defaria

First off, I normally don't case my phone. Secondly I have a battery backup. Used to keep it in my backpack for hikes but now keep it in my car. However there are times when I go to use it and the battery backup is dead too! Besides, with a dead cell phone it takes a certain amount of time to get enough charge into the phone so that it won't simple stop when taxed to do AA, GM, listen to a podcast, etc. If merely connecting the phone to a charging source was sufficient, as you know, you have to plug into a USB in order to use AA at all. My experience is that if the phone is completely dead you'll have to charge it for 10-20 minutes in order to get it to have enough juice to get you home. It's in these rare situations that I use the factory NAV while I'm charging my phone. Usually after a few miles when the phone is charged up enough to hold it's charge I then switch back to using AA.

Guitarking1

My car came with factory NAV, but I seldom use it (because I need to drive it more!). However, one of the attractive aspects about factory NAV is that it interfaces with the HUD. I'm guessing that Apple Carplay or other options would not do that.

defaria

Not sure about CP but AA supposedly has the code to do turn by turn in the HUD but GM either fails to notify AA that it has this capability or fails to expose the API to the HUD so AA (with Google Maps) doesn't do this. 'Tis a big shame!

gliot1

Agreed. The beauty of in dash is it interacts with the car as a whole much better. Trust I have done nav a myriad of ways, and have yet to find any of the apps work better still than in-dash. I lead a number of outings with our club and nothing worse than shifting, fumbling with a phone, answering calls from members, handling a 2way radio, turning the stereo down, etc. I went to in dash because as a group leader you have a lot going on all at once at times! With in dash in all works in harmony much better and I will say the GM GPS is very good. We have friends that use Waze and Google Maps and they seem to be presented with confusion now and then. None with the in dash app. I have the GM unit in both my pick up and Corvette and they both work very well. My point is many of us are spending over $50k for a car, then cheap out on a possibly important feature.

KenHorse

I remember when the C7 first came out, there was a lot of talk about 3rd party developers of apps for the MyLink system, access to the API etc. GM even had an official developers group then too...

Boy, that sure went away quickly!

Neil Baker

raylo

Same for iPhones... Google Maps is available on iTunes for free and you can download and save offline maps for Google Maps, then connect via CarPlay. I used that method with my iPhone on a recent trip to Yellowstone and Glacier parks. The offline maps expire automatically in 30 days so if you lived somewhere that you needed them year round you'd have to confirm to keep them when Google gives you the expiry reminder.

rrsperry

That could be an expensive gamble seeing as a new phone is about $700+. (not having some sort of case...)

raylo

More like ~$1000 + for the flagship models! And those mostly now have *glass* bodies. Mine will have a case for sure. Nice avatar, BTW, I was on one of those back in the day.