TweetOne of your favourite apps for Nokia Lumia is Nokia Drive, which brings you the best turn-by-turn voice guided navigation experience and allows you to reach any destination safely and easily, even without a data connection.
Download Nokia Drive now 
We have also recently mentioned why we are going to offer Nokia Drive to all Windows Phone 8 partners and why Nokia is basically the world’s largest mapping company that continues to build momentum by rapidly and constantly improving its location-based applications.
Today we are excited to introduce an update to Nokia Drive, validating that if you have a Nokia Lumia you don’t have to wait for Windows Phone 8 to enjoy the following new features.
Make your commute smoother
As thoroughly explained in the video above, Nokia Drive with My Commute learns your driving preferences and uses information about the latest traffic conditions to help you choose between the different routes you usually take to get to the places you travel most. It even remembers when you usually leave, providing traffic updates along your route so you’ll know in advance whether there are delays or if you have time to stop by that new café on your way home.
This revolutionary feature is so new that we are going to roll it out selectively based on the available traffic data. We are then going to collect experiences that we can learn from and that will help us improve the service. The first country where My Commute is going to be available is the United States.
Automatic day/night mode for optimum visibility
Unless you are driving in Lapland in summer, when the sun never sets, you have to probably adjust your settings to day or night mode depending on the light conditions. This does not apply to Nokia Drive anymore: the app will automatically adjust your Nokia Lumia display for better viewing during day or night driving conditions, reducing potential distractions.
Pin to start: find your way with a tap
Last but not least, you can now pin to start your favourite destinations for one-tap access to directions there. This was one of the most requested features of Nokia Drive and we are happy to have implemented it in this update. We think this is one of the best examples how to use the Windows Phone tiles: one tap on the start screen and you are all set to drive to your destination. It doesn’t get easier than that – no continuous search and browsing through different options and menus. What destination are you going to pin to start?
Nokia Drive runs on the Nokia Lumia 610, Nokia Lumia 710, Nokia Lumia 800 and the Nokia Lumia 900. The Windows Phone Marketplace will soon notify you of the available update or download it today, for free, following the instructions above.
Update. Many readers want to know which car mount we used in the video: it’s the Nokia CR-123 you can buy in any shop that sells Nokia products or even online. The Nokia customer care in your country can help you find it for you.
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Maps and the importance of offline 07/06/126,673 | 151 Comments http://conversations.nokia.com Ian Delaney Looks very nice. We’ll get one of US editors to give it (literal) test drive next week!
http://twitter.com/htarhini Hassan Tarhinireally very important update, still we are waiting for more traffic coverage and the integration with Nokia maps as in N9. thanks and well done !
http://twitter.com/haikus PinoHi @twitter-29009892:disqus, thanks for appreciating this update.
More traffic coverage as well as more connection with other apps like Nokia Maps are coming in future releases.
I am a Nokia Drive Addict. Love it!! Hope in the future pictures of hotels will show up and with a press of the picture a phone call is made to the hotel. Thanks Nokia.
http://twitter.com/haikus PinoHi @yahoo-H7XZGHA4CN5PQYAMAHRAH7WZWM:disqus, interesting idea, we might look into it… However, I would argue that hotel (or other businesses) pictures might distract the driver a bit too much.
nozecaGreat news, but i’m waiting for nokia walk with voice guidance yet..
BrandonI really wish Noka would push this app to other WP7 phones. There’s no need to wait for wp8, this doesn’t use any wp8 features. 
? This is for WP7 of course…
Brandonexactly. which any phone today could run. so stop w/ the lumia exclusives now, instead of waiting until wp8 comes around. i’d really like to have this on my HTC Trophy – Verizon has no Nokia devices.
http://www.facebook.com/mark.moreira Mark MoreiraI dont see any HTC or Samsung apps available in the Marketplace. Im glad that Nokia is making their apps exclusive their devices. Nokia appreciates its customers by providing them with seriously well done apps. Nothing wrong with that.
dalydoseIt’s Nokia software that they developed. HTC doesn’t make their apps available to me. I had a Titan and there are a couple of HTC apps that I’d like to have.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=703052277 Jens VeraaAny sign of lane assist? Or is it already integrated?
http://twitter.com/haikus PinoHi @facebook-703052277:disqus, you are probably familiar with lane assistance in Nokia Drive for Symbian. Unfortunately this feature has not been ported yet, but will be included in future updates.
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=703052277 Jens VeraaHello ! No I’v had it on my Nokia N9. I noticed it right before I sold that thingy and got myself a beautiful Lumia900.
Another nice feature I noticed on a friends phone with TomTom, drive to -> calendar item / facebook even. And you select the event and gets the address data. I was amazed how well thought that was and would Love to have it myself.
http://twitter.com/haikus PinoSuggestion taken on board @facebook-703052277:disqus 
Will this work on 7740 or do you need the update first (like Camera Extras)
http://twitter.com/haikus PinoHi @twitter-313752622:disqus, I haven’t tested it on older fw, but it should work on 7740 too, yes.
http://html5css3jscript.com/ ?????? ????????? ?? ????? ?? ???? ????????????:(
http://twitter.com/gregstar5 Gregstar5Wait isnt Nokia a European company ?why the f would they release it first in the USA ? Typical Nokia of releasing half baked products . Poor Nokia
http://twitter.com/haikus PinoHi @twitter-435719103:disqus, it’s not about Europe vs US or where the company is based. As I explained in my blog post, we are collecting now the first experiences and we felt that US was the right country to start with.
http://www.gadgeterija.net/ Boris RadosevicSweeet.
http://twitter.com/nok4us IzziI’m going to Pin “my home” route to the start screen, So now I wouldn’t be like dorothy anymore, I will always find my way home
http://twitter.com/EShy EShyyou could just get a dog and use it for directions, they always find their way home…
http://twitter.com/haikus PinoLove the Wizard of Oz reference
In Izzi’s example, Toto couldn’t help Dorothy get home! 
I hope there is now a way to identify and set a destination from the map directly. Sometimes you do not always know the name/address of a destination, but instead want to identify it from the map itself. This feature was available in the Symbian version of Maps, in Nokia Maps, but strangely not Nokia Drive afaik!
and sometimes I just want to move the end location a bit because I prefer to get to a place from a different direction. being able to drag the location around or just tap on the map and say ‘drive here’ would be good and should be easy to implement
http://twitter.com/haikus PinoHi guys, I totally understand your point, but the feature you are just describing has not been ported to Nokia Lumia just yet.
Now, if you know how to get to that place, you know you can just start driving and then Nokia Drive shows where you are on the map.
But if you need turn-by-turn navigation and you don’t know the address of the destination… I’m afraid you have to be a bit creative at the moment.
Btw, if you find some kind of workaround like entering the name of the street without the house number or entering the postcode, just let me know.
my question is, what dashboard phone mount is that and where can I get it?
http://twitter.com/dalydose Jeff DalyI’ve been looking for a phone mount, as well.
http://twitter.com/haikus PinoHi guys, the car holder we are using is the Nokia CR-123: http://www.nokia.com/global/products/accessory/cr-123/
http://twitter.com/dalydose Jeff DalyCool, but I don’t see any information about where to get one.
http://twitter.com/haikus PinoSorry @twitter-12834332:disqus I was obviously giving a general information and I assumed you would either visit the Nokia website in your country or a Nokia store, etc.
I see on Twitter that you live in LA, so I guess you can order it online at e.g. http://www.expansys-usa.com/nokia-universal-holder-cr-123-225338/
I’m kind of lazy!
Thanks!
http://twitter.com/wizll wizllcool, going to check it out. It’s about time I look into replacing the pos that I got on ebay. thanks Pino
http://twitter.com/dalydose Jeff DalyWill it only reroute me to MY routes or will it route me to the BEST route for a situation? What if I’m driving in a new area where I don’t have “favorite” routes?
http://twitter.com/EShy EShyThis feature learns your favorite routes to common places (office, home, grocery store) but I’m sure the traffic integration works for new routes as well
http://twitter.com/haikus PinoIndeed, My Commute is not only about suggesting you the fastest route is also about learning your driving habits. The more you are going to use it, the better it will get. In particular, My Commute doesn’t give you turn-by-turn directions. Nokia Drive assumes that you know your commute better than anyone else And that’s the point. Nokia Drive learns from you and combines this learning with traffic updates.
Thanks Pino. I’m in obsessive Marketplace clicking mode right now! I’m still a bit confused about My Commute and Nokia Drive. My Commute is a feature within Nokia Drive, right?
I was just wondering because I live in Los Angeles and use Laurel Canyon 3-4 times a week in a route that I do know very well. Sometimes Laurel Canyon can come to a complete halt. There are side roads, but it’s in the hills and I never go there because I don’t know those routes. This is a scenario where I’d love MyCommute to give me an alternate route AND give me turn-by-turn directions.
http://twitter.com/haikus PinoLOL I know what you mean with “obsessive Marketplace clicking mode” Just let the Marketplace app inform you about the available update. As long as you have the previous version of Nokia Drive installed, that shouldn’t be a problem.
Now to the clarifications. Yes, My Commute is the name of this particular feature of Nokia Drive. When you use it for the first time you have to go through a quick start where you define where your home is, where you office is and the times when you usually commute. Then you pin to start the My Commute live tile and you are good to go.
Now, to be completely honest with you I haven’t tested My Commute plus turn-by-turn navigation. I can test it for you on Monday but I can already tell you that in My Commute you see a blue line which shows you the route to follow even if it doesn’t provide you with voice instructions.
I couldn’t help myself and my Obsessive Market Clicking got me the new Drive. Now I wanna drive somewhere!
In future development, I’d love to see some integration with WinPhone calendar. I have a strange schedule that doesn’t really have one “commute”. This is true for actors, sales people, etc. It would be AMAZING if I put an appointment in the Calendar with an address and the Live Tile updated with info about the next trip I had to make!
I know my request won’t be a top request, but it might speak to people who don’t have a normal “commute”.
Rory BarrWill any of the evolutionary improvements to Nokia Drive in the Windows phones make it to the Symbian version? (e.g. learning the commute)
http://twitter.com/haikus PinoHi @google-5709fc6d2e2cc906b648ecf26356b225:disqus, this update is exclusive to Nokia Lumia. Nokia Maps Suite on Nokia Belle has traffic rerouting options even if it doesn’t have My Commute.
http://www.facebook.com/cristovao.morgado Cristóvão MorgadoHow about defining if you want to avoid toll roads?
http://twitter.com/haikus PinoHi @facebook-763530815:disqus, this is not one of the feature of today’s update to Nokia Drive, but we are working on implementing it in future releases.
http://www.facebook.com/mark.moreira Mark MoreiraThanks Pino! I was hoping for the same thing, hopefully its not too much longer
Hi Pino, when can we expect Text to Speech (or Street Announce)
Also, current version won’t show a route summary (text version of all turns)
http://twitter.com/haikus PinoThis is one of the most requested features, I know
I can’t give you a specific time, but it’s definitively coming.
Thank you! This is one of the features I would like to have most. My N8 and IIRC, my N9 had this as well. It will be great when the flagship 900 gets it! On a side note, because I can’t remember, does Drive “recalculate” your route if you’ve gone a different way from what it’s displaying?
http://twitter.com/haikus PinoYes, it does! And even completely offline…
http://profiles.google.com/rsadykoff Rustam SydykovHello,
No “commute” feature for the UK!? Shame..! I have been also waiting for data counters application that is supposed to be available in July… well, it will be end of July soon… I just wonder: Nokia has sold most of its Lumia phones in Europe but it feels that US is more important for Nokia than bigger market. Shame again! )
Cheers,
Rustam.
Eheheh @google-5d08e4b2d86dd75fea0eb23d04a133e5:disqus of course is not about importance or preferences We love you all and our target is to roll out My Commute to as many countries as possible.
But we have to learn from this feature too and we decided to start with the US traffic patterns.
Is there any benefit to the system in having Drive active even when we aren’t using directions or Commute features? I guess I’m wondering if we would be contributing to crowd sourced traffic data like the Waze app on other platforms.
http://twitter.com/wizll wizllyeah if nokia wants to be all about location, then bringing waze features to nokia drive would be great.
http://twitter.com/haikus PinoHi guys, indeed our traffic alerts come from different sources: local authorities and from the Nokia Drive users, of course anonymously.
Collin5Thank you Nokia! For the great Nokia Drive App that is free, is regularly updated, and is getting better and better!
Pino, you stated that text to speech was one of the most requested
features. Do you have a formal system in place for making such requests?
Here a few ideas/suggestions I would love to see:
1) More formal destination address entry with predictive typing
I would appreciate separate fields for country, city/zip-code, street name and street
address. ND should assume the user intends to drive to a location in the
current city. If the user specifies a different city, ND should
continuously update a list of most likely matches (based on distance and
name). When typing a street name, ND should do the same, suggesting
only street names that it knows exist in the specified city. When
specifying the house number for a street, ND should display the range it knows about (e.g. 1 – 55b) and allow only those entries.
Deactivating letters/numbers on the keyboard that wouldn’t spell a known location would help avoid misspelling (particularly useful in foreign countries) and typos.
This feature would make destination address entry much faster and less error prone.
What is the rational for displaying known house numbers you ask? On one occasion I was looking for a place I didn’t know was newly built
(Nr. 60), so ND reported that no such address could be found. Had I
known ND had information on a neighboring house (Nr 55), I would have
used that which would have been just as good.
This is not my idea, but a feature I very much appreciated in iGO, which the company markets under the term “smart keyboard”.
2) Destination Manager
Allow users to keep multiple lists of arbitrarily sortable destinations. This would be used to store favorite destinations, but it would also help with the planning of road trips and/or
holidays, by allowing users to keep track of the many destinations they plan to visit.
3) Lane assistance
Particularly on freeways having ND display which lane I should be in would help a lot!
4) Optionally overlay map with POI’s
At any time, it should be easy to get ND to display specific POI’s,
particularly gas stations, parking, train stations, tourist attractions, restaurants, etc and route me to the nearest one by the touch of a button.
5) Arbitrary destination selection on map
Let users specify a destination point anywhere on the map with their fingertip.
6) Restrict the types of roads ND may use for rooting
Exclude freeways/motorways
Exclude ferries
Exclude unpaved roads
Exclude toll-roads
These features would have helped me many times, particularly the first
two. I live close to a ferry crossing which is extremely expensive to
use, but ND often recommends I take that route.
7) Zoom out on freeways
When traveling long distances on freeways, it would be preferable if ND
switched into a 2D map view with north pointing up and zoomed out, as to
display the entire remaining route (or at least the route up to the
freeway exit). ND should zoom back into 3D mode when getting close to
the freeway exit.
This is also something I appreciated in iGO.
Remember current location (add to the destination manager?)
At any point, I should be able to tell ND to remember the current location. One application would be to get ND to remember where I parked my car (airport parking). I am sure further applications exist. It would be great if this could be automated, so ND automatically remembers the location where I exited my vehicle with my Lumia in hand (something for the future).
9) Manage search / history
I don’t really see the point in storing search history. Not that I am against it, but I would appreciate being able to turn search history off so I no longer need to delete it.
On the other hand, destination history is very important. I would like to be able to delete individual entries instead of just all or none.
10) Time synchronization
Let my set my devices time by synchronizing it to the time provided by the highly accurate GPS receiver.
11) Account for my method of transportation
The routing algorithm should consider my method of transportation and route accordingly, particularly for the following three:
- on foot (route through restricted pedestrian districts etc)
- bicycle
- vehicle
12) Route to contact
Let me choose a person from my contact list who is then contacted by ND, requesting them to give it access to their location information. ND should route me directly to that position.
iOS and Android would certainly need a companion app to let them do this on ND’s behalf, which may be considered an advertisement opportunity.
a) 3D Terrain
This is also something I appreciated in iGO (although it certainly isn’t essential). Consider lighting the scene with the actual position of the sun and
using relatively dense elevation data – at least denser than whatever iGO used).
b) Sleep warning
Use the front facing camera and facial recognition to wake up the driver when he drifts off to sleep. Immediately suggest routing to the next hotel or motorway station.
Should you be looking for more software engineers to work on this stuff let me know… would love to implement some of this stuff
Cheers
Collin
http://twitter.com/haikus PinoHi @Collin5:disqus, such a great feedback, thank you! And I also see how much you are participating to the discussions here. Very appreciated.
Some apps have a beta program on Nokia Beta Labs where you can contribute with all the suggestions you like.
Nokia Drive is not among those so please feel free to post them here as you have just done. I’m going to pass them over to the development team. I know that some are already being considered, others are completely new, so keep the good stuff coming
Btw, @Collin5:disqus, I have spent some time today with the Nokia Drive team to go over all the suggestions (from you and others). I can confirm that some features you have requested are already in the works and also with some high priority. Soon I will be able to tell you more details, so please be patient.
To your point #8: you can actually already do it with the latest version of Nokia Drive, because you have always a “save location” option in the menu.
To your point #9: you have made me discover that in “last destinations” you can actually long press those you want to delete or pin to start or add to favorites
To your point #10: Nokia Drive will be always only about cars (or vehicles with a motor), so other means of transportation will be either covered by Nokia Maps (walk), Nokia Transport (public transport) or specific apps. It depends on what makes most sense for our users.
Kaushal Mehtalooks pretty helpful…BTW, where can I find that phone stand that was used in the video? looked very firm and strong, my GPS stand always falls off when driving…
Ed_LuvaIf Nokia’s aim is to get more customers on the Windows Phone ecosystem, then consider offering a dual boot set up for the Nokia N9 into WP 7.5 or an application compatibility layer so Harmattan/Meego devices can run WP apps. It would support retention and smooth conversion of top-end customers and build numbers of ‘WP Nokias’ that you could report. The N9 is close enough to the Lumia 800 that it shouldn’t be too difficult.
Collin5The Lumia 800 and N9 are similar in appearance only. Internally they are completely different beasts, which renders this idea technically, legally and economically rather infeasible.
Ed_LuvaColin, it can certainly be done technically, given the low-spec requirements of WP7.5 and the capable specs of the N9. Legally speaking, the property owners have something to gain, so there would be no legal barrier to using IP resources they already own. Economically, at 2% – 4% marketshare, WP needs any defectors it can get its hot little hands on. Retention of existing Nokia customers is certainly more cost effective than trying to pull in Apple and Android customers from clearly superior devices.
Collin5The MSM8255 1.4GHz (used in the Lumia 800) and the OMAP 3630 1GHz (used in the N9) are rather similar. The Droid X uses the same SoC as the N9 and in benchmarks the Droid X and Lumia devices are very comparable. Neither device has a clear hardware advantage. Any attempt to provide an emulation layer that introduces significant computational overhead is thus doomed to fail, at least if the user experience is expected to be halfway decent.
However, technical issues are rather unimportant compared to the economical aspects.
No matter what your preferred technical approach is, it represents a gargantuan task even Microsoft would spend many months completing… months and months of effort spent on things only a very few users actually benefit from, and distracting those engineers from more important efforts. Microsoft and Nokia need to focus on things that sell/appeal to 100's of millions, not just two or three! Is such an effort worthwhile, when all it buys N9 owners is nine months of WP7 app compatibility, after which most will upgrade to WP8 or a competitors OS anyway? I think not.
The legal issues I was thinking of involved the agreements signed by Nokia and Microsoft. This is certainly the least important aspect, as legal agreements can always be changed. However, I highly doubt Microsoft would be interested in doing so at this stage in WP7's life-cycle.
zamilowhy can’t nokia drive combine with nokia maps like symbian did? can already solve a few problems.
1. no offline maps in nokia maps
2. no tab on map and drive/save as fav in nokia drive
3. no fav sync in nokia drive
don’t understand why they are separate in the first place.
as others suggested we definitely need lane advisory from symbian version.
can you consider to merge with city lense as well? AR turn by turn driving will be interesting.
nevertheless to say, nokia drive is still the best turn by turn navi in market.
http://twitter.com/haikus PinoHi @zamilo:disqus, we have to distinguish here between integration and connection of apps.
In fact we have moved away from the monolithic approach we once had on Symbian, to improve both user experience and development speed.
We do not want our users to go through millions of options and menus just to drive home. That should be as easy as tapping on a tile of your start screen.
We also want to be faster in introducing new features and by keeping apps separate this is easier.
On the other side, you are right. Even if the apps are separate, they should talk to each other more than they currently do. So, yes, expect next versions of e.g. Nokia Maps and Nokia Drive to address some of your requests
got the new version a few hours ago, can’t wait to try it out next week. Aside from patiently waiting for nokia drive to actually tell me the actual street/highway names to get on, i would like to now see real time accidents and incidents pop up on the screen so it lets me know to re-route (i’d imagine in wp8, the app can ask me if i want to reroute, and i have the option to tell it yes or no). This can be done the traditional way via traffic alert data or more social like Waze.
http://twitter.com/haikus PinoHi @twitter-12939182:disqus indeed a TTS (text to speech) feature is in the works.
The rest you are asking for is exactly part of My Commute: you are presented with some options based on traffic conditions and incidents and *you* decide whether to follow those suggestions or not, without interaction with the app to reduce distractions.
Just downloaded this in the SF Bay Area – funny, the video looks A LOT like SF and 101! Ha ha, nice to have have Nokia nearby in Silicon Valley? Can you guys use a Brand Manager? 
A lot? That’s exactly the SF-Sunnyvale commute very common among many of my colleagues
What car dock was used in the video about My Commute?
Collin5That question was already asked by Jeff Daly and answered by Pino. See below.
http://www.facebook.com/people/?????????-????????/781139904 ????????? ????????There are no trafic data for all, except USA? O, thats really great update
Look at it this way… they are our beta-testers
Its look like we are beta testers, and the app will be ready for use in october, when wp8 will be finished
http://twitter.com/haikus PinoI love the “beta testers” pun
But guys, we are not keeping this feature exclusive to US users, we really need to nail it down first because it’s totally new. The traffic patterns in the US are ideal for the first experiences that we will use to extend the feature to other countries soon.
And you don’t even need to download a new version of Nokia Drive for it, when the time has come, you will automatically get My Commute too.
I hope, that will be soon.
http://twitter.com/VicVanceIND ?Su*$hant ??Thank you for the update Nokia,now I am waiting for the time when it comes to India.
And thank you for the great post Pino,you are cool!
http://www.facebook.com/people/?????????-????????/781139904 ????????? ????????If its not a secret, what are u waiting for ? Auto switching to Night/Day ?))) There are no anything important in this update for all non us citizens.
http://www.facebook.com/people/?????????-????????/781139904 ????????? ????????If its not a secret, what are u waiting for ? Auto switching to Night/Day ?))) There are no anything important in this update for all non us citizens.
http://twitter.com/VicVanceIND ?Su*$hant ??I am waiting for the same update to come to India.
Tom Just copy symbian drive 3.07:
- route planning!!!
- route saving
- multiple points planning
- avoid toll road, etc.
Why you add only less important features, and don’t make it a real navigation app?
http://twitter.com/haikus PinoHi @XP17:disqus,
we’ve been working on Nokia Drive for Symbian for years and we are in the process of porting many features over to Nokia Lumia. But it’s a tough process: although we are releasing new versions of Nokia Drive very often, we still have to prioritize. Of course different people want different features first and I’m sorry that your favorite ones are still not in, but we are working on it.
Ok. I’m waiting.
keep up the good work Nokia! I love my lumia!
http://pulse.yahoo.com/_H7XZGHA4CN5PQYAMAHRAH7WZWM Don FarmerI just ordered that Nokia car smartphone holder at Expansysusa, that looks a lot better than my cheap one. The Nokia leather case for the 900 that folds into a stand also, along with the new portable charger that’s like a wand. Still waiting for any 808 assessories, but looks like Expansys will be getting them. I’d like to pick up a 311 too.
bch238Pinned destinations don’t work. I’ve uninstalled app and reinstalled. I get a “finding new route” message, but nothing happens. App and GPS work done when searching address or selecting from favorites within app, but pinned destinations always fail. Bug?
http://twitter.com/haikus PinoThat’s odd @bch238:disqus. I can’t replicate this behavior, perhaps you would let me know which Nokia Lumia you are using, which destination you are pinning to start (if not sensitive) and all the info you might find relevant.
MoonrascalI would like to rant a little bit here also. So it took what? 10 months to bring a feature called my commute that is useless for more than 50% of the Nokia users? This is clearly a product targeted for US mostly, where Nokia really needs to gain market share. Not everybody drives to work using their gps. I use it for traveling and it doesn’t help me at all. What if I want to view the scenery around the highway? Not possible, Drive can’t remove them from routes. I would say a feature like this is much more important than my commute. One other thing, which I hope I will get an answer to. Why are the maps so outdated compared to Maps? I would reckon they would be the same but they’re not. According to Drive, I live in a field even though the road itself was built more than 2 years ago.
Collin51)
The commute feature is not targeted solely at U.S. customers. It is simply the first country the feature is being field-tested in. This feature will undergo a LOT of tweaking over time, but that tweaking needs to be based on real data. I can easily imagine that American cities are very well suited to collecting the type of data Nokia needs to improve this feature (simpler routing than in many European cities, on average many more variations on how to get from A to B, etc.). That is why they are getting it first.
2)
The commute feature is a very complicated feature based on crowed sourced data which involves a lot of back end server infrastructure. For such a feature 10 months is very reasonable.
3)
Nokia (and many others) see a LOT of potential in leveraging crowd sourced data. However, it requires A LOT of live, crowd sourced data for the potential applications using it to be useful. The commute feature makes, for the first time, a navigation system useful even to those people that know their route. This is good for customers, but also good for Nokia, because it is expected to drastically increase the number of users driving around with their navigation systems turned on, continuously supplying Nokia with live navigation data. That is why this feature is, strategically, of higher importance than what you and I have requested.
However, I agree that other features should be coming out at the same time as well. I would recommend multiple teams working in parallel on various features.
4)
I would also like some more information on how locally stored maps get updated over time. How do I know when updated maps are available? Is my local map data automatically updated?
I know the potential of this feature and what it could bring. Just think of getting restaurant recommendations based on your commute, places you didn’t even know they were there. I am just sad that from a major release I only got the favorites option. Nokia thinks too much ahead in the future and kinda ignores the present. Drive is an excellent USP, one of the reasons i kept buying Nokias and I’d like to see it updated on a more regular basis. And not to lose track of the important question, how are offline maps updated Pino?
http://twitter.com/haikus PinoThank you @Collin5:disqus, I couldn’t have explained it better
So now only the question about maps updates is still open.
Street maps you can use offline (like in Nokia Drive) are called vector maps: they are basically made out of “lines” instead of “pixels”. This is why they react so fast when you zoom in/out and they are relatively small in data size (let me know if you need additional info here, I can always publish a blog post to explain).
The maps you currently see in Nokia Maps for Nokia Lumia are similar to those you see online at maps.nokia.com. They are not stored on a device, they are on a remote server and you have to be online to access them. Plus, they are made out of “pixels” like normal images on the internet.
This difference in technology explains why sometimes the vector maps are not updated at the same time as the online maps.
Right now, when you install a new version of Nokia Drive you are also installing the latest version of the street maps we have. In the future this process will be optimized.
Btw, I can tell you that right now we are trying to both introduce new features and migrate old ones from Symbian. I guess you can easily understand why: we want to innovate.
Collin5Hey Pino.
This is an issue I would like to get your opinion on:
While driving it is usually necessary to hook up my Lumia to a power source, which so far has always been my car’s 12V receptacle. As far as I know, every car design has this receptacle below the area where a PND would typically be mounted. However, Lumia’s all have their power connector on top. Why? If your PND is mounted vertically (which most are) this results in some ugly and unpractical cabling. I would much prefer if my power cable ran straight down from my PND mounting point… maybe left, maybe right, okay, but certainly not upwards!
Due to the Lumia’s almost perfect symmetry, one might think you could simply mount it upside down, but that doesn’t work because the UI doesn’t get rotated accordingly.
Using a Lumia as a PND is such an important part of the Lumia experience… wouldn’t it be more practical to put the power connector on the bottom?
http://twitter.com/haikus PinoActually, as you can see in the video, we assume that, while driving, the Nokia Lumia is landscape oriented…
This is also the reason why we are optimizing Nokia Drive for the landscape mode, although you can use it also vertically.
Any particular reason why you prefer the portrait mode in Nokia Drive?
Hey Pino, working on Sundays? Same here…
Anyway, I probably do have a slight preference towards a vertical mount, the only reason being, that the WP7 home screen doesn’t rotate horizontally. I know… why the hell am I in my car looking at my Lumia’s home-screen instead of running ND, right? Right, however, consider that WP8 will make even more use of live tiles. Resize ND’s WP8 live tile to it’s largest state, and you’ll get some mapping information right on the live tile (based on rumors I’ve heard flying around the inter-webs)… with horizontal mounting, you’ll just have to tilt your head (possibly in heavy traffic?) to read it I would argue, given this situation, horizontal and vertical mounting should be treated (at least) as equals.
I’m not saying this is a major issue. It’s purely a matter of practicality (the charging cable running all the way up my cars central console and blocking direct access to dials and switches) and aesthetics.
If this isn’t hard to redesign, and I’m not overlooking something, why not put the power connector at the bottom, making it easier to mount in any which way?
Nokia’s next WP devices need to be perfect (how’s that for pressure)! I think this would be another step towards achieving that goal.
http://twitter.com/haikus PinoHi @Collin5:disqus, you have a fair point here and I’ll see what I can do to influence the position of the power plug in future smartphones.
However, consider that even if Windows Phone start screen is powerful and beautiful, it’s really not designed for in-car use: that’s too much distraction going on over there.
This is why we started developing Nokia Car Mode that creates a specific UI to access what you really need when driving: Nokia Drive, the phone and music.
Right now it’s only available for Symbian but we are developing for Windows Phone as well. Have a look here: http://conversations.nokia.com/2011/09/13/putting-nokia-in-the-driving-seat-with-nokia-car-mode/
Very Interesting. My initial reaction to this is: shouldn’t this be Microsoft’s task?
If, as you say, the start screen is too distracting, then WP needs to have this concept realized across all devices… Lumia owners aren’t the only ones driving cars, and everyone’s safety should be equally important.
My view is that, similarly to how WP supports an Airplane Mode (configures radios), it should also
support a Car Mode (optionally rotates UI and reconfigures UI & radios -> turns on Bluetooth).
Just a thought…
Any possibility of getting an update on what Nokia design engineers think about the suggestion of relocating the power connector?
Thanks again Pino, great job.
http://twitter.com/haikus PinoHi @Collin5:disqus, you have such a love for detail
First of all I want to clarify that no smartphone UI is currently designed for in-car use, and for a good reason: it’s a complete different use case from the standard one.
It’s not only about what app you use while driving or not, is also about how easy it is to find and press a button on a smartphone which is suddenly not in your hand anymore but in a car holder.
Of course we are cooperating very closely with Microsoft to develop Nokia Car Mode for Windows Phone, but I can’t give you more info than this at the moment.
http://www.facebook.com/richmond.baker Richmond V. BakerThe My Commute feature looks interesting.
Question: can you save more than one commute destination and still leverage the
My commute features
?
http://twitter.com/haikus PinoYes, @facebook-805880081:disqus, there is no limit on number of commute destinations from the given location: the app learns each commute and from any location and any time of the day, it suggests the most likely commute (if applicable).
For example:
- from home: to work, to (your favorite) cinema theater, to your parents’
- from work: to home, to the gym, to (your favorite) supermarket
If the suggestion does not match your intentions, say you take a day off and instead of going to work in the morning as usual, you want to go directly to the movies, there is a way of changing the commute destination in the app.
Also, as a user, you don’t explicitly save a commute: Nokia Drive learns each commute automatically (as long as “My Commute” feature is on).
http://twitter.com/kzubux kzubuxjust for your info,
according to news sources Jakarta Residents(Indonesian) loses
USD$ 1,482,265,749.0736 Annualy due to traffic congestionjust to let you know how big Nokia/Waze could make a difference in Indonesia, If…… it just simply “Works”
http://twitter.com/haikus PinoAll over the world millions of people lose time and money in traffic. This is the reason we are developing a feature like My Commute.
http://twitter.com/linooliveira Lino OliveiraOne important feature I would like to see in Nokia Drive is the possibility to define a destination using GPS coordinates. Sometimes the address is not recognize and with this feature we are able to define a destination.
http://twitter.com/haikus PinoThis feature has been already requested a couple of times and we are looking into it, thank you for letting us know it is important for you too.
http://twitter.com/linooliveira Lino OliveiraIt is nice to see someone from Nokia listen to us!
I hope to see soon commute working in Portugal!
Thanks!
This is very exciting!!
Only it isn’t because I live in UK.
Which means no fun for a while still.And given that my phone is yet to get the notification for new (Tango) update I guess this one will be a loooong while, too.Don’t get me wrong – I love my phone. But having to wait for everything is starting to be a tad annoying.
So. When will My Commute be available in UK?
I just hope that it will not last as long as it was with ND3 since its announcement in February
http://twitter.com/haikus PinoHi @facebook-1043725844:disqus, Nokia Drive runs on Mango, so you don’t need any particular firmware update. But yes, for “My Commute” you have to be a bit patient.
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