iPhone turn by turn?

William Jenks

Does anyone know of an app that one can use on a bike that can give car-GPS-like turn by turn directions using the audio channel of the iPhone?

I know this sounds lazy or very much a first-world-problem question, but here's what I'm thinking:

• "apple maps" or "google maps" let you get audio directions (with recalculation) if you are going from point A to point B, but they don't let you load an externally generated path and give instructions on how to stay on it.  
• I imagine using Garmin Connect, Map My Ride, etc to make a map and then sending it to the phone...the phone could display the map.  that doesn't do anything that the current Garmin bike computers don't do, but it would be pretty slick if you could add to that the override of the iphone audio channel with upcoming directions ("In half a mile, turn right onto 130th street").  You could listen to music or whatever, and then have this come on...just like it works in a car.
• Personally, I would not use the video feed on the phone since I don't want to use my phone as my exposed bike computer..but I might load the same route onto my garmin and onto the phone.

Clearly this is a "want", not a "need", but I'm curious if anyone knows how to do it!

 

Steve West

William, sounds like a long shot.

I believe turn-by-turn directions are not based on a track or line but are the result of a least-cost-path algorithm (network routing). Once the device determines you are no longer on the correct segment, it recalculates the path from your current position to the destination along the least cost path.

Line features in a mapping tool or GIS are nothing more than point features connected by straight lines. Not sure how Google Earth does their 'fly thru' from a kml/kmz file but the fly over is not a turn-by-turn tool, it is a point-to-point-to-point following tool.

But then again, there are some crazy smart peeps out there and maybe a few of them built a tool exactly for the need you have.....

Ten years ago it was normal to just memorize the map and route then pay attention to were you were and what was next .... just sayin' ....

William Jenks

Point well taken...

...and when I was a kid, the only cell phones were on Star Trek. Doesn't mean I don't want them to do more and more. :-)

JeremyBehler

William..it can be done in two ways that I know.

A) with the free Map My Ride app.  

1. Plan your route on Map My Ride
2. Click "send to phone"
3. Click the link and the route comes up in May My Ride App.
4. Click "Do It" in the upper right corner
5. Click "Start" 
6. Ride

with a $0.99 app called MotionX.  

1. Download the MotionX app
2. Make up your route in Map My Ride, etc and save your course as a .gpx file (Actions > Export Map)
3. Go to this website....http://www.gpsvisualizer.com/convert_input?convert_format=gpx
4. Paste your Garmin Maps link and hit convert, and then you download your GPX file. 
5. Just email your GPX file to gpsimport@motionx.com and it will email you back a file that you open with your iphone and it imports to Motion X. 

William Jenks

I knew the MMR was doing routes but not that it was doing the audio bit. Cool!

Steve West

Guess I need to get out of my basement office more often and actually interact with real people...... seems like there is so much stuff out there that I am missing......

... Now back to my new 64 bit PC running XPmode so I can get dBase IV to run... Yep, slow to change....

Al Truscott

I love the second decade of the twenty-first century! There are so many earnest, clever people around who are DESPARATE to make my life easier and more pleasant (those initially more complicated and confusing) in ways I can not even imagine. I assume you can Bluetooth this into an earpiece, so you can actually hear it while riding next to semis (FYI, I do not have a smart phone, making do with only an iPad.)