I'm a bit of a tech guy, so let's compare 2 similar products in a fun way...

My 2009 Tahoe's GPS for $2,600ish

and Google Navigation. (FREE)

Constant updates: GM: No. Google: Yes.
Live (FREE) traffic: GM:No. Google: Yes
Voice Commands to search: GM:No. Google: Yes
Traffic View (Live cameras): GM:No. Google: Yes
Satellite view: GM:No. Google: Yes
Street View: GM:No. Google: Yes
Spoken street names: GM:No. Google: Yes

so... yea... a free application for my cellphone spanks the hell out of the piece of $hit in my dash...

and last week, my genius GPS took me on 3 miles of DIRT BACK ROADS...

Can I beat the the people who designed this thing w/a stick yet?

My factory sat nav makes children cry with it's inability to do damn near anything right

 

I feel your pain, but obviously you've never been subjected to a $3,800.00 Mercedes nav system.

 

What cell phone are you running google nav on?

 

I don't have one personally, it runs on Android 2, which will be on the Motorola Droid Nov 6th. It should come to the iphone as well...

 

I wish the factory navigation updates were cheaper, or had some way of wirelessly updating the maps and storing the updates and the factory nav itself and had everything that google maps or bing has to offer. The maps are almost always current. However, my factory navigation with the 2009 maps shows all my streets but a garmin with 2010 maps does not show my street. neither does bing or google maps. But to be fair, the factory nav isnt always the most accurate either.

i have the htc touch pro 2 and the navigation features that these apps provide are cool. But there is one big down fall that cell phone navigators have that the cell phone companies dont want you to realize. they depend on a cellular signal to download a map of where you currently are and where you are going. They do not store any of the maps on the phone except maybe the last location that you were using it at the time. If the wireless network is busy or down, like what i experience in Hurricane IKE or Rita, you are SOL. I had a cellphone that had VZ Navigator and i couldnt connect and make phone calls or use the VZ navigator app. The same happend to some of my family who had AT&T and tried to check email or use the navigation app. We could only send txt and even that took forever to get. At least the satellites will always be in space and as long as you have either a factory or dedicated navigation unit, you will have navigation service. the map is stored on the map dvd or memory on the gps unit and not dependent on anything except the satellites in space.

When we evacuated for rita, i had a vzw cellphone with vz navigator and it didnt work for me. When I heard IKE was coming, i told my wife to evacuate early. she took the Tahoe which has nav about 3 days before it hit. i had my old truck. I couldnt leave work till one day before the storm hit. My cell phone worked a little better this time around but the network was really slow. after that , i bought a garmin so i wouldn't have any problems finding my way in a emergency. Its not like this happens all the time its just something to consider.
Just my 2 cents.

 

you are correct that 99% of cell phone GPS apps do not store the data locally. However the Navigon and Tom Tom applications for the iphone do...

I'm just pointing out how far behind a simple cell phone GMs nav system is...

The updates are free, just find a torrent of the file, download and burn it... my view of GM is that they stole enough of my money, i'm still fighting with them and the BBB to get issues resolved from new 8 months ago!

Check out the Ford / Microsoft Sync... it's jaw dropping amazing.

 

If you have OnStar you can get live traffic updates. Just use the VirtualAdvisor and say "get my traffic" you'll get the local traffic read to you around a 5mi radius. You can log in to the website and change it to 10 or 15 mi I believe and you can predefine up to 3 routes to get traffic for as well.

I don't even have the Nav system but since getting my Tahoe I haven't used my TomTom once, I've been getting all my directions via OnStar. It's not always perfect (might send me a longer route - generally how Mapquest would route you) and doesn't have as advanced routing as my TT, but unless I actually compare the two routes how would I know?