I've mentioned before that being a Leaf driver comes with the privilege of having Carwings, a technological dream! Carwings not only keeps track of your driving history and data, it also helps you with Navigation. I have never owned a navigation system before, so this whole thing is new to me as well. I tried to use it once in the car, but I was just playing around and decided I didn't have enough time to read about how to use it and put in the information I was looking for, so that ended my first try.
Well, today I had to go somewhere I'd never been before, about 27 miles from my house. Last night I decided to get on Carwings and use the Route Planner feature that is part of the Carwings program. I am not going to lie, the experience left some questions still in my mind. The program did it's job and got me to my destination, so I guess it worked the way it is supposed to and that is all that matters.
When I logged on to Carwings last night and began the Route Planner program it popped up with a black screen for the map and a screen at the left side for me to input the starting point and destination. After I typed in the addresses (or intersection, as I will never consciously put my home address in my nav system for security purposes), the map came up with a black screen and a blue line that was representing my planned route. Confusing part #1. Big problem, I can't see where the system wants me to go. I tried to click on the map to zoom in or out, but the map just stayed like it was. I read the directions and for some silly reason, it took me on a southern route to get on Route 1 North. That made no sense to me either. Why would I go a couple extra miles to get on the highway where my mileage would be eaten up by the faster speeds and wind resistance when I can go North on Route 13 and still make it to Route 1 at a different spot? Confusing part #2! Time to start over...
I typed in a different intersection for a starting point and clicked again for the route. Again the map came up black with a blue line representing my route. So, I read the directions given on the side and this time they made more sense. I knew I'd have to override one particular spot because it wanted me to get on Rt. 1 before the $2 toll plaza. I was not going to pay that toll, so I would just proceed to the Free Ramp Connector and make that nav system recalculate. There was no way to modify the route manually, like you can do with google maps, that I could see. Confusing part #3. Maybe I missed something. I don't know. It was late and I was getting tired. I sent my route to the car and logged off. Ready for the next day's trip.
Today when I got in the car, I turned on the map features and logged on to retrieve my planned route. It brought the destination right up on the screen and began the navigation with such a smooth, nice voice to listen to telling me when to turn. I followed her commands and was pleased and surprised that the system had done its own recalculating already and had me skipping past the toll plaza and using the free ramp connector to get on Rt. 1. So, the route I'd sent to it last night was not the same exact one that my car nav system ended up using. Confusing part #4! Not to worry, though, because the sweet voice of Evie guided me all the way to my destination without a hitch. It was truly delightful to know in advance when turns would be expected and which direction I'd need to turn. It made it easy to be in the correct lane at the right time.
Despite the four confusing spots in the whole experience, I would rate the use of the route planner a success. Because I knew in advance where I needed to go and could prepare it, it was nice not to have to sit in the car and type it all into the nav system before I headed out of my driveway. I'll definitely be using this feature a lot!
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