dying little app. I miss real Google Navigation. That **** was solid, how good I had it.