How to legally use my mobile phone for satnav?

[anonymous-user]

I've finally given up on using my car's built in satnav as it's maps are well out of date and I'm too tight to pay to update them by paying the exhorbitant fee every couple of years. In addition the car's satnav is obviously well below the level of the windscreen which means my eyes are not on the road when scanning it which isn't a big deal in most places but is when in some busy city centres.

So having scoured the market I have today taken delivery of one of China's finest pieces of £4.99 plastic c**p to mount my phone on an air vent so I can use Google maps which are always up to date and have live traffic plus I can use it in portrait mode instead of landscape.

I'm behind the times with what the law currently is. Last I heard the law was about to be changed so that you could not touch your phone at all in the car. Does this mean I need to set the journey up on the phone outside the car then sneakily install it in it's air vent mount then not touch it at all for the entire journey?

Grateful if someone who knows the current law and any expected changes could briefly outline them many thanks.

[babelfish]

MikeStroud said:

I've finally given up on using my car's built in satnav as it's maps are well out of date and I'm too tight to pay to update them by paying the exhorbitant fee every couple of years. In addition the car's satnav is obviously well below the level of the windscreen which means my eyes are not on the road when scanning it which isn't a big deal in most places but is when in some busy city centres.

So having scoured the market I have today taken delivery of one of China's finest pieces of £4.99 plastic c**p to mount my phone on an air vent so I can use Google maps which are always up to date and have live traffic plus I can use it in portrait mode instead of landscape.

I'm behind the times with what the law currently is. Last I heard the law was about to be changed so that you could not touch your phone at all in the car. Does this mean I need to set the journey up on the phone outside the car then sneakily install it in it's air vent mount then not touch it at all for the entire journey?

Grateful if someone who knows the current law and any expected changes could briefly outline them many thanks.

you cannot hold it but you can touch it.

https://www.gov.uk/using-mobile-phones-when-drivin...

[essexd]

The current mobile phone law is that you cannot use a hand held mobile phone for an interactive communication function, if the phone is in any sort of cradle then it's not covered under the mobile phone while driving legislation, so careless/dangerous driving laws apply.


https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2003/2695/regu...

[anonymous-user]

Cool. Thanks both.

So basically if it's in a cradle, I can jab away tinkering with the route as much as I like en route?

In the second link above I particularly liked the prohibition of "sending or receiving facsimile documents". Damnation, I'll have to remove that 1970's fax machine I had fitted :-(

[babelfish]

MikeStroud said:

So basically if it's in a cradle, I can jab away tinkering with the route as much as I like en route?

too much of that and you'll get done for careless or dangerous driving. the odd press should be fine though, unless you do it at the wrong moment and you don't see the child/horse/car/ etc. that has just jumped out in front of you......

[Bright Halo]

babelfish said:

MikeStroud said:

So basically if it's in a cradle, I can jab away tinkering with the route as much as I like en route?

too much of that and you'll get done for careless or dangerous driving. the odd press should be fine though, unless you do it at the wrong moment and you don't see the child/horse/car/ etc. that has just jumped out in front of you......

It’s no different to fiddling with the built in car technology though.

[Dashnine]

As above, if mounted touching the screen is fine you can investigate using Siri (or equivalents) to dictate and send messages, etc.

Try Waze for the SatNav app, also free and owned by Google so probably the same base data, traffic data, etc. but is a bit more fully featured as a SatNav.

[Tyre Smoke]

My phone is in a cradle all day every day. You might want to get a charger as well. Having the screen on rinses your battery.

If you are concerned about data use, I've had CoPilot installed for years. It does use up a chunk of memory though, but doesn't use any data. Quite useful if you are in an area with no signal.

Waze is good for updates on speed cameras and roadworks though.

[TwigtheWonderkid]

babelfish said:

you cannot hold it but you can touch it.

Relationships thread is in The Lounge.

[emperorburger]

TwigtheWonderkid said:

babelfish said:

you cannot hold it but you can touch it.

Relationships thread is in The Lounge.

[anonymous-user]

Dashnine said:

As above, if mounted touching the screen is fine you can investigate using Siri (or equivalents) to dictate and send messages, etc.

Try Waze for the SatNav app, also free and owned by Google so probably the same base data, traffic data, etc. but is a bit more fully featured as a SatNav.

Have just downloaded Waze. Seems easy to use. Will give it a whirl on next journey. TY.

[martinbiz]

Bright Halo said:

babelfish said:

MikeStroud said:

So basically if it's in a cradle, I can jab away tinkering with the route as much as I like en route?

too much of that and you'll get done for careless or dangerous driving. the odd press should be fine though, unless you do it at the wrong moment and you don't see the child/horse/car/ etc. that has just jumped out in front of you......

It’s no different to fiddling with the built in car technology though.

Yes that's right and you can be prosecuted in just the same way for doing that, fiddling with anything that takes your mind / eyes or your hands off the wheel lays you open to various offences if you are deemed to be not in in proper control, the specific offence of holding and using a mobile phone just won't be one of them

[Glosphil]

OP - is your car new enough to enable you to display sat/nav from your phone on the car's infotainment screen? I do this rather than use the built-in sat/nav.

[Kinky]

MikeStroud said:

In the second link above I particularly liked the prohibition of "sending or receiving facsimile documents". Damnation, I'll have to remove that 1970's fax machine I had fitted :-(

There's got to be a fax app you could use

[anonymous-user]

Glosphil said:

OP - is your car new enough to enable you to display sat/nav from your phone on the car's infotainment screen? I do this rather than use the built-in sat/nav.

No it's not. But in any case the screen on my car is quite low down. I really want to have the satnav much more at the bottom of the windscreen so my eyes aren't taken off the road when glancing at it.

When I get my next car that does sound like a good feature to hav ethough.

[anonymous-user]

Kinky said:

MikeStroud said:

In the second link above I particularly liked the prohibition of "sending or receiving facsimile documents". Damnation, I'll have to remove that 1970's fax machine I had fitted :-(

There's got to be a fax app you could use

lol

[drdel]

Try Tom Tomorrow app Amigo, it's free, upto date and has speed camera data as well as traffic congestion

[twister]

Dashnine said:

Try Waze for the SatNav app, also free and owned by Google so probably the same base data, traffic data, etc. but is a bit more fully featured as a SatNav.

Owned by, but still largely independent of. The map data remains entirely crowdsourced (and thus more likely to be up to date compared with Google Maps/Nav), as is the real-time traffic data (which is only gathered from people running the Waze app, so can suffer from a lack of coverage compared to Google traffic data which doesn't rely on anything other than people driving around with an Android phone in the vehicle).

[p4cks]

Slightly related but if you're ever in Lidl I'd recommend one of their phone cradles, they're fantastic

[Glassman]

Highway Code / current law fuzziness sate that sat navs/phones should not be placed in front of or above any airbag, positioned where it could impede the driver's view of the road (paraphrased).