Garmin Smartphone Link - Ideas for Improvements & New Features

If you read this blog you know my enthusiasm for Garmin's new Smartphone Link app for Android.  If you don't then read here to catch up.  Here is where I'll keep a running list of all the ideas for fixes, improvements and changes to the Nuvi with Smartphone Link.  Here we go:

• Add a proximity alert feature to photoLive traffic cameras. When you drive through the defined point, show a preselected camera video in split screen.
• Provide an indication of bluetooth connection status on the map screen.
• In my use of Smartphone Link I've found the bluetooth connection to be generally good but finicky at the same time. I've been driving for awhile and only when I by chance returned to the main menu screen did I learn that the Nuvi wasn't connected via bluetooth.
• Provide an ice warning when the weather data indicates precipitation and the temperature indicates < 32 degrees.
• Show the current temperature on the map screen while in a route. This is important when traveling in near-freezing conditions.
• Develop a "Meeting Travel Planner" in Smartphone Link.
• Read my phone's calendar.
• Read the address from my calendar appointment's Location field.
• Obtain my phone's current location.
• Calculate the travel time to my next appointment in the Garmin Cloud.
• Take knowledge of current traffic conditions into account.
• Alert me on my smartphone that I need to leave for the appointment, including a user defined amount of extra minutes.
• Pass the destination from the calendar appointment's Location field to my Nuvi.
• Send me on my way.

Subscribe to this blog to be notified as I add more ideas.

GSM or CDMA? Why YMMV with Garmin's Smartphone Link

I'm a couple days into the use of Garmin's Smartphone Link with my Nuvi 3490LMT.  

Today my 2 hour drive included a 1 hour conference call.  The Nuvi bluetooth provided for an easy, safe method of carrying on a conference call for that length of time.  I really don't need to carrier my Motorola T505 bluetooth speakerphone anymore.  One less device in my bag!

Bored, and 15 minutes into the call I realized that I no longer had traffic content.  Duh!  I have a CDMA phone.  And of course we all know from the AT&T iPhone commercials that only AT&T (GSM) allows you to enjoy simultaneous voice and data.  Using Verizon? Sprint? Another regional carrier using CDMA technology? Nope.  Sorry. You can have voice or data, but not both at the same time on the 3G network.

When Garmin fixes the Smartphone Link and GMT-60 issues so that Smartphone Link Live Traffic can be used while plugged into the GMT-60 I hope that Garmin thinks through how the Smartphone App and the GMT-60 should work for CDMA customers.

Without any proof to back up this statement, I am going to go out on a limb and suggest that today's typical customer of a $400 PND and the Smartphone Link app is a tech-savvy road warrior.  And being one of those likely means phone calls while on the road are a regular occurrence.

Based on what we know today, the HD Radio Traffic from the GMT-60 appears to take a back seat to Smartphone Link Live Traffic.  This means that it appears that if Smartphone Link is active and connected to your phone, the Nuvi uses Live Traffic only and not HD Traffic.

Take a phone call on a CDMA network though, and you've got a problem.  While your Smartphone Link app and Nuvi are still bluetooth connected during a voice call, your phone isn't receiving data from your CDMA cellular carrier so your Nuvi isn't receiving any traffic content from your phone.  Take a call on a long stretch of rural Interstate - no problem.  Take a call during the last 15 miles into downtown Chicago and you've got a problem!

If your using Smartphone Link, your Nuvi has this perfectly good GTM-60 HD Radio Traffic receiver sitting around doing nothing but providing power - it should be able to provide traffic content to your Nuvi in the event of a loss of content from the Smartphone Link app.

It is my hope that Garmin improves the detection and switchover of traffic sources between Smartphone Link Live Traffic and GTM-60 HD Radio traffic in an intelligent way.  Clearly the Nuvi knows that the phone is in voice call mode because the Nuvi is capable of handling the call.  I think that Garmin should include logic where the Nuvi automatically switches to the GTM-60 HD Traffic receiver when the phone is in a voice call state.  Garmin could include a menu setting that asks the customer what cellular carrier they are using (or detect it somehow through the Smartphone Link app - is that possible?).  For GSM carriers - no switchover is necessary.  For CDMA carriers the switchover could be implemented.

With both the GTM-60 and Smartphone Link at the Nuvi's disposal, I hope Garmin doesn't settle for a complete loss of traffic content during a CDMA voice call as being an acceptable operating scenario just because one of two available sources isn't available any more.  Switch us to the other source Garmin - please!

A Note About Me

I am self-admitted GPS fanatic.  I have been for years.  I remember my first rental car when the Hertz Neverlost system was first rolled out.  When I learned that this was actually a rebranded Magellan system that consumers could buy I was elated - until I found out the cost.  The technology was reminiscent of cellular bag phones.  There was a huge "black box" that had to be hidden away somewhere with multiple cables running to the head unit.  And then I found Garmin and their StreetPilot III and I've never looked back.  Oh how fun those days were - when full map coverage meant a combination of City Navigator and MetroGuide and you hoped like hell that those two products matched up at their boundaries.  I remember a route from Des Moines to Madison, WI where the GPS told me the electronics equivalent of "you can't get there from here."   We've come a long way since those days!

Here is my GPS experience since then:

Nav experience: Garmin SP III, SP 2710, SP 2730, Garmin i5, Garmin c330, Garmin 760, Garmin 885T, Dash Navigation, TeleNav for Sprint, TomTom 740 Live, CoPilot Live v8, Navigon for Android, Navigon for iPad, ALK CoPilot Premium, Google Navigation, Waze, Garmin Nuvi 3490LMT w/ Garmin Smartphone Link.

I've actually owned and used all of those devices - some for hundreds of miles, some for thousands, many for tens of thousands.  In every case either the technology moved on, or I moved on from the technology (the i5? Wow was that painful!).  Each product's story is different - why I bought it and why it ran out of favor with me.

And now I found myself with the Garmin Nuvi 3490LMT w/ Smartphone Link.  It is, without a doubt, the single best overall navigation experience I've had.  The Nuvi 3490LMT by itself is not.  I let that product stay on store shelves for a long time, until the day that Garmin announced Smartphone Link.  Once it was announced (it's announcement was a surprise to me), I was at Best Buy within 2 hours with a 3490LMT in hand.  A month ago I would have been the first to tell you that there is no role for a $399 PND in a $299 smartphone world.  Smartphone Link proved me wrong.

I have an order placed for the 3590LMT as well.  I look forward to its ship date.  And when it arrives, my wife will enjoy a very nice 3490LMT product while I will take over the 3590LMT as my main GPS device.

Garmin has nailed it with the Smartphone Link app, initial problems aside, and I look forward to many miles of enjoyment.

Navigation Test - 1 Route, 8 Products

There are a a lot of reasons why people choose navigation products.  Today, there are a lot of choices to pick from.  Smartphone navigation has gained popularity in recent years on both Android and iOS platforms.  Dedicated PND's have seen their market share decline but they continue to try to innovate.  Garmin's release of Smartphone Link for Android is perhaps one of the most innovative approachs to the PND that we've seen in the last couple years.  I wrote about it here.

Arguably though, what matters most is accurate maps and timely ETA's.  Who meets that challenge the best?  I decided to try and find out.  I have, at my disposal, a Garmin Nuvi 3490LMT, a TomTom 740 Live, an iPad 3G and a Samsung Galaxy S2 Android smartphone.  Here is who I tested: Google Navigation, Telenav (for Android), Navigon* (for iPad), Mapquest (for Android), Waze (for Android), MotionX Drive, TomTom (TeleAtlas), Garmin (Navteq).  All products used were the current versions of the app, or current version of an available downloadable map. 

* Note: this test was done prior to Navigon's new app with the optional map update subscription, however, the test did include the most recent map version Navigon made available at the time. I could not test ALK CoPilot because they can't get their new software to run on some (my) US variant of the Samsung Galaxy S2.

There is a particularly challenging route in the Midwest that really separates the men from the boys when it comes to routing algorithms and map accuracy.  It is the route from Des Moines, IA to St Louis, MO.  Here is what that route looks like:

I picked this route because it provides so many challenges to overcome when determining the best route.  The highlighted route is, in my opinion, the best route to take.  Why?

• 99% of this route is a 4-lane divided US or State highway at a speed limit of 65 mph, with some limited 55 mph zones near towns. 
• There is only 1 through-town section where your speed has to reduce to slower speeds.  But it is also a good, and necessary, gas stop along the way.
• It is one of the shortest options when total miles are considered.

What makes this route challenging?

• About 60% of this route is known as the Avenue of the Saints. This is a federally designated highway system connecting St Louis, MO to St Paul, MN.
• The Avenue of the Saints starts in St Louis and the route above follows it completely until the route turns directly west halfway between Keokuk, IA and Mt Pleasant, IA.
• Note: The Avenue of the Saints continues directly north from where this route diverts to the west, through Iowa City, IA and eventually up to St. Paul, MN.
• To create this Avenue of the Saints, extensive construction was required over about a decade, to make this route 4 lane.
• As part of this extensive construction, a significant number of highway bypasses were constructed around small towns.  What used to be a 2 lane highway directly through many small towns is now a 4 lane highway bypass around nearly all of those towns.
• This route uses almost no freeways until the last 25 miles in the metro St. Louis area.
• There are many tempting alternatives.
• Des Moines to Kansas City to St Louis - it's all freeway.
• Des Moines to Davenport to Peoria to St Louis - it's all freeway.
• Des Moines to Iowa City then south to join this route - it's more freeway at least.

As you can see, this route is a great test. It tests the company's map accuracy.  It tests their road speed accuracy.  It tests their algorithm.  It test their bias for things like freeways.  And it tests their ETA accuracy.

This route, with an actual speed that averaged no more than 5 mph over the posted speed limit took 5 hours and 35 minutes to drive with 2 refreshment stops that included a gas fill-up along the way.

Obviously, I could not use all 8 of these solutions while driving.  Instead, while parked at my starting location, I calculated a route to the same final address on all 8 products and immediately recorded the resulting ETA.  I did this on all 8 devices within 5 minutes of each other.  I calculated the route at approximately 10:00pm CST in hopes of minimizing any bias from traffic reports.

Here is how they did:

• Google Navigation: 6 hours 37 minutes (off by +1 hour 2 minutes)
• Telenav: 6 hours 28 minutes (off by + 53 minutes)
• Navigon: 7 hours 0 minutes (off by +1 hour 25 minutes)
• Mapquest: 6 hours 16 minutes (off by + 41 minutes)
• Waze: 6 hours 34 minutes (off by +59 minutes)
• MotionXDrive: 7 hours 11 minutes (worst result, off by +1 hour 36 minutes)
• TomTom: 5 hours 53 minutes (off by +18 minutes)
• Garmin: 5 hours 44 minutes (off by +9 minutes)

This is a single route.  This is not a comprehensive test of different routes. It is not a scientific test.  It is simply one real world example that applies to me personally.  For this route, on this day, there are some interesting conclusions:

• The so-called advantage of "online" maps isn't an advantage at all.
• Online maps should be more accurate because the latest maps is always available.
• In practice, for this route, every online map provider fails to live up to that claim and has squandered the leverage they could have.
• Online maps were actually some of the worst performers in the test.
• There is a curious difference between Navigon and Garmin - both Navteq customers.
• There could be differences between Navigon and Garmin's routing algorithm that accounts for the some of the difference in time.  In my experience, they are pretty close generally, on other routes.
• More likely, we are seeing a real life example of what Navteq gets accomplished in sequential map updates. As I stated above, this test was done before Navigon changed to their new quarterly subscription update option. Therefore, the Navteq maps in their app were older than the Navteq maps in the Garmin Nuvi.
• The crowd-sourced map approach doesn't yield best in class results.  Both Google Navigation and Waze are in the middle of the pack when it comes to the route time.
• While Google did select my opinion of the ideal route, their ETA is way too conservative - a common complaint about Google Navigation.
• Crowd-sourced "real world" speeds seem to be having an impact. TomTom IQRoutes, once considered the king of "real world" driving conditions seems to be continuing to hold its own, at least in this limited test.
• Garmin's ETAs were always pretty good.  It appears that with their map data now incorporating trafficTrends functionality, that their ETAs might be getting even better.  They clearly were spot on in this test.

Strike 1 for Garmin Support's Response on Smartphone Link

I've documented, in detail, my problem, testing and conclusions about a potential conflict between Garmin's new Smartphone Link Live Traffic service and the GTM-60 HD Radio Traffic service. You can read about that in detail by clicking here and here.

I also did what any good customer should do and filed a detailed support ticket using the Contact Us support feature on Garmin's website.  They have a specific menu selection for the mobile team, and the Smartphone Link product.  I would assume then, that this would go to someone knowledgable about the Smartphone Link app - someone who could start to assist in solving this problem.

Arrogance is not something I like.  But good lord Garmin, between my email below and this blog, I've spoon fed you 1000% times more than most consumers are going to on this problem.  Solve it.  Don't blow me off with marketing auto replies and call that support.

Here is what I sent Garmin (click to enlarge):

And here is the ridiculous response that I got (click to enlarge):

In response to a detailed technical support question, complete with screen shot example links, I get back basically an auto-reply marketing brochure for the product that I am having a problem with.  Note:  this is NOT the auto-reply that I got immediately after filing the support claim.  This is the "personal support" response that I waited 3 business days for.

I actually did call the 800 support number the night that I started having this problem.  Her response was "Is Smartphone Link a Garmin product?"  "Where did you get it?"  "What does it do?"  Really Garmin?

So between a clueless telephone support response and a I-could-care-less email auto-reply response, it appears that Garmin support is about what it was when I quit using my 885T out of frustration - useless for anyone that happens to know a thing or two about technology and electronics.

Really Garmin?  Is this the best you have to offer your customers who are purchasing your latest and greatest products?  Frustrating beyond belief.