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VZ Navigator for DROID

Dear Verizon Wireless,

I have a been a happy and loyal customer of yours for a couple years now and every year i upgrade my phone and each time i enjoy all the new bells and whistles. I started off with the Alias, then moved up to the Voyager and now i have a Droid.

I absolutely love my Droid, however, there seems to be one fatal drawback for me. The Google Navigation just does not cut it. I drive an hour and a half to work each way 5 days a week and i use my navigation every single time. The Google Navigation is terrible when it comes to routing me around traffic. 95% of the time, it cant even find an alternate route, even if it has found one for the same route in the past! This is not acceptable, especially since it was available on my last 2 phones, and I used it religiously. Everything else about the Google nav, although, is pretty cool. I love the satellite views and the street level views, all the bells and whistles are great. The major downfall, though, is that the NAVIGATION is third rate!

In short, i am practically begging you to make VZ Navigator an available application for my Droid. I loved it, especially when it automatically rerouted me around traffic. I know that changed and I had to do that manually at one point. Bring back VZ Nav and please leave me the option to have auto-traffic-rerouting. I cant stand Google's navigation.

Thank you for listening to me whine and complain, i don't get to do it very often with you, but when i do, you should take heed.

Comments

fezzik

Aside from a few moderators that are basically just here to give simple advice and make sure we don't step out of line no one from Verizon will read this. The forums are designed for peer to peer. I do imagine that from time to time hot topics are monitored to help keep the big whigs' fingers on the pulse of our desires.

I suppose they should revisit this. Especially since Nav4All was shut down by Nokia. They were working on it and then basically stepped away because of Google Nav. I will admit that the ability to filter routes would be a welcome addition to Google Navigation. Usually though the Google nav gives me the best route. I will have to say that it surprises me how many people are calling for VZNavigation for Android considering my experience with it was less than pleasant. It had out of date addresses and phone numbers for businesses, fastest route almost never was, Main roads sometimes took you weird ways getting off highways to get on bigger highways for no reason, Backroads was great for my wife who when we first got it refused to drive on interstates and major highways counted, and traffic information was usually several hours behind. I only know of one time when the traffic thing helped me and that was to find out what major traffic incident was causing miles of traffic backup that the Navigator lead me right into the heart of using avoid traffic when a perfectly good alternate route was available with minor traffic. After I had been sitting in the traffic for over an hour it came up and told what it was. Real Helpful. My biggest problem was that it would go out of its way to take me off route through downtown areas down unpaved backroads through business areas and back to the same interstate only a couple of exits away from where I was for no reason when the interstate had no traffic but downtown did.

What I would be calling for if I was desperate for an alternative navigation system would be a rapid solution to Nav4All's problem caused by Nokia buying their info supplier forcing them to sign a non-compete exclusive contract in order to keep using the system then taking away their access so that they could not only no longer use that system but could not legally use any other as well. Nav4All is a similar system to VZNavigator but had more features and better recognition of where you were and better routes and a better more up to date database of businesses and locations. All for the price of $0 a month. At first I wasn't thrilled with it but the more I messed with it and found some of the features it was rapidly becomming my favorite. My wife and I were genuinely sad when we got the e-mail because it was one of the only good options for her blackberry and while I love Google Nav I liked a lot of the features of Nav4All better.

If I remember right there are other navigation services available for Android. You may want to check into some of those. it is plausible that they would offer some of the features you are looking for such as alternate routes, route filtering and traffic filtering for routes. I would imagine they would do it better than VZN but I can't imagine how they could do it any worse.

soldier429

Well, VZ Navigator wasnt perfect, it was much more useful than Google. Even though Google is always accurate, it is far from comprehensible when it comes to finding alternate routes. My friend has a Kenwood indash radio/screen with navigation and it always gives him a better route than i get with my Google.

VZ was much better getting me around traffic jams, which is my major gripe that i have with the Google nav. So, either Google needs to add an option for automatic traffic re-routing, like what VZ originally had, or Verizon needs to add VZ Navigator to the apps menu for Droid. It seems all too easy to me for Verizon to make VZ Nav an app.

paducahshane

I have to agree, google nav is SUB PAR. It has a hard time finding me, usually mapping me on another road. Doesn't show good routes. It will work in pinch, it may take you MILES out of the way, but it will get you there. Now I just look at the map before I get on the road and try to do it the old fashioned way. I do a lot of driving through NYC and VZ Nav was just the tool to help me out. Yeah I had to pay for it but I would much rather pay for something that works than get something that may work, for free.

fezzik

paducahshane wrote:
I have to agree, google nav is SUB PAR. It has a hard time finding me, usually mapping me on another road. Doesn't show good routes. It will work in pinch, it may take you MILES out of the way, but it will get you there. Now I just look at the map before I get on the road and try to do it the old fashioned way. I do a lot of driving through NYC and VZ Nav was just the tool to help me out. Yeah I had to pay for it but I would much rather pay for something that works than get something that may work, for free.

I find it somewhat funny that I would make this exact same post only switching the services. VZNav worked in a pinch but would pinpoin my location blocks away where Google gives the exact address even knows which side of my duplex I was parked in front of. VZNav barely placed me in the right neighborhood. Odd we have such opposite experiences using the same services.

As to traffic maybe it is my area but it was always a good hour behind. Warning me to steer clear of accidents that were cleared up and sending me into a sea of blocked traffic for miles in any direction.

I got a lovely message from the VZ Navigator project manager though about my post. Very nice lady asked for advice and my experiences. So I can say first hand that they are at least paying attention and it does appear that there are plans to expand VZN on Android. It is apparently on a few of the phones now. Perhaps as tests. I don't know. So if you are having problems with GN and VZN always worked better for you send them a message. The more interest they are aware of the more likely they are to follow through.

None of the databases are up to date. Google is behind as well. If there is information about a business online somewhere even a company website may still be up for a company that shut down years ago. The best thing I have found on Android is the Yellow Pages app which actually seems to use the real Yellow Pages database. You can do local searches by category or for specific businesses and it sends you to Google Navigation fairly seamlessly. For me that is the best combo of upto date database and the Google know exactly where I am pinpoint GPS.

If youa re having trouble be sure you have GPS on when you are navigating and in the settings be sure you are using the assisted GPS. That really helps a lot. None of them are very accurate if you are inside.

Disneyman

I also loved VZ Navigator. I just got off the phone with Verizon and asked if VZN was coming to the Moto Droid and they had no info. I see it is available on the Droid X.

I originally got the Moto Droid for a number of reasons, the internet which I am very pleased with, but also for the Google Map Nav for which I am very disappointed in.

My wife and I took a trip to Florida this past April and the Google Man Nav routed us off I-79 and onto Rt 279 into Pittsburgh Pa. I wanted to see what it was doing so let it take us there. Once there it seemed to be lost. Now I turned it off at this point, probably should have let it route me further to see if it was going t recover, but didn't. I pulled over got out a paper map and found my way back on course like I did before I had a GPS. My wife downloaded VZ Navigator to her LG Voyager and we used that as our GPS for the rest of the trip.

In the future I will be using my Garmin which is awesome, but when I don't have my Garmin with me I would like to be able to use VZ Navigator. When I am up for a new phone I will not be getting another Droid unless Google Map Nav goes out of beta or drastically improves, as I am sure it eventually will.

fezzik

Odd. But from what I can tell VZNavigator will be an option for Android for Android 2.2 coming soon to a handset near you.

I have been talking with the president of VZNavigator and it seems they have made a lot of really interesting improvements especially to the GPS accuracy and navigation. Might be worth looking at if you like the flexibility to choose how your routes are chosen. I am intrigued by the upgrades but can't spare 10 bucks a month right now to test it out. I am already paying more than I am really comfortable with to have a smartphone. Since Nav4All is dead it might be worth another look at VZNav. I am especially interested in how much they have done to improve the currentness of information. I would have a couple of tests for that but again as I say considering I may have to increase my minutes again soon and I just had to increase my wife's texts to pay for navigation when I already have it seems wasteful.

DrStrangepork

I use Google Navigation contsantly and it has never, not once, failed to get me exactly where I wanted to go. It is leaps and bounds better than VZ Navigator ever was. I find it hard to believe that others are having so much trouble with it.

OldPilot

I've only had my Droid for a month so I'm certainly not a so-called "expert" but I am ( so far ) very satisfied with Google Nav except for one thing: I CAN'T delete any destinations without completely uninstalling Nav and re-downloading/reinstalling! That is just insane. i know it's a beta, but SOMEONE at Google needs to sit down and figure this out. I don't want or need a bunch of old destinations cluttering up my list. on my Navigon, or my wife's Tom Tom, I can remove destinations easily. having one less device to carry is great but the frustration level isn't.

pcar1947

All Navigation systems have flaws. From the Navigation in my BMW to the Garmin to the Google Maps on my DINC. hey all have flaws.

Use the DINC navigation for professional purposes and it hasn't steered me wrong. I will admit sometimes it gets confused (Who Doesn't) but it gets me and my customers to their destination 98% percent of the time.

Would I pay $10.00 a month for VZNavigator??? They would have to guarantee me that it is 100% accurate!!!!!! What are the chances of that?

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