Google to replace Nav ?

[dmlgc]

So what do you think is Google Maps going to replace Nav as we know it ?
This looks different than the "send to car" function now available on X6

BMW Search powered by Google Maps

http://www.xbimmers.com/forums/showthread.php?t=171333

[Anteater]

Hmmm. I like to use the time in my X6 to get away from the 'immediacy' of life - it's the only place I get any peace and quiet! Thanks but no thanks - I may use it if it came bundled, but the last thing I'd do is pay $199 a year to get the right to do a Google search in the car!

Cheers, Anteater.

[dmlgc]

Originally Posted by Anteater

Hmmm. I like to use the time in my X6 to get away from the 'immediacy' of life - it's the only place I get any peace and quiet! Thanks but no thanks - I may use it if it came bundled, but the last thing I'd do is pay $199 a year to get the right to do a Google search in the car!

Cheers, Anteater.

Agree , "send to car" is cool but it's free. I would not pay for this either.

[chuck92103]

Car companies will hold on for dear life to make money.

The reality is a car does not need Nav anymore.

For instance, take a Blackberry or iphone, using google maps, send the directions via bluetooth to the car's display. of course you can't do it because of greed.

I believe navteq will be out of business before long. Smart phones will dock to cars and provide the data to the car's computer. Everything from phone, text, and directions.

Navigation is not something a car should offer, but rather a car should use Nav data via a mobile device.

I long for the day when I dock my mobile device in a BMW. The device provides all my music, nav, and phone services. There is too much redundancy between smart phones and cars.

[xDrive50i]

Originally Posted by dmlgc

Agree , "send to car" is cool but it's free. I would not pay for this either.

The "send to car" feature isn't really free, it's part of the BMW Assist feature. Once your initial contract for this service runs out, you have to pay a yearly subscription fee for it otherwise you will loose the "send to car" feature!
They include this feature on these new cars to get you hooked....

[chuck92103]

Originally Posted by xDrive50i

The "send to car" feature isn't really free, it's part of the BMW Assist feature. Once your initial contract for this service runs out, you have to pay a yearly subscription fee for it otherwise you will loose the "send to car" feature!
They include this feature on these new cars to get you hooked....

I have it and really don't use it.

I just use my Blackberry to look up an address. much simpler.

[xDrive50i]

Originally Posted by chuck92103

Car companies will hold on for dear life to make money.

The reality is a car does not need Nav anymore.

For instance, take a Blackberry or iphone, using google maps, send the directions via bluetooth the the cars display. of course you can't do it because of greed.

I believe navteq will be out of business before long. Smart phones will dock to cars and provide the data to the car's computer. Everything from phone, text, and directions.

Navigation is not something a car should offer, but rather a car should use Nav data via a mobile device.

I long for the day when I dock my mobile device in a BMW. The device provides all my music, nav, and phone services. There is too much redundancy between smart phones and cars.

I highly doubt that Navteq will be out of business anytime soon. Take a look at the Terms of Use aka Fine Print on those google maps. Among those terms, you will find the following:

You may not delete or in any manner alter the copyright, trademark, or other proprietary rights notices appearing in map information, including photographic imagery. Geocoding data for map content in Google Maps is provided under license by Navteq North America LLC ("NAVTEQ") and/or Tele Atlas North America, Inc. ("TANA") and/or other third parties, and subject to copyright protection and other intellectual property rights owned by or licensed to NAVTEQ, TANA and/or such other third parties. The use of this material is subject to the terms of a license agreement. You may be held liable for any unauthorized copying or disclosure of this material, and by using Google Maps you agree to make NAVTEQ and TANA third party beneficiaries of this agreement. Except where you have been specifically licensed to do so by Google, you may not use Google Maps with any products, systems, or applications installed or otherwise connected to or in communication with vehicles, capable of vehicle navigation, positioning, dispatch, real time route guidance, fleet management or similar applications.

[Suzie's Dad]

Originally Posted by chuck92103

The reality is a car does not need Nav anymore.

For instance, take a Blackberry or iphone, using google maps, send the directions via bluetooth the the cars display. of course you can't do it because of greed.

I believe navteq will be out of business before long. Smart phones will dock to cars and provide the data to the car's computer. Everything from phone, text, and directions.

Navigation is not something a car should offer, but rather a car should use Nav data via a mobile device.

I long for the day when I dock my mobile device in a BMW. The device provides all my music, nav, and phone services. There is too much redundancy between smart phones and cars.

Good comments all.

Navteq have annoyed me for a long time just because they are such stupid business people. Once you have a customer, it costs almost nothing to resell to them. Navteq could have sold me an upgrade every year if they had priced them at a level I couldn't refuse -- say, $20. But even though I have been a captive customer, they will only sell me a map upgrade at the full list price of $199. Sorry, but a few map updates aren't worth that to me. Consider the numbers: Cost to get new customer: ?? I don't know, but a lot. Cost to tell me an upgrade is available if I have registered as a customer: zero, by email. Cost if they send me a simple upgrade CD or DVD and charge me a buck for postage: maybe a dollar. (Even less if I download it and burn it myself.) Margin: $19. Margin if they try unsuccessfully to sell me the same thing in a fancy box for $199: zero. Morons.

I think Google Maps caught people like Navteq completely by surprise. Good.

Navteq could partially redeem themselves if they took it back to Google by getting people like BMW to offer identical NAV software for the PC so that you could use the same map DVD and software in your computer and in your car. That would have attractions, particularly if you could seamlessly transfer route planning from home to car.

After reading Xdrive50i's post: I didn't realize that Navteq was a supplier of data to Google, so maybe they are only stupid at the retail end of things!

[Kojak]

I have google maps on my PDA. Too bad it can't send a destination to the BMW like it can on my PC

[chuck92103]

There is street view data, satellite view data, and the Navteq street map data on google maps. Navteq only provide a portion of this data.

I bet google got Navteq on their site for next to nothing. Google has the funds to do their own maps if they had to. Or use any one of dozen online map companies.

[xDrive50i]

Originally Posted by Suzie's Dad

Good comments all.

Navteq have annoyed me for a long time just because they are such stupid business people. Once you have a customer, it costs almost nothing to resell to them. Navteq could have sold me an upgrade every year if they had priced them at a level I couldn't refuse -- say, $20. But even though I have been a captive customer, they will only sell me a map upgrade at the full list price of $199. Sorry, but a few map updates aren't worth that to me. Consider the numbers: Cost to get new customer: ?? I don't know, but a lot. Cost to tell me an upgrade is available if I have registered as a customer: zero, by email. Cost if they send me a simple upgrade CD or DVD and charge me a buck for postage: maybe a dollar. (Even less if I download it and burn it myself.) Margin: $19. Margin if they try unsuccessfully to sell me the same thing in a fancy box for $199: zero. Morons.

I think Google Maps caught people like Navteq completely by surprise. Good.

Navteq could partially redeem themselves if they took it back to Google by getting people like BMW to offer identical NAV software for the PC so that you could use the same map DVD and software in your computer and in your car. That would have attractions, particularly if you could seamlessly transfer route planning from home to car.

After reading Xdrive50i's post: I didn't realize that Navteq was a supplier of data to Google, so maybe they are only stupid at the retail end of things!

++++1 for the map update. Looking at the update frequency (especially lately) and the cost of the discs (US$199) and the REAL benefit of changes between each update for an individual (such as myself), it simply does NOT make any sense on spending so much money for so little!
I'd be willing to spend $20 bucks every now and then for an update, even if it meant that I have to download it and burn it myself, but $200... forget it!
And as Suzie's Dad said, I don't need no fancy box!

I live in an area that has seen tremendous growth over the past few years. Navteq is SOOOO far behind with their updates, it's not even funny anymore! For the majority of the time, according to Navteqs map, I am offroading!

[xDrive50i]

Originally Posted by chuck92103

There is street view data, satellite view data, and the Navteq street map data on google maps. Navteq only provide a portion of this data.

I bet google got Navteq on their site for next to nothing. Google has the funds to do their own maps if they had to. Or use any one of dozen online map companies.

True... and one by one they all seem to be getting gobbled up by Navteq... Sad but true.

[dmlgc]

Originally Posted by xDrive50i

The "send to car" feature isn't really free, it's part of the BMW Assist feature. Once your initial contract for this service runs out, you have to pay a yearly subscription fee for it otherwise you will loose the "send to car" feature!
They include this feature on these new cars to get you hooked....

as usual your logic escapes me (and most likely always will), this also means we really don't get free maintenance because when the 4 years are up we have to pay for it.

[dmlgc]

Originally Posted by chuck92103

There is street view data, satellite view data, and the Navteq street map data on google maps. Navteq only provide a portion of this data.

I bet google got Navteq on their site for next to nothing. Google has the funds to do their own maps if they had to. Or use any one of dozen online map companies.

You are correct I contracted at Google for a year on a project, Street view is Google, satellite view is the keyhole Technology which Google bought. Very little comes from Navteq.

[chuck92103]

Originally Posted by dmlgc

as usual your logic escapes me (and most likely always will), this also means we really don't get free maintenance because when the 4 years are up we have to pay for it.

Correct. BMW Assist is not free.

A few years ago BMW included one year of service with the purchase of a car. They increased it to 4 years. Whether the buyer got 1 or 4 years is irrelevant as the vehicle cost went up each time to to pay for the service.

In today's world, a BMW buyer is forced to buy 4 years of service. This is because few were renewing service.

To make matters worse, BMW bundles bluetooth with the assist module. You cannot buy just bluetooth. If you dno't buy the assist module with bluetooth (around $800), the 4 years of service you paid for in the cost of the vehicle is wasted.

[xDrive50i]

Originally Posted by chuck92103

Correct. BMW Assist is not free.

A few years ago BMW included one year of service with the purchase of a car. They increased it to 4 years. Whether the buyer got 1 or 4 years is irrelevant as the vehicle cost went up each time to to pay for the service.

In today's world, a BMW buyer is forced to buy 4 years of service. This is because few were renewing service.

To make matters worse, BMW bundles bluetooth with the assist module. You cannot buy just bluetooth. If you dno't buy the assist module with bluetooth (around $800), the 4 years of service you paid for in the cost of the vehicle is wasted.

That's EXACTLY what I was referring to. So I don't understand what dmlgc meant by:

'as usual your logic escapes me (and most likely always will), this also means we really don't get free maintenance because when the 4 years are up we have to pay for it.'

BMW now includes the 'send to car' feature with the BMW Assist option. Actually they charge you for the BMW Assist option which is automatically tagged on when you specify the Bluetooth option in a new car

As chuck92103 pointed out, you can't get the bluetooth option on it's own!

The BMW Assist feature is anywhere from 1 up to 4 years (depending on what country you live in). Once that period is over, if you want to keep using the 'send to car' feature, you have to subscribe to the BMW Assist service for an additional year or years.

And yes, you do get 'free' service for the first 4 years. After that, unless you purchased the extended warranty, you will have to pay each time they perform any kind of chargeable service on your car. Even the initial 4 years aren't really 'free' since you payed for it when you bought your new car...