So, day 3 of adjusting to life after Evil Maps. Tried OsmAnd, and kind of liked it. Sort of a cyberpunk UI feel, super customizable, but no real time traffic, so utility is limited, but it works with Android Auto. MapQuest seemed like a viable Evil Maps replacement. Has traffic, but it doesn't seem to work with AA, so that's a deal killer. Just started using Waze, and it seems perfect so far. Like the UI better than Evil Maps, works with AA, and does traffic really well. There must be a catch...
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I found Wazw to be quite invasive, and it seemed to insist on a departure time
They sell your data — including time, location, starting point, and destination — to the highest bidder, unlike Evil Maps who keep it in house and use it to hawk advertising dollars.
I say go with a local maps only app, which works without a cloud backend, and listen to the radio for traffic. You could even just buy a map.
You know, like we used to before we got soft and turned into sheep to be fleeced.
Traffic is actually a useful thing that a map system provides. Why is it that we can't have useful things without getting fucked over?
Edit: BTW, deleting Waze. Knew it was too good to be true.
Because they cost money to provide and no one wanted to pay subscriptions?
There actually is another answer and, hahaha, this is what I did: Buy a late model Garman GPS.
With one you get a subscription to a broadcast traffic data service. (AM?) Only works in the big cities, but the GPS can route you around backups or just warn you if there isn't a good alternate route. Plus you get live estimates of how long it will take.
No tracking. No ads. One-time payment.
@mastodonmigration Waze is owned by Google. A lot of the stuff that has cluttered Google Maps in the last few years were Waze features that got ported after they bought them. I hate all the "police ahead" warnings and so on, asking me to look away from the road and click the screen.
I need to try OsmAnd with Android Auto. Sure, it won't be as integrated as Google Maps, but the voice nav commands and so forth totally suck these days anyway.
Knew there had to be a catch. 🤦♂️
Grrrrrr... Are there any options not owned by Evil that work with Android Auto and have real time traffic?
@mastodonmigration I'd like to know also...I haven't been able to spend much time searching.
I'm extremely dependent on in-car navigation apps; I don't really have the luxury of being able to boycott google in this specific case, and even with its current suckification it's still better than everything else I've tried.
Yup. Just read reviews of TomTom and that looks like a minefield. Will keep searching.
Just loaded CoPilot Navigator and it is a nightmare.
Just loaded Sygic GPS and it seems pretty good. Looks like some features require upgrade to a premium service, but going to give this one a try tomorrow. Literature says it has traffic and AA support, so we will see.
@mastodonmigration @W6KME
I just got into Vela Maps yesterday https://pimpinpumpkin.github.io/Vela/
Looks like a kind of a privacy focused fork of google Maps, with real time traffic too.
