Using a tablet as an in car sat nav - effective?

[DeLorean75]

I've been experimenting with an old tablet on a holder in my car as a sat nav / media interface

(poor man's Tesla)

It doesn't work really beacause google maps doesn't refresh anything like frequently enough to be useful as a device.

However, it's an ancient mini ipad and I'd consider an upgrade if it made sense

If one has a modern tablet and is on the move with google maps running does it refresh fairly continuously to a hotspotted mobile or not?

Cheers!

[MikeM6]

Why does Google maps not refresh quickly enough? Most use Google or Apple maps for navigation these days using Android Auto or Apple Carplay. Even Waze is basically Google maps.

How is the tablet connected to the internet? Or is not connected?

[DeLorean75]

It's hotspotted via my phone.

It's an old vehicle it doesn't have a snazzy interface

[Kermit power]

I can't see why tethering would prevent it from updating as quickly as the phone it's tethered to unless you've got some sort of restrictive data plan?

[mikef]

A CarPlay or Android Auto screen is just a low-spec android tablet (usually 800 x 480 @2x display dimensions) used as a remote display for your phone (as well as programmed for vehicle information by the manufacturer), with the processing happening on your phone

You can use a cheap android tablet as a CarPlay display with a dongle like this: https://chytah.com/collections/daily-deals/product..., although I've had one on back-order for over a month

Edited by mikef on Friday 27th October 22:53

[Shiv_P]

DeLorean75 said:

It's hotspotted via my phone.

It's an old vehicle it doesn't have a snazzy interface

Download offline maps onto the tablet on Google.

[TTmonkey]

Use Waze.

[wyson]

I’ve seen cellular ipad mini installs, hooked up to the cars mic and speakers. Loads of ‘cheap’ android based head units and infotainment systems available too.

Personally, I’d get one of the many systems with android auto or apple car play built in to a DIN or Double DIN head unit, install that in my car and connect my phone to enjoy sat nav using google maps etc. Halfords is full of them.

Edited by wyson on Friday 27th October 23:35

[DeLorean75]

mikef said:

A CarPlay or Android Auto screen is just a low-spec android tablet (usually 800 x 480 @2x display dimensions) used as a remote display for your phone (as well as programmed for vehicle information by the manufacturer), with the processing happening on your phone

You can use a cheap android tablet as a CarPlay display with a dongle like this: https://chytah.com/collections/daily-deals/product..., although I've had one on back-order for over a month

Edited by mikef on Friday 27th October 22:53

Slight diff methinks - it's a projection of what the phone is doing. A tablet connected to the phone isn't - it's plotting the google maps route itself dependent on the cell signal hotspotted from the phone so that's different?

[mikef]

Yes, they are different - I was mentioning how low powered tablets are used with CarPlay and Android Auto. Alternative us to buy a tablet capable of running something like Waze with turn-by-turn navigation

[littleredrooster]

I do something similar as a satnav on the bike.

I have an ancient iPhone 5C (no SIM) which runs Waze and is tethered to my main phone. It is bluetoothed to my helmet speakers, so I can have music & directions.

The 5C is in a waterproof holder and if it dies from vibration, water or gets nicked, I'm only about £15 down!

It works absolutely fine, so I see no reason why an old iPad or similar wouldn't work just as well.

[Deesee]

Tom Tom app will work perfect

[untakenname]

I used to use a tablet from over a decade ago (Google Nexus 7) as it fitted in the cars satnav hood but it started to get a bit long in the tooth so bought an Android Auto/Apple Carplay dongle so that all the heavy lifting was done by the phone rather than the tablet, another bonus is that you don't need to faff around with manually starting hotspots for tethering as it piggybacked the data connection from the phone automatically.

I currently now use a 2023 9" Lenovo tablet as it fits over the original 7" OEM satnav pretty much perfectly, was using a dongle for the Android Auto but recently found an app which removes the need so can just connect phone direct to the tablet via a usb-c cable.
https://www.b3itlabs.com/prod.php?id=1





If there is a dedicated decent quality Android Auto headunit available for your car then I'd chose that over a tablet as the user experience is more polished ie switching between radio stations, steering wheel volume controls, backup camera, instant wake from sleep on ignition etc...

[sgrimshaw]

Just been using Google Maps on a spare Android phone in Spain and Portugal for a couple of weeks.

Updating is "instant", I'm using a Giff Gaff SIM in the phone but that shouldn't make a difference ... I did try connecting it to my main phone's hotspot before I went in case my SIM ran out of data (it didn't BTW .... Google Maps seems very frugal on bandwidth needs).

When I say "instant" I mean it ... it's spooky when you hit some traffic and the route immediately turns orange when you could see seconds before there was no delay and the route was green.

Two things I don't like about Google Maps though ...

1. If you miss a turn, it rarely tells you to "turn around" ... it reroutes you from where you are (instantly BTW), even when that means a significant detour.

2. It will mnake every effort to shorten the route if it can .... on a number of occassions it routed me down tiny lanes which had a 95 km/hr limit to shave a corner off the route. Truth be told, no matter how quick your car is ... you can't do 95 km/h down a farm track!

Apart from that it was excellent, so it's worth sticking with and finding a solution IMHO.

[TEKNOPUG]

You really need an app with offline downloaded maps, otherwise if you lose data signal you are stuffed.

[E63eeeeee...]

It might be worth checking the location settings on your tablet. When your phone is running maps it has its GPS on continuously, if you're relying on the tablet's location function it might not be set to do this automatically so might be refreshing your position more slowly or potentially not using GPS at all.

[sgrimshaw]

TEKNOPUG said:

You really need an app with offline downloaded maps, otherwise if you lose data signal you are stuffed.

Don't disagree, but FYI you can download maps on Google Maps.

[sparkyhx]

sgrimshaw said:

TEKNOPUG said:

You really need an app with offline downloaded maps, otherwise if you lose data signal you are stuffed.

Don't disagree, but FYI you can download maps on Google Maps.

yep, this. I always seem to be driving in the 1% of the uk that doesnt have mobile coverage. No idea how they calculate >99% coverage, bearing in mind my experience I'd definately question that. You half expect it on deep valleys, but many of the areas near me are wide open moorland, with no real obstructions.

[Freakuk]

I've used an iPad in a car with off-line maps before and as you say it's very slow to update your position, maybe the chipset in iPads isn't geared up for real time navigation or it's an off-line map thing?

[wyson]

sparkyhx said:

yep, this. I always seem to be driving in the 1% of the uk that doesnt have mobile coverage. No idea how they calculate >99% coverage, bearing in mind my experience I'd definately question that. You half expect it on deep valleys, but many of the areas near me are wide open moorland, with no real obstructions.

That figure is based on population, not land area.

According to the below, more than 80% of the UK population live in urban areas. Could just cover ‘urban’ areas and get a pretty high coverage percentage.

https://www.macrotrends.net/countries/GBR/united-k...

Edited by wyson on Monday 30th October 11:24