Hacker News Reader

It'd be nice if consumer GPS navigators offered an option like "prefer right turns".

I'd be happy if my GPS just stopped sending me on detours through residential areas...

For fun I've used my GPS navigator for parts of the city I know well. I've not found its selected routes to be very optimal, though a couple times it suggested a better route I'd never thought of.

I suspect what it needs are 'hints' from human users familiar with the areas.

We could use data from other drivers' recent trips to suss out good routes. If I designed a GPS navigator I would add two buttons: Like and Dislike. Users would just tap one to indicate if a route seemed especially good or bad. I mostly want this for my cycling GPS but it could be useful for cars too.

It's already a GPS... why not just time the routes directly?

(Assuming you're concerned with time, which I assume is at least often the case. For convenience and other 'softer' amenities, hints make much more sense.)

Reply on news.ycombinator.com