Google Maps Navigation

[mindfrost82]

So, I had my first chance at really trying this out this weekend on my Nexus One.

I drove from my house to downtown Chicago and back. Google Maps calculated the route as taking about an hour and 15 minutes. Going there, it said, based on traffic, that it would take about an hour and 25 minutes. This was pretty accurate because the traffic was really light.

TTS worked good, but sometimes it seemed like it talked too much. On one exit, it repeated itself 3 times as I was on the ramp merging onto another interstate. This was pretty annoying, especially because it wouldn't just say "Merge Onto I290 Westbound", it added alot more to the description and basically read the entire exit sign to me, but 3 times!!!

On the way home, while downtown, I was stopped at a light and for some reason it thought I already turned because it already loaded up my next turn, even though I wasn't on State Street yet. This could have been a GPS accuracy issue though, not necessarily an app issue.

The traffic was a little off. On the way home it said it should take an hour and 40 minutes...I think it took about an hour and 50. It didn't route me around the traffic since it wasn't TOO bad, but when Google Maps showed it as being green, it still should have been red or yellow because we were stopped or barely moving. I think this is true of any GPS system that tries to get traffic though. Its not up to the minute, so sometimes its not very accurate.

I had full 3G service the whole way, so I'm not sure how well it would have worked on Edge.

Overall, I think its a great program and especially for free. I like the online features it offers compared to a downloadable navigation app, but I also like having the offline maps too in case I lose cell service.