# GPS Navigation



## Thir (Jun 15, 2017)

Please let me know which is better navigation app for Sydney? Google maps or Waze.
Thanks for your feedback.


----------



## george manousaridis (Jan 27, 2017)

Thir said:


> Please let me know which is better navigation app for Sydney? Google maps or Waze.
> Thanks for your feedback.


None of them


----------



## Voigtstr (Nov 20, 2017)

What's the navigation like in the uber drive app? (I'm still on-boarding)


----------



## KITT (Mar 28, 2017)

I trust my Tomtom GPS here in Adelaide. I tried using Google maps and I wasn't happy. I am also using Uber partner but a lot of times it takes me at the back of the drop off address.


----------



## Idiocracy (Jan 13, 2018)

Voigtstr said:


> What's the navigation like in the uber drive app? (I'm still on-boarding)


LOL .... You'll find out soon enough... with many Happy Daze to come.

You only get one guarantee using AI (artificial intelligence) Apps - it ain't intelligent!

The dumbest person on earth is smarter than the Uber App and many Riders - especially the drunk ones trying to drop a Pin.

My record was 1.3kms between where Uber said the Rider was and where they actually were. The rider set the pickup address correctly (a rare feet by any stretch of the imagination), then Uber got involved and screwed everything else up.

Luckily, Uber's got electrolytes! It's what Drivers & Riders crave ...


----------



## Syd drv (Aug 18, 2017)

use Waze if you have zero knowledge of sydney city road.Take some trial and make familiar yrself with its direction guidance. its pretty good, Please note but its not 100%
If you not familiar with City, please do not use uber nevigation.
This point discussed lots of time in forum, please search.


----------



## Sydney Uber (Apr 15, 2014)

I agree use Waze. But also be prepared for it to suggest crazy routes that WILL get the rider asking for a review - costing you dollars. So scroll ahead and check out the route.


----------



## Voigtstr (Nov 20, 2017)

Voigtstr said:


> What's the navigation like in the uber drive app? (I'm still on-boarding)


I've only done a few shifts using the Uber App's built in maps, but my advice is to say to the pax "the app wants me to go this way, are you okay with that?" Most of the time they are fine with it, sometimes they will say "actually there is a better way with much less traffic" or something similar and lead you down their preferred path. Following the pax's will and therefore providing better customer service will keep your star rating up I reckon


----------



## Lonesome Hobo (Oct 29, 2016)

Thir said:


> Please let me know which is better navigation app for Sydney? Google maps or Waze.
> Thanks for your feedback.


--- If this post is too long/boring to hack all the way through, skip my preamble/observations ----

*My preamble/observations*

Been driving a year and a few months in Melb, and here's some experienced-based thoughts/observations. I guess you probably know much of this already, but this is my take... And of course, I cannot speak Sydney-specific - but I imagine our city-related problems will be similar.

You'll find a common attitude on the forum that "Real Men Don't Use Navigators" etc. That's cool. I've been living in Melb 40 years come June and driving around for work for much of that time, and I know most major roads/arterials/etc - but there's no way I'm going to find a specific small street in a suburb, so I need the nav. If that's being a wuss, no problem. I'd rather be a careful wuss than a lost he-man

(FYI: I'm an iPhone 7 user, Can't speak for Droids..

So...
- NONE of them are perfect. All have quirks and shortcomings.

- Major issue that cropped up for me: When you use Google Maps or Waze, you are actually stepping out of the Uber app itself. So trip requests come through to Waze/GM as brief drop down banners.
I kept missing these (unsafe to monitor the screen too much) and my confirmation rates were horrendous. It's OK if they are bad _intentionally_ , like if I do a No Thanks or ignore a ping - but this was unintentional. Much later I learned of "Stop New Requests" on each trip. I do this now (for the above and other reasons)

- Also, I'm pretty sure that when I began driving,Uber's nav did not have a "Turn Off sound" option. It does now.

*My driving setup*
- I don't do "stacked pings". ie. every time I accept a ping, I go into the back screen and turn off new trip requests. Painful but much better for me.
- I now mostly use Uber's navigation by sitting on the Uber app screen during a trip.
- But... I have my Settings > Navigation as "Waze" so I can switch to Waze from time to time for clarity - or when I know I'm getting into a congested or new closure area where Waze is better
- I turned off all navigation sound. - ( I used to have it on because I was finding riders suspicious of my routes because I am from India. - ha ha, no one can ever avoid the innate racial profiling that humans do... intentionally or otherwise.)
- I now rigorously do what is just smart and rating-safe, as Voigtstr suggests: I keep my riders informed on the GPS-suggested ( or my planned) route. I make sure they OK it - or give me their preferred route.
- I will occasionally use GM. It probably has safer routes (see my pros and cons below) - but I like the Waze interface and design.
- I have the Waze settings as Route=quickest, not shortest. And of course, I do NOT "avoid toll roads".

*Pros and cons:*
*Common issue*: They have all messed me up with one-way streets. Test this, especially in Sydney where you have lots of one-ways.

*Waze:*
*Pros*
- It IS the smartest with knowing when roads are closed or traffic is congested. (Because of its social architecture)
- I like the interface design - especially the default magnification, and controls (like audio)
- It's better than Uber with knowing about one-way streets, probably not as good as GM (though I think they are level)

*Cons*
- BIG ONE!: ( I think GM does the same.) .... *It will occasionally take you to the back entrance of buildings, rather than the front main address!!!*. If your guard is down and you don't check that you have stopped on the same street as the address, you can be in trouble. This seems especially bad in city areas - and with unit or apartment block addresses (Like Unit 2/34 Something Road - the effing thing will often take you to the street behind a unit block.
This may seem pretty easy to spot - but I drive at night, and have fallen prey to this quirk often

- It has very clear "preferred" routes. It will often take you on a path that is longer - but quicker (by its AI algorithm). This makes for unhappy riders. And unhappy ratings.
- It loves motorways - and will take you way off a reasonable route to go via a (longer) motorway/tollway/freeway. This may make sense during traffic peak times when the motorway may be quicker - but it even does it at night and off-peak, when there's not much difference in times

- It can take you through some VERY narrow alleyways of the "right of way" type (behind houses), again - often in the city areas.

- "Avoid Tolls" is in the settings. Should be a prompt available on each trip (like most in-car GPS units)

*Uber:
Pros*:
- You won't miss seeing AND hearing incoming trip requests if you are sitting in the Uber screen.
- They have improved it vastly (to give them their due). It now seems to route better than Waze..

*Cons:*
- The map direction orientation keeps returning to the default (North up). Does not remember your setting.
- I don't like the default magnification level. And it does not do a good intelligent zoom. (Ok, I am in my late 60s ... wink wink ... or rather ... squint..squint)
- Google Maps and Waze have more settings available to tweak

*Google Maps: *(advisedly - I have not used it very much at all)
Pros:
Better routing than Waze
I think the most popular among the driver community - and that should be a good indicator of its quality.

Cons:
Not as good an interface as Waze - just my opinion of course ... I prefer the Waze route summary display

I think that ;s it from me. Sorry for the long ramble, but this was a good exercise in thought-collection...

Cheers
LH


----------



## Who is John Galt? (Sep 28, 2016)

Lonesome Hobo said:


> --- If this post is too long/boring to hack all the way through, skip my preamble/observations ----
> I've been living in Melb 40 years come June and driving around for work for much of that time, and I know most major roads/arterials/etc - but there's no way I'm going to find a specific small street in a suburb, so I need the nav. If that's being a wuss, no problem. I'd rather be a careful wuss than a lost he-man.
> LH


Forty years? I am very, very sorry to hear that LH. 

From my reading of your posts I am guessing you are north of 60; so 40 years or more, in fact more than ⅔ of your life there, is penance indeed. 
What exactly was the original sentence? Not life I hope.

I was fortunate enough to succeed in a daring escape from there many years ago and although I still visit family and friends (undercover, of course), I just thank my lucky stars every time I see Melbourne in the the rear vision mirror as I head back to my glorious girl, Adelaide.

I think many of us in the other capital cities forget the Dickensian squalor and grubby society that Melbourne has become; with her once noble and inspirational institutions and establishments now jaded and forlorn, as Dan and his merry band of socialist marauders cut a swath through all that was good and wholesome and which now lays in tatters and fragments and is not even fit for a beggar to scorn.

I lift my eyes skyward and beseech whoever may have a willing ear, to please, please lead those poor unfortunates from the mental and physical prison that is Melbourne. God help you all!

.


----------



## Adam86 (Aug 28, 2017)

I used GM for the first 10 months or so because I was familiar with it, the only issue I had was it kept navigating even after you dropped pax off, so you had to keep exiting the app, kind of annoying. Also if a pax lived right next to a freeway, like if it was the house, then a fence, then over the fence was the freeway, GM would think the pax was on the freeway, caused a few issues for me. Uber navigation, I've switched to it the last week, is much better, you accept a ping and it jumps straight into navigation and seems a lot easier to use


----------



## george manousaridis (Jan 27, 2017)

Voigtstr said:


> I've only done a few shifts using the Uber App's built in maps, but my advice is to say to the pax "the app wants me to go this way, are you okay with that?" Most of the time they are fine with it, sometimes they will say "actually there is a better way with much less traffic" or something similar and lead you down their preferred path. Following the pax's will and therefore providing better customer service will keep your star rating up I reckon


Doesn't always apply.


----------



## DA08 (Mar 18, 2017)

Voigtstr said:


> I've only done a few shifts using the Uber App's built in maps, but my advice is to say to the pax "the app wants me to go this way, are you okay with that?" Most of the time they are fine with it, sometimes they will say "actually there is a better way with much less traffic" or something similar and lead you down their preferred path. Following the pax's will and therefore providing better customer service will keep your star rating up I reckon


Not with UFP i don't give them the option . . I use waze to get the shortest route in kms and i tell them im taking the shortest route as uber wont pay of i go longer route. You want to deviate from route? Sure no problem just update destination and we go


----------

