back to article Honey, the satnav app says you're to leave at 6am... Yup. I'll have that coffee off you

For all the cleverness of location-based services, which will tell you the best places to eat and sleep when you arrive somewhere strange, most people just do the same job and complete the same journey every day. The bread-and-butter for navigation app maker CoPilot GPS is providing routes to people who go to a lot of …

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  1. htq

    Have been using this feature in Google Now

    When Google Now first came out it took me a week before the system would recognise by preferred commuting route. Now, no pun intended, I get a notification at around the time I usually leave for work or about to head home to tell me the traffic condition and ETA.

    When I was levelling up playing Ingress, I'd get notifications asking me whether I'd want Now to notify me of traffic conditions to a few portals I regularly visit.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Have been using this feature in Google Now

      No pun existed

    2. deive

      Re: Have been using this feature in Google Now

      Now also works with all journeys too - quite useful when you have a meeting somewhere at a given time, Now will notify you that you should be leaving now to get there on time :-)

  2. dfgraham
    Thumb Up

    Hey Galaxy! Wake me...

    ...50 minutes before my commute. If it automatically figures out traffic, weather, whatever while I sleep, and wakes me accordingly; when then shut up, and take my money!

    1. Anonymous Custard
      Joke

      Re: Hey Galaxy! Wake me...

      Now if they could just figure out a way to make it do my work when I get there...

  3. Truth4u

    if your satnav told you to eat a brillo pad

    would you do that????????????

    1. NumptyScrub

      Re: if your satnav told you to eat a brillo pad

      If your boss at work told you to delete all the files pertaining to last months financial records, would you?

      If a police officer told you to lay down on the floor with your arms spread out, would you?

      If your significant other told you to shut up and hand over the TV remote, would you?

      Some people have driven up to the edge of cliffs, into swollen fords, or on to tidal flats because the satnav told them to. If a person trusts some(body/thing) giving them advice, they are likely to take that advice. This has been the case for millennia, history is full of people(s) apologising for bad decisions taken under bad advice.

      If your NSA chief told you to invade Iraq because they are making and stockpiling weapons of mass destruction, would you?

  4. Tom7

    Late to the game

    AFAICT, Google Now does all this already, but it can also do it for trains, underground and buses if that's how you usually get places.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Late to the game

      If you're happy for Google to know, not only everywhere you go online, but also everywhere you go in the real world....

      1. samster
        Facepalm

        Re: Late to the game

        zzzzzz.... pointless post Coward. If you use a mobile phone (even a feature phone) and/or have a debit/credit card, then this stuff has been known for DECADES.... have you only just realised this?

        Regardless, Google Now is super-useful, probably the best innovation in the mobile space in the last 2 years....

        1. FlatSpot
          Stop

          Re: Late to the game

          Sure mobiles track you and card spending can also be used but these are held by different companies. I think the point being made is that Google is becoming a single owner of all data and gathering all this information in a single space and therefore could mine it for whatever reason.

          Whether you are comfortable with that is your decision. Well until such time as there isnt a non-Google option, maybe they should change their name to Weyland-Yutani

    2. Extra spicey vindaloo

      Re: Late to the game

      Yes it does, and it does it pretty badly,

      at the moment google now is telling me that I can walk over a mile in less than 1 minute.

      1. Gordon 11

        Re: Late to the game

        at the moment google now is telling me that I can walk over a mile in less than 1 minute.

        My Nokia 'hone maps once told me a 210 mile journey (in the UK) would take 2h 40m. That's an average speed of 80 mph, and given that I was starting in the middle of Rochdale so had 10 miles of local roads before I reached the motorway, and another 20 miles along country roads at the other end, I have no idea what speed they were goading me to get up to.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Late to the game

        > at the moment google now is telling me that I can walk over a mile in less than 1 minute.

        I can tell you that in about three seconds. A bit longer if I'm slurring my speech.

  5. Neil 44

    Waze

    Waze does all of this and, being community supported, has real-user traffic/incident reporting as well as user-fixable mapping and navigation errors.

    Oh... and it tells you when friends (/partner) are going to arrive at the same location (i,e. home) if they are using it too.

    Ask the "premium" SatNav players how often they update their maps (and how much they'll charge you to do it!). It feels strange driving down a road that has clearly been there a couple of years (e.g. around Stamford in Lincs) and be shown as being in a field!

    1. Tezfair

      Re: Waze

      Converted Wazer since last December. The eldest put it on my S4 when we were driving around seeing friends at Xmas. It's only in the last few months that I now use it all the time as the routing is significantly superiour to my tomtom (2 yrs old, lifetime map updates yet still manages to take me the wrong direction or the long way around). I like the fact that you can contribute road issues live and it gets flagged up on other wazers screens Been thanked a few times which is nice.

      Tie that into google maps and I have a pretty powerful satnav.

      Used to swear by copiot on the old windows mobile, but after many many years of useage and upgrades copilot decided to not support WM7 and there were no discounts for switching platforms. So bye bye from me!!

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Waze

      > It feels strange driving down a road that has clearly been there a couple of years (e.g. around Stamford in Lincs) and be shown as being in a field!

      No, what feels strange is being told to turn left (or right) onto the overpass 50 ft above you.

      ( If it was 50 ft below and I had set "Stunt Driving" mode on, I could perhaps understand )

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Once again Nokia got here first...in this case Here Drive, formerly Nokia Drive *already* had this feature over a year ago...

    ...but hey, once again I forgot "innovation" can only happen if there's an iPhone or Google involved...

    <sigh>

    1. Wheaty73

      Did you read the bit on the bottom

      About it being available for WP8?

  7. Alister

    I still don't get why anyone would bother to use a Sat-Nav (or App) for their daily commute - It's a journey you do every day, surely you should know the route and any shortcuts or alternatives?

    Some people seem to be completely unable to function in life without a computer telling them what to do...

    </grumpyoldman>

    1. AceRimmer

      Because.....

      Newer sat nav and sat nav apps give you live traffic information allowing you to reroute as appropriate.

      Although from my experience the information about the delays tends to come when I'm already stuck in the tailback its warning me about.

      1. samster

        Re: Because.....

        "Although from my experience the information about the delays tends to come when I'm already stuck in the tailback its warning me about."

        In fairness, not with Google Maps... it always tells me when there is traffic ahead and I can re-route. I love surprising my 3 year old with "I bet there is traffic around the corner..., "Wow, how did you know that Dad?!"

      2. Peter Simpson 1

        Re: Because.....

        Or, worse, the tailback you went out of your way to avoid, has already cleared.

        (the police car that was sitting by the side of the road, moved on)

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      For the lazy among us

      I quite like to know when I will arrive, and when I need to set off. Usually takes 45 minutes, but there are some real bottlenecks that can appear on the way that can double that, and it helps to be alerted so I can drive round them. Being particularly lazy, I don't like leaving the house until I have to.

    3. IR

      I have two routes I can take on my commute. One takes about 5 minutes less, unless there has been an accident, in which case it can take 20 minutes longer. Having this decide which is longer as I leave the door sounds a lot better than my current method of squinting at red and black lines on the traffic map and then guessing which is worse.

      1. Oneman2Many

        Google already gives you the quickest route based on live traffic. Its also pretty good at learning regular alternate routes though it buggered when everyone else is taking the same detour.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        > One takes about 5 minutes less, unless there has been an accident, in which case it can take 20 minutes longer.

        Or even longer, if it was you having the accident. :-)

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      > I still don't get why anyone would bother to use a Sat-Nav (or App) for their daily commute

      Traffic Message Channel.

    5. Kar98

      Because traffic. If the regular route normally takes 20 minutes, but suddenly shows four times that, it's time to pick the alternate route which takes 40 minutes, which I is why don't take that route normally.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    "Sorry for being a little late, boss, my satnav said I could leave 3 minutes later today." [on a daily commute]

    Priceless.

  9. DanDanDan

    This is another ad appearing as an article. I call them AaaA (cf. SaaS)

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