SalisburySam
Well-known member
CAUTION: venting frustration here! Proceed at your own risk!
I agree completely with OP and the name of this thread; I too have not had much luck with using the NAV, and certainly no luck with the voice activation for it.
Yes, I can use GoogleMaps from a computer before leaving home, and send the destination to the car, if I remember to do so and if CARWINGS is working properly at that time. But we have no L3 and few convenient L2 chargers in Central Ohio so any trip is going to be a short one, more of a sortie than a trip.
As a result, my NAV needs are all pretty local and then only for places I've not yet been to, such as a new restaurant, relocated business, boutique shopping (just where is that dog proctologist?), and so on. And I want most of these while I'm enroute combining errands. LEAF NAV just not practical for such use. The unit seems to be designed for the long trips, like ICE-car navs.
Sooooo, I keep my iPhone5 handy for its mapping apps and the LEAF Link application, the latter of which I am bright enough to actually use productively. If I don't wish to fumble around with fat-fingering a small iPhone5 touchscreen, I keep my Garmin Nuvi 750 GPS in the glove compartment and use it. The several-years-old Garmin is up-to-date with lifetime map updates, over 8+ million POI's, has every street in its database I have ever needed, can be setup for multiple stops, is trivially EASY-TO-USE, and just works.
I know I am spoiled with good user interface designs on everything from TiVo to some websites, and a bad UI really, really stands out. The LEAF NAV is, for me, a weak UI with seemingly little design towards minimizing keystrokes (touches), intuitive use, logical defaults, and optional settings.
Results: I use the NAV head for viewing the energy screen and for the backup camera. And for music, I plug in my iPhone5 to the USB port.
OK, my whining is over, I feel better, I think.
I agree completely with OP and the name of this thread; I too have not had much luck with using the NAV, and certainly no luck with the voice activation for it.
Yes, I can use GoogleMaps from a computer before leaving home, and send the destination to the car, if I remember to do so and if CARWINGS is working properly at that time. But we have no L3 and few convenient L2 chargers in Central Ohio so any trip is going to be a short one, more of a sortie than a trip.
As a result, my NAV needs are all pretty local and then only for places I've not yet been to, such as a new restaurant, relocated business, boutique shopping (just where is that dog proctologist?), and so on. And I want most of these while I'm enroute combining errands. LEAF NAV just not practical for such use. The unit seems to be designed for the long trips, like ICE-car navs.
Sooooo, I keep my iPhone5 handy for its mapping apps and the LEAF Link application, the latter of which I am bright enough to actually use productively. If I don't wish to fumble around with fat-fingering a small iPhone5 touchscreen, I keep my Garmin Nuvi 750 GPS in the glove compartment and use it. The several-years-old Garmin is up-to-date with lifetime map updates, over 8+ million POI's, has every street in its database I have ever needed, can be setup for multiple stops, is trivially EASY-TO-USE, and just works.
I know I am spoiled with good user interface designs on everything from TiVo to some websites, and a bad UI really, really stands out. The LEAF NAV is, for me, a weak UI with seemingly little design towards minimizing keystrokes (touches), intuitive use, logical defaults, and optional settings.
Results: I use the NAV head for viewing the energy screen and for the backup camera. And for music, I plug in my iPhone5 to the USB port.
OK, my whining is over, I feel better, I think.