T i m wrote
Rod Speed wrote
NY wrote

My wife has always suffered from car sickness so has found it difficult
to read a map in a car, so her "coping strategy" was to "teach herself"
(how?) to memorise a whole journey - she says that she can "see" the
picture of the map in her memory and can check turnings as she goes
without needing to look at a real map Quite a skill!

Yes, but a decent gps does so much more with routing around traffic
congestion and continuously telling you what time you will arrive etc.

Ah, and that's reminded me of another fantastic feature, the ETA! ;-)

Yeah, very interesting using that in the long run into Sydney running
very late to catch the train home. google maps on mine had it spot
on with significant unusual traffic congestion that early morning.
The other phone in the car was a Nokia Lumia and its included
satnav which doesn't appear to have a proper name didn't really
allow for the traffic congestion at all and was anything up to 20
mins out on its prediction.

We had to collect my Mum from Southampton the other day (~2 hrs away)
and she was meeting us at the Hovercraft terminal from the IOW. We
texted her as we left with the ETA and as we arrived at the Hoverport
we saw her Hovercraft coming across the Solent. By the time we had
parked up and walked up, she was walking out of the terminal. ;-)

The ETA is very accurate and if you get in some heavy traffic you can
watch it extending and if you are able to 'make good progress' you
can see it falling slightly. At least you can call your destination and
inform them of any major changes from the plan.

And kept telling me that we were still on the best route.

Another advantage of a dedicated GPS is the fact that
it *isn't* on my phone, leaving it (and it's battery) free
for more important phone based tasks. ;-)

That's better fixed by powering it in the car
and having an external battery pack as well.

The only real advantage with a separate GPS is
that if one dies you can still use the other one
and even that is better done with two phones
which most have without doing anything unless
you are travelling alone.