Originally Posted by
dbuckho
It used to be a nice upgrade to get a car with built-in GPS (and many folks would reserve GPS as an add-on). Built-in or plug-in car GPS has actually been around for a while - I think Avis started in the early 1990s.
But pre-MapQuest and not having GPS in the car, many companies and hotels would provide you printed directions - I.e. I think I received some from clients via fax in my early career travel days. Not quite turn by turn but major roads, what to look for in terms of turns, general mileage on each road, etc. And then you augmented that by stopping at gas stations if you needed more specifics or got lost.
For vacations there were AAA triptiks.
lol I didn't know what a triptik was. I have a feeling apple carplay has pretty much destroyed annicliary revenues for car rentals to sell GPS units. I have wondered if anyone at rental companies have tried ordering cars and asking manfuactuers to disable CarPlay so that they can sell the GPS or charge an activation fee to use CarPlay.
These days even if the car comes with a GPS I still end up using CarPlay because its so much easier to input your destination on your phone and I think Google Maps is generally better. I wonder if CarPlay/Android Auto will pretty much kill any investments auto companies would make for their onboard GPS system. I still remember I think it was Audi that first released satellite image GPS that I thought was really cool, but these days even a Chevy Spark with CarPlay allows you to display satellite image GPS.
Originally Posted by
highlanderfil
There was still mobile Nav before CarPlay. I used to carry a vent clip with me so that I could mount my phone and forgo paying for rental agencies' navigation systems. Prior to that I used iGo on my Windows Mobile phone. Prior to that - Google Maps and spending more time researching my routes.
Originally Posted by
wahooflyer
Wow, I'm just an "elder millennial" (recently turned 40) and I remember the days of paper maps well. I didn't have a smartphone with turn by turn directions until 2011 or 2012. Never owned a standalone GPS device. I owned a BlackBerry in 2008 that had Google Maps, but it was essentially the same as a printout from the computer - no turn-by-turn.
In the pre-smartphone era, I would either buy a paper map or map book of the city I was traveling to, or use the rental car company's free map to figure out where I was going. I have a decent sense of direction so even now, I try not to rely on GPS to find my way around if it's a city I'm relatively familiar with. Most often I use Waze for the real-time traffic info.
Somewhere in my storage unit I have a 2005 "Thomas Guide" that I used on my many trips to Los Angeles back then. Found some creative back routes through Bel Air to get from the Westside to the Valley, years before Waze made such routes popular
Wow... I cant even imagine using a paper map or even a digital map to do research on what roads to take. Even for walking directions I just hit Directions for Google Maps to guide me. Maybe its a generational thing -- my dad on the other hand doesnt rely on GPS for reasons that I don't know why beyond him thinking his pre planned manual route is better. Just out of curiosity, what did you do if you were lost or confused in navigating city with one ways, no right/left turns etc? When GPS on your smartphone and now Apple CarPlay first came out, did you think it was a big big through in innovations that you were enthustic to embrace or was it more of that's cool, but I will still look at a map manually?
I remember growing up in 2005 in Los Angeles where my family had a similar paper map of LA and all of Western USA. I still have no idea how my dad would pull over when lost on road trips and look at which roads to take