Weekend drive planning app

I think the best way to describe this (possibly fictitious) app is to explain how I want to use it.

Step 1. On a desktop PC or tablet (something with a large screen), interesting roads are found and highlighted in something like Google Earth.

Step 2. Pick the start and stop points on that road in order to trim off the boring parts.

Step 3. After highlighting several desired road segments, press "make route" and they'll be stitched together into one drive, starting and stopping at home.

Step 4. Download the route to a smartphone app.

Step 5. Early Saturday morning I get in the car, call up the drive, and press "Go." At that point, voice instructions direct the way - there's no need to reference the screen to figure out when to turn because it's already set.

I've looked at maybe a dozen (Android) apps and none seem to be able to do this... or am I describing a new product? All the data is out there already and I'm wondering if anyone's brought it together such that the above is doable. It's very likely that if such an app exists, it an all-in-one thing in the smartphone, which makes the initial road selection far more clunky. Picking roads in Google Earth on a PC and loading into a smartphone is great because it's much easier to see the overall picture, but may be a bridge too far, but that would be perfection that I'd pay for.

Something like this?

https://www.lifewire.com/make-custom-route-on-google-maps-4126536

In reply to Driven5 :

That's cool.  I'll have to try that.  

I've tried MyRoute-app, but it's been somewhat clunky to use.

A variation would be something more like route-planning, as long as it allows clicking on the map instead of inputting addresses. That way, you just click on the starting and ending point of each desired road segment, then let the app stitch them together into one route. Again though, it's far more pleasant to search out and find these desirable roads on a large screen.

In reply to kb58 :

I believe MyRoute is supposed to do that.  I bought it for doing routes for the ABRR last year, but under-estimated the learning curve and ended up just using Google-maps.  There are desk-top as well as smart-phone functions.  It's also part social-media site, so you can search out "fun" roads in an area.  It is geared towards motorcycles, but I can't see why it couldn't apply to sports cars as well. The phone app also has a tracking function so you can save a route you've done. I'm doing the ABRR route for 2018 as well and hope to use MyRoute more this year, although I will likely use Google a lot as well due to the simple ease of doing initial routes.

Ian, just want to confirm you do mean "MyRoute" and not "MyRoutes", which is also a route-planning app. Reason I ask is because MyRoutes sounds promising, especially that last bit:

...MyRoutes is a route planning tool for hikers, runners, cyclists, who want to follow their own specific path on a more detailed map. The app tracks the total distance of the route and you can follow your location on the drawn out path. To create your own routes, tap anywhere on the map and the track will be build...

This used to be so easy with the "classic" Google Maps that went away a few years ago.  I'm still annoyed at that.

For our recent road trip to Colorado I used Furkot to plan the drive. 

It's more of a multi day type planning platform but worked well for planning a 2 day trip with multiple start/stop locations throughout the days.  I planned it all out on my PC, created a log-in (free), re-planned my trip (because creating a log-in erased my trip - make sure you create a log-in first) and pulled it up on my phone.  We didn't actually use any nav on the phone because I'm old and I like paper maps (which it'll print out), but it worked well for our needs.  

My main complaint was it shows you how many miles you're going on the current road, but it doesn't allow you to see total trip miles for each turn.  I like to reset my trip odo at the beginning of the trip and just watch total miles, though you could easily pull the data into excel and create that info.

Learning curve was pretty easy, it'd be worth poking around to see if it fits your needs.

kb58 said:

A variation would be something more like route-planning, as long as it allows clicking on the map instead of inputting addresses. That way, you just click on the starting and ending point of each desired road segment, then let the app stitch them together into one route. Again though, it's far more pleasant to search out and find these desirable roads on a large screen.

Yes, you can do this in Google Maps too.

If you're logged in on the browser to Google and on your phone, you can see the routes you set up. It's not perfect but on you click on "Go" button (as in start directions) in the Google Maps app and then you should see a cryptic Address or something referencing what you did on the computer. Might have to click on "More from recent history".

At least is seems to work for me.

pres589 said:

This used to be so easy with the "classic" Google Maps that went away a few years ago.  I'm still annoyed at that.

On the desktop version I believe you still have the option to use the old Google maps version. I don't have my laptop with me to check, but in the lower right corner of the screen there should be a ? In a circle. Clicking that should show an option for the old version, but it might be hidden in another selection like options or settings. 

I just leave a old paper atlas in my car.  No batteries no connectivity issues.  No annoying computer generated voice talking to me.  So far I have always got t where I needed to go.  The last thing I need is an electronic replacement for my wife telling me where to go.  What an I missing here?

Be careful and test out the Google maps app custom route feature thing before you actually rely on it. Last time I tried it the route would come up but the app would constantly try to change your route into shortest distance. So it was literally telling you to make a turn or do a u turn all the time and recalculating. Hopefully they've fixed that bug.

In reply to freetors :

No, they haven't as mentioned earlier.  I would set up intricate routes on my computer, upload them to my phone and then get something almost entirely different.  One trick is to set way-points, but you do have to make sure to place enough of them to force the route the way you want it.

kb58 said:

Ian, just want to confirm you do mean "MyRoute" and not "MyRoutes", which is also a route-planning app. Reason I ask is because MyRoutes sounds promising, especially that last bit:

...MyRoutes is a route planning tool for hikers, runners, cyclists, who want to follow their own specific path on a more detailed map. The app tracks the total distance of the route and you can follow your location on the drawn out path. To create your own routes, tap anywhere on the map and the track will be build...

This is the one I have: https://www.myrouteapp.com

As I mentioned, I still need some more experience with it. That said, I may look into MyRoutes as well for doing bicycle road rides.

One thought on the customized routes...have you tried putting the phone in airplane mode? This might override the navigation default of changing your route, although it might still display "rerouting" when you get off course. 

Does airplane mode kill the gps?  

In reply to dean1484 :

Agree.    I just look at my paper map.   Check the route then go.

In reply to dean1484 :

Depends on the device, on some it just kills the cell signal, not the gps

EastCoastMojo said:

pres589 said:

This used to be so easy with the "classic" Google Maps that went away a few years ago.  I'm still annoyed at that.

On the desktop version I believe you still have the option to use the old Google maps version. I don't have my laptop with me to check, but in the lower right corner of the screen there should be a ? In a circle. Clicking that should show an option for the old version, but it might be hidden in another selection like options or settings. 

That option has been gone for quite a while now.  They kind of brought some of that functionality back to Maps but it's not as good as it used to be.  

Ah, it has been a while since I looked for it.