Sat Nav with voice that actually works?

[megaphone]

I bought a Tom Tom Go 510 a year ago and have used it daily ever since. I do multiple routes per day and have not been that impressed with the TomTom, to be honest it is not great at anything. In particular the voice activation.

One of the main reasons I bought it was for its voice activation feature, I was hoping I'd be able to tell it a post code or an address and it would understand and find it. It just doesn't work, it cannot recognise any basic commands, rubbish.

Any options? I'd rather have a stand alone unit, than use my iPhone. Must have traffic and cameras, must be fast and quick to get back on track. Must have very good voice recognition, as good a Siri or the Google one.

[juan king]

do you have an old phone or small tablet that you can install waze on? it is a brilliant app that has voice recognition live traffic data etc etc

[megaphone]

juan king said:

do you have an old phone or small tablet that you can install waze on? it is a brilliant app that has voice recognition live traffic data etc etc

Does that use data? Or can I download the maps?

[megaphone]

juan king said:

do you have an old phone or small tablet that you can install waze on? it is a brilliant app that has voice recognition live traffic data etc etc

Thanks. I just tried it on my iPhone, it will not work for me, too clunky, voice didn't work, kept 'thinking' and then locked up. Ok for the odd trip, but I need something robust for multiple trips a day.

[thescamper]

Megaphone, whereabouts in the country are you from, accents and dialects can completely f**k up voice prompts. Does SIRI or Googles equivalent work for you.

[K50 DEL]

thescamper said:

Megaphone, whereabouts in the country are you from, accents and dialects can completely f**k up voice prompts. Does SIRI or Googles equivalent work for you.

I wondered this too, I have a Gamin Nuvi 2360 and the voice recognition on this is flawless as long as I enunciate clearly, if not then it's hopeless but all VR is, especially in an environment with high levels of background noise.

[TurboHatchback]

K50 DEL said:

thescamper said:

Megaphone, whereabouts in the country are you from, accents and dialects can completely f**k up voice prompts. Does SIRI or Googles equivalent work for you.

I wondered this too, I have a Gamin Nuvi 2360 and the voice recognition on this is flawless as long as I enunciate clearly, if not then it's hopeless but all VR is, especially in an environment with high levels of background noise.

Exactly what I was about to ask. My Tomtom GO6000 has quite good voice control, can usually get it to do what I want. My accent is pure BBC queens English though, I expect this helps. There was an amusing clip on The Grand Tour of some northern chap not getting on with his voice control system because his accent was so thick it was barely the same language.

[megaphone]

TurboHatchback said:

K50 DEL said:

thescamper said:

Megaphone, whereabouts in the country are you from, accents and dialects can completely f**k up voice prompts. Does SIRI or Googles equivalent work for you.

I wondered this too, I have a Gamin Nuvi 2360 and the voice recognition on this is flawless as long as I enunciate clearly, if not then it's hopeless but all VR is, especially in an environment with high levels of background noise.

Exactly what I was about to ask. My Tomtom GO6000 has quite good voice control, can usually get it to do what I want. My accent is pure BBC queens English though, I expect this helps. There was an amusing clip on The Grand Tour of some northern chap not getting on with his voice control system because his accent was so thick it was barely the same language.

I'm BBC English, even if I speak very slowly and clearly it is rubbish. The main thing it cannot do is understand post codes, "Hello To Tom" "Go To W1A 1AA" ..... nothing, just spouts a load of clap trap.

[JH1952]

I swear by Google Maps, I use it for multiple journeys in the day and it's brilliant. You can download maps and use them offline and it gives you live traffic updates and all that jazz. I've tried Waze and it just wasn't for me, up to you really but I recommend Google Maps.

Can't fault it, beats my built in sat-nav.

[tgr]

So if using google maps how do you know how much it is using already downloaded maps and how much it is roaming?

My fear would be that, on a trip from the UK to - say - Italy, it would by necessity be very data-hungry

[DaveH23]

Plan route on PC then retrieve via the google maps app using your Gmail account so zero data.

Failing that reset your data useage at the very start of your journey and accept that your first is a trial to get an idea and it may use a little more. In the UK having it on for journeys in excess of 4 hours a day will use a few KB's.

Now bare in mind data roaming in europe is the same as the UK I will suggest very very little data.

[tgr]

Thanks Dave - good advice. I suppose the question is really if the map is already downloaded does tracking the location of the phone use any data?

Not to get political but roaming data may not be so cheap post Brexit...

[DaveH23]

I was going to put its the same as the Uk for the moment but you are correct.

I suppose without trialling it it's going to be too tricky to tell.

As google uses satelites to update their maps they will always be the most uo to date. I know you said you dont like waze as i dont either but im sure google owns waze so they use the same back end 'I think'.

[tankplanker]

If you are regularly in the same region you can pre download the entire region on Google Maps, at least on Android.https://support.google.com/maps/answer/6291838?co=GENIE.Platform%3DiOS&hl=en

That way if you ever have to replan a route for some reason then you won't need to use mobile data. You can even download multiple regions if you have enough space on your device.

A traditional Sat Nav app on Android uses less space for the maps than Google Maps so it is worth double checking you have enough room.

Google Maps via Android Auto is my preferred way of navigating now, plus it gives me voice control for music/radio and it can even read out/reply to text messages using voice as well.

[tgr]

Thanks both - will experiment