Automatically navigate to a parking lot nearby your destination?

[DaSal]

I was wondering... My brother has Navigon on his HTC, and I have TomTom on my iPhone. Navigon on his phone has this feature where it can navigate him to a nearby parking lot or parking garage. Say you want to go shopping in an unknown city and have it navigate to the city center, it can then navigate you to a parking lot.

I can't seem to find this function in the TomTom? It lets you turn on parking lots that will show up on the map, but it won't automatically navigate you there? Even tapping the lot on the map won't do anything but show it's title... It won't give you an option to navigate you there?

Is this possible in the TomTom app?

 

[dhn]

I suspect the phone app is like the application on TomTom pnd's. All Tomtoms are road mapping devices and, as such, cannot navigate to an unmapped (off road) location.

Think this is probably what you are experiencing on ther phone.

 

[mvl]

Tomtom includes parking lots as points of interest in their map. I'm not familiar with the iPhone interface, but on a PND it looks like: Navigate to -> POI -> POI near you -> other category -> parking garage.

 

[Arno]

And it works well with my 930, providing I remember to use it!

 

[gatorguy]

Navigon on his phone has this feature where it can navigate him to a nearby parking lot or parking garage. Say you want to go shopping in an unknown city and have it navigate to the city center, it can then navigate you to a parking lot.

That's a Navigon feature called Clever Park, introduced with the latest 1.6 update. From the press release:

"NAVIGON MobileNavigator is the first iPhone navigation app to include a Clever Parking feature, giving drivers the advantage of knowing where and what the best parking options are available around the upcoming location. When approaching the destination, an icon appears in the map view. In one tap an easy to scroll list of all available parking options are available, including distance from location for easy decision-making. The Destination Information Display provides an at-a-glance overview and summary of information pertaining to the destination. Users can customize what is shown in settings/options, such as parking locations, weather information and specific POI's such as all the restaurants around the upcoming destination. This delivers an overview of everything important ahead of time, so they know what to expect and where to go when arriving."

Both TomTom and Navigon are working hard at delivering new features to their mobile apps. But at the same time nav app prices are falling like a rock, making the justfication for higher priced ones like TomTom and Navigon difficult. Navigon just this week announced hitting 1 million users for it's Mobile Navigator app. TomTom is likely less than 1/2 that number, but I expect sales of both to slow significantly if they try to maintain a $40+ price point. The market just doesn't support expensive apps anymore, just a year or so into it.

 

[DaSal]

That's a Navigon feature called Clever Park, introduced with the latest 1.6 update. From the press release:

"NAVIGON MobileNavigator is the first iPhone navigation app to include a Clever Parking feature, giving drivers the advantage of knowing where and what the best parking options are available around the upcoming location. When approaching the destination, an icon appears in the map view. In one tap an easy to scroll list of all available parking options are available, including distance from location for easy decision-making. The Destination Information Display provides an at-a-glance overview and summary of information pertaining to the destination. Users can customize what is shown in settings/options, such as parking locations, weather information and specific POI's such as all the restaurants around the upcoming destination. This delivers an overview of everything important ahead of time, so they know what to expect and where to go when arriving."

It seems like it's a very useful feature, though I prefer TomTom in all other ways. With any luck they'll include it in a future update

 

[mikealder]

Accoding to the press releases the soon to hit the stores "Go-1000" will have parking information available, I guess we will have to wait and see if its much use.

If it works then it might get added to the iPhone app with a future update - Mike