GPS devices at Pilot range from $299 to $449 with two models for $349. They also have the new Monster Rehab, which is Iced Tea, Lemonade, and Energy in a can with a black-top lid. It’s delicious. Another thing I saw there was a new type of Dorito-type chip called Tias, which looked delicious, but I didn’t buy any. I did buy two Monster Rehabs though because they are so delicious. It’s probably better than all energy drinks combined.
These GPS devices are mostly for navigation – for truckers and other travelers. Most of them are dash-mountable, but that’s because they don’t have birthing bays to lay in. The GPS navigators sold at Pilot include Garmin, Cobra, and Rand McNally. Compare these prices to the ones found at Amazon.com: a Garmin nüvi 1450LMT 5-Inch Portable GPS Navigator with Lifetime Map & Traffic Updates is $179, a Cobra NAV One 5000 5-inch Bluetooth Portable GPS Navigator is $425, and a Rand McNally 528881469 7-inch Intelliroute TND 700 Truck GPS is $499.
In most cases it makes more sense to get your energy drinks from Pilot and your GPS devices from Amazon, but if you have a smart phone, check out Waze.
Waze: Free GPS Navigation App for Android
Waze GPS is a free turn-by-turn GPS navigation app with user-generated, real-time traffic updates and social networking elements. It’s the first dynamic traffic platform which combines GPS, open-source software, and a community of drivers.
Waze users share real-time information on quickly changing, dynamic road conditions such as slow traffic, road-blocking accidents, police speed traps, and construction. Waze collects this information, analyzes it, and gives Waze drivers the most optimal routes to their destinations, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Waze is a Not Just an Android App, It’s a Smart App
Commuters normally can drive more than one route to arrive at their destinations, but without information, they don’t really know which route is best at any given moment? With Waze, you just enter your beginning and destination addresses, drive three to four times along different routes, and Waze creates the most time-efficient route for that moment in time – saving you time and money.
How Waze Uses Social Networking
Drivers using Waze can easily join or create groups, allowing members to view each other on the map and communicate with each another while on the road. Use Twitter to tweet your activities to your followers on Waze, and connect to Facebook to see all of your Waze-using Facebook friends around you on the map.
You will need A GPS-enabled Android smartphone and a data plan to receive and deliver real-time road information for your preferred route.
Here’s what one reviewer said, “My commute is rather long, so this app is very helpful. It learns your preferred routes. It tells you about problems, even on roads that aren’t monitored by fixed systems. It lets you report problems you encounter. Map corrections are completed within a day or two of being reported, and you get an email when a problem you reported has been corrected. I run it any time I’m driving, even when I don’t need directions,” while another said, “This is the only app I can’t go a day without. I love being able to see a user’s report on an accident/hazard ahead and now understand why traffic is not moving. Routes are sometimes off a bit, but as more people use this the better they will get.”