I have only just upgraded my Android phone to one that supports Android Auto, and frankly I am in awe. I've never used a satnav before, never really felt the need, and I'd heard so many stories of people blindly following them into very dodgy situations. I managed to get from central Scotland to the south coast of England and back a couple of weeks ago without needing any directions. (Then my old phone died while arguing with an Ionity helpline on the way back.)
The problems I'd heard about from years ago seem to have been sorted. The notorious error in my village where travellers approaching from the south were directed through a deep ford to save a couple of hundred yards no longer happens. The damn thing knew about a traffic jam 50 miles away when I set off on a journey earlier this week and kept my ETA updated accordingly, in real time.
I had checked the car park I was heading for on Google maps on my PC before setting out, and when I got in the car and plugged the phone in, that car park was immediately presented to me as my provisional destination. I had only looked at the thing, I hadn't even used the "send to phone" button, which I hadn't noticed.
The recalculation if you go off route (and it did send me off route yesterday - I knew better, but I thought I'd see what happened) is impressively fast. I had to cross Edinburgh yesterday unexpectedly, an area where I have notable form for getting catastrophically lost in, but I just followed the blue line and it took me there. (Without it I'd have driven out to the ring road and back in on a road I knew.)
It tells me the truth about the speed limit on the road I'm on, rather than brazenly lying to me as the car's speed limit detection cameras do.
I can see the potential to have it integrated into the car. But it does a grand job in my SE, and I'm not even remotely hankering after the Trophy's built-in satnav. I can work out when and where I need to charge, in the rare event of me actually needing to charge away from home.
