# GPS not always correct.



## Wendy Bentley (Dec 20, 2014)

What does one do when the gps isn't working correctly and you get lost? Should we end the trip when we get lost so the passenger doesn't have to pay for that part? CONFUSED


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## C. Johnson (Oct 31, 2014)

Wendy Bentley said:


> What does one do when the gps isn't working correctly and you get lost? Should we end the trip when we get lost so the passenger doesn't have to pay for that part? CONFUSED


happened to me before...i just used my google maps....but i didn't cancel the trip tho...unless it put me way out of the pax destination.


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## Jay2dresq (Oct 1, 2014)

Don't use the Uber iPhone navigation... Use Google Maps or Waze on your personal phone.


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## Wendy Bentley (Dec 20, 2014)

Jay2dresq said:


> Don't use the Uber iPhone navigation... Use Google Maps or Waze on your personal phone.


I've been using my personal phone. 
Just get nervous now when I drive outside my comfort zone.


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## Jay2dresq (Oct 1, 2014)

As long as you're using Google Maps or Waze you'll be fine.


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## Wendy Bentley (Dec 20, 2014)

Thank you


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## centralFLFuber (Nov 21, 2014)

use your own personal GPS


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## PatriotUSMC (Dec 26, 2014)

New driver here. How do you use Googlemaps simultaneously? Do you use the Uber app to start the trip and then switch over to Googlemaps during the drive? Then switch back to the Uber map once you arrive at the destination? Serious questions, I'm new and I love Googlemaps. So far the Uber app isn't nearly as nice to use as Googlemaps. Want to make sure that I do it right so I get paid properly. Thanks for any input.


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## UberHammer (Dec 5, 2014)

PatriotUSMC said:


> New driver here. How do you use Googlemaps simultaneously? Do you use the Uber app to start the trip and then switch over to Googlemaps during the drive? Then switch back to the Uber map once you arrive at the destination? Serious questions, I'm new and I love Googlemaps. So far the Uber app isn't nearly as nice to use as Googlemaps. Want to make sure that I do it right so I get paid properly. Thanks for any input.


Use the driver app on an Android phone. The Uber app on Android automatically sends the pickup and destination locations to Googlemaps for navigation. If Waze is installed, you can set the Uber app to use Waze instead.


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## PatriotUSMC (Dec 26, 2014)

Interesting. I have an iPhone, any luck doing the same with it?


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## UberHammer (Dec 5, 2014)

PatriotUSMC said:


> Interesting. I have an iPhone, any luck doing the same with it?


I don't think so. But at least you iPhone users can enable Uber's Spotify feature. That's not available on Android. And I hope it never is.


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## Uzcaliber (Aug 22, 2014)

I have both iPhone and an Android phones. With iPhone, occasionally the navigation was off and I had to go to the Overview then resume the navigation to fix it. Try on daily basis to calibrate the compas for directional calibration. With Android: disable the Power Saving (occasionally it causes the GPS fix to go into sleep and mess up the navigation). Also before you start an Uber app after many hours of idle, run GPS Essential (free app) to get the GPS "warms up" and see if you are able to obtain multiple satellites. Calibrate the compas on your Android phone helps too to ensure directional reference setting.


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## PatriotUSMC (Dec 26, 2014)

Thanks for the replies.


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## Uber-Doober (Dec 16, 2014)

One would think that with the years that GPS receivers have been around, they'd finally get around to making one that works, and I've had a lot of them... the best being one that I had installed that worked off of a DVD... and the worst being one of the highly touted units that the first day that I used it, I decided to let it point me home. About 400 feet from my driveway, and I could actually see the house, it told me "When safe, make a u-turn" and blah blah blah. 
Well, I did make that u-turn, back to the store and returned the unit. Hah! 
If anybody is using a dedicated GPS unit, which one do you have and how do you like it? 
I've used navigation on my Note and the results were from really good to so-so.


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## Uzcaliber (Aug 22, 2014)

GPS accuracy depends on a number of things:
1. How long the unit has been idle, if it has been off for awhile, it may take several minutes to "warm" up.
2. How many satellites the unit can acquire, the more the better for location correction. Signals coming from the satellites are distorted by atmospheric pressure, temperature, etc. It depends on building around you, GPS antenna quality, GPS receptions in general.
3. Whether it's single or double frequencies unit, double frequency GPS is much better.
4. Single frequency GPS (most GPS) accuracy is about 10 feet with 10 satellites. So it could 30 feet accuracy in some cases. It relies on your phone GPS algorithm to "guess" the location and routing algorithm for navigation.
5. GPS update rate, currently every second. See below for detail.

Historically, GPS was initially available for military only. When Soviet Union shot down a Korean airline by accident, pres Reagan released GPS signal decodable to civilians. But the military intentionally added a random error to allow only as good as 300 ft accuracy, worked fine for airlines. At high price, corporation could purchase GPS signal with 30 ft accuracy. Pres Bill Clinton instructed the military to remove the random error, allow the accuracy down to 30 ft for everyone, suddenly GPS unit prices went down fast. Recently Pres Obama has instructed the military to increase the GPS update rate to civilians by 10 times (only for military now), to increase the accuracy down to 3 ft. We will see much better GPS in future phones.


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## Uber-Doober (Dec 16, 2014)

^^^
Even 15 years ago I was getting tons better accuracy than that with an Alpine CD unit because irrespective of the refresh rate, you're still get fixes from more than one satellite... usually five or six and they all don't refresh at the same time. 
As far as 'warming up' is concerned... that part I don't know about. I never had a GPS that ran off of vacuum tubes.


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## Uzcaliber (Aug 22, 2014)

Not literally "warm" as temperature (that's why I used ""). I have been working on GPS breakout for my robotic project. It's about getting location fix after being off for a long time. A GPS that has been off for more than some short length of time must receive a complete navigation message from at least four different satellites before it can achieve 3D lock and start tracking your position.


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## Uber-Doober (Dec 16, 2014)

Uzcaliber said:


> Not literally "warm" as temperature (that's why I used ""). I have been working on GPS breakout for my robotic project. It's about getting location fix after being off for a long time. A GPS that has been off for more than some short length of time must receive a complete navigation message from at least four different satellites before it can achieve 3D lock and start tracking your position.


^^^
I was just kidding. HAH!


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## Casuale Haberdasher (Dec 7, 2014)

Uzcaliber said:


> I have both iPhone and an Android phones. With iPhone, occasionally the navigation was off and I had to go to the Overview then resume the navigation to fix it. Try on daily basis to calibrate the compas for directional calibration. With Android: disable the Power Saving (occasionally it causes the GPS fix to go into sleep and mess up the navigation). Also before you start an Uber app after many hours of idle, run GPS Essential (free app) to get the GPS "warms up" and see if you are able to obtain multiple satellites. Calibrate the compas on your Android phone helps too to ensure directional reference setting.


POST # 12 / UZCALIBER: That was so good
that I wrote it down! But do you find that you're 
running 2 phones simultaneously? 
Happy New Year BTW.


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## Casuale Haberdasher (Dec 7, 2014)

Wendy Bentley said:


> I've been using my personal phone.
> Just get nervous now when I drive outside my comfort zone.


POST # 4 / WENDY B. : I realize that Golden
Staters can roam the whole state, but what
are the N/S/E/W boundaries that you have
observed in your Uber/Lyfting?


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