When was the last time your driver looked in a map book or A-Z to help him find your address? A long time ago. These days taxi, chauffeur, commuter, holiday drivers all rely on their navigation devices. Some people use their cars inbuilt satnav, others prefer a Garmin or TomTom. I can tell you from experience (50k miles a year) that nothing beats Google Maps on my phone. Things may be different in other countries but here in the UK, Google is the most accurate at getting me from point A to point B. I’ve used Garmins and TomToms. I’ve used my Mercedes SatNav. I’ve tried Waze and Apple Maps but nothing betters Google for accuracy and getting me out of a ‘jam”. (Pun intended). So it was great to read a very detailed blog post by Artur Grabowski which confirms the same. He compared Apple Maps, Google Maps and Waze (which to me are the only front runners in the SatNav game) on 120 trips and came to the same conclusion.
In my experience Apple Maps contains nowhere near as much accurate road information/layouts as google, which isn’t surprising as its fairly new to the game. Waze is great at what it does, but drains the battery and can take me on very circuitous routes to save a couple of minutes off a two hour journey. Google maps is consistently accurate, it doesn’t hog the battery, it’ll update me about traffic and tell me about faster routes as they come up. I like the iPhone software version better than Android. I can turn off the phone and use notifications to guide me when I am approaching the next turning.
Oh and they’re all free, as long as you have a Smart phone. Take my advice, ditch the TomTom, buy a phone mount for the car and try them all yourself.
