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Comment by gutnor | Hacker News Reader

You also forgot that they are fast with responsive UI. And that's only if you compare the best of the car built-in GPS. If it is not the top of range (which btw is not related to the price of the car), the UI is generally awful.

If you are a google/apple map user. Searching for an address is a million type easier: roughly type some part of the address and it will find it. No such luck with car gps.

At this stage you wonder why car manufacturer even bother. They should just allow to plug a tablet and run software made by people that understand software, and restrict themselves to providing a simple interface to car metric, hud and maybe cameras.

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I really don't understand why they bother with most of the 'fancy' systems they put in.. Its like everything is half-assed. I have a 1 year old truck, that has Satellite audio, Radio, 4G wifi hotspot, etc, and somehow, I have to set the clock manually in the settings, using crappy buttons..

Hahaha, that's amazing. I made a pledge to myself years ago that I would never buy another clock/watch/timekeeping device that didn't set itself.

Somewhere in that car you purchased is a clock that sets itself, it just doesn't cooperate with the rest of the car. Bummer.

Honda does this. Using their HondaLink interface, you plug in your iPhone, then you can choose which GPS system you prefer to appear on the display -- Honda's or Apple's. And of course, Apple's GUI lets you access the web to search for your destination using a simple text or voice interface then navigate using either Google's or Apple's or Mapquest's or Microsoft's maps.

IMHO it's the smart web-based search interface that makes web-based maps so superior to car maps. And yes, the web-based live traffic data is nice to have too.

This 10x! Car manufacturers are reinventing the wheel. I wonder how Tesla does this though, its display looks pretty cool but never had the chance to play with it.

Tesla's system is pretty good, and it's the only one that is. Then again, Tesla is the only car company that employs people who actually understand software.

It's even better: "OK Google, take me home" -> 3 seconds later Maps app is open and navigation is in progress. No typing required.

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