Am I Nuts? Or Does Anybody Else Do This?

gduncan

Registered
I use my iPhone to get around. GPS is wonderful and anytime I'm on the road my iPhone is on the dashboard guiding me along. I quickly dispensed with my Garmin Nuvi as I found the iPhone to be superior for navigation.

I originally used the Apple Maps app exclusively. I had no compelling reason to use anything else. Then the Waze app came along.

The things I like most about the Waze app are its abilities to crowd source information such as traffic accidents, traffic backups, police activity etc. along my route. Using this crowd sourced information allows me to plan a route around the problem or, often times Waze will do it automatically. Awesome!

Then, I got an Apple Watch. I started using Apple Maps again because of its ability to send directions to my Apple Watch while I'm driving. I preferred this to getting voice prompts because I also like to use my iPhone to listen to music, podcasts and radio while driving and the voice prompts would interrupt my listening. Annoying.

But Apple Maps doesn't use crowd sourced information like Waze does. What to do? Then I thought "why not use both at the same time?"

So now, I plan my route in Apple Maps, send the route to Waze and start the navigation. Then I return to Apple Maps and also start the navigation. Then I'll have Waze on screen while I'm driving up on the windshield mount so I can keep watch for traffic and hazard alerts. Then Apple Maps is running concurrently in the back ground sending me turn alerts to my Apple Watch.

All the while I'll have my music or other audio from my iPhone playing through my car radio without the annoying alerts interrupting my listening.

I've found this to be a great solution. Anybody else doing this?



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All the while I'll have my music or other audio from my iPhone playing through my car radio without the annoying alerts interrupting my listening.

It sounds like you have a problem solved, but I have a question. If you are listening to the iPhone music without the ‘annoying alerts interrupting', how do you know there are alerts on your route while you are driving defensively and keeping the eyes on the road?
 
That's the point of the post. Apple Maps sends alerts to my Apple Watch (a little ding accompanied with a vibration). I glance at the watch and quickly read the notification.

For example (a screenshot from my Apple Watch):
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The Waze alerts appear on my iPhone screen. The iPhone is mounted on the windshield while I'm driving so I just need to glance over at the iPhone to see alerts. They appear rather prominently over the map so they're easy to see.

So I'll have Waze running in the foreground displaying my route on the map while Apple Maps is in the background sending me turn alerts to my Apple Watch.

Now if Waze could send alerts to Apple Watch (which it currently does not do) I could eliminate Apple Maps altogether. Hopefully Waze will issue an update that will resolve this. That would be nice.


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I thought I would use the watch to navigate in the car, but I've found my TomTom Go 500 to be more convenient in the car. The watch is great for pedestrian navigation, though, once the car is parked – if you're in a new city or something.
 
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