Comparing Route Planners (CarPlay Edition)

[cooltatts]

Read through a forum post on how ABRP works on Android Auto and learned it has better integration than it does on Apple CarPlay.

Got me thinking what is the best route planner for CarPlay? Or which is best for what. On a recent 500+km road trip I tried them all and here are my preferred order. I’m no expert and would appreciate your own findings and recommendations in this CarPlay Edition route planner discussion.

IMHO:

1) ABRP (w/OBD2) which offers an accurate, realtime update (with dongle) trip planner with adjustments being easy. Selecting food along the route shows restaurants in relation to available chargers (so pick based on the charger or your favourite eats). Pauses while your charging, counts down needed charge % & time remaining while you charge. Still very glitchy, terrible navigation voice and may drop the trip at any unplanned stops or if you drive off it’s path (such as a quick bathroom break) so you may need to relaunch. Rivian recently purchased them so unsure of their future (ie release schedule or become an Rivian exclusive). Finally the costs, CarPlay integration requires a subscription. Also, the necessary OBD2 dongle. I purchased the inexpensive Bluetooth VEEPEAK but you can’t leave it installed as it’s a security risk when you’re parked.

2) FordNav (I know this isn’t CarPlay but thought I’d still compare) is near perfect trip advice and it recommends stops based on price and speed over nearby conveniences. Just wish you could search along route easier and it would adapt stops based on driving efficiency. I drove better then it thought but it still had me stop nearly 160km before another equivalent charging station I could have easily reached. Maybe this is because it had already started to pre-condition the battery. Not sure as there’s no indication. While free for new owners it will require premium connectivity for traffic and realtime updates after the trial ends.

3) AppleMaps which integrates for current SoC, route stops and destination SoC but that’s about it. However, I find it recommends Tesla charging stations the MME can’t use or sends you to the address (ie front door of a Mall) and then it’s on you to find where the chargers are located (drove around a mall twice only to find the chargers buried in the back of a parkade and were out of order). I just can’t trust AppleMaps recommendations on a road trip. Also, why zero EV support updates in 5 years! Still only supports three cars (Porsche Taycan, Ford Lightening, Mach-E). Maps may be free but you barely get more than your money’s worth.

4) GoogleMaps/Waze I won’t bother with these with zero EV features these can help find the closest gas station if you’d like (huh?). Their free and definitely gets your money’s worth.

what are your findings?

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[MachSteve]

I'm new to the EV life and I appreciate your research, sooner or later I will be taking a road trip myself so any advice helps! Thanks

 

[RickMachE]

I don't believe that any app, including the Ford navigation, picks charging based on price. And, it is awful at planning a trip of any length, and often recommends chargers I would never consider using.

 

[Shepherd]

Recently I used PlugShare to map my charging stops ahead of time, because I knew which specific brands and amenities I wanted. In CarPlay the app gives the list of stops I chose and feeds the address into Apple Maps. It’s 2 apps but worked for my needs.

 

[ChasingCoral]

I don't believe that any app, including the Ford navigation, picks charging based on price. And, it is awful at planning a trip of any length, and often recommends chargers I would never consider using.

That's not what I've found. I wouldn't use the Ford Connected Navigation for multi-day planning but I've found it works well for each day's travel.

However, I usually check the route it plans using ABRP. I have found it occasionally includes a poor charger choice (not often, though) and it certainly doesn't include Tesla Superchargers that may be better options. ABRP will find those and I'll manually add them to the Ford Connected Navigation or to Waze in parallel. Often I'll let the Ford Nav operate to think it's taking me to a DCFC in a town and then use Waze to actually navigate me a nearby Tesla Supercharger. However, that's only to get the advantage of preconditioning.

I look forward to Ford (Garmin) actually adding Tesla Superchargers to the Connected Navigation. At over a year since we gained access to Superchargers, @Ford Motor Company has run out of excuses for not making this happen, especially in a subscription product.

 

[ChuckUK]

I use Electroverse (in the UK). It has a database of many different charging networks and can plan multi stop routes. I find that the predicted charge on arrival is quite robust and you can filter the charging networks to individual networks or charging speeds. Planning is all in the app (on phone or CarPlay) but navigation handed over to Apple Maps.

 

[cooltatts]

I use Electroverse (in the UK). It has a database of many different charging networks and can plan multi stop routes. I find that the predicted charge on arrival is quite robust and you can filter the charging networks to individual networks or charging speeds. Planning is all in the app (on phone or CarPlay) but navigation handed over to Apple Maps.

Cool, thank you for sharing. I checked and the “Octopus Electroverse” is in our Canadian Apple App Store too but it’s not showing support for our road maps. Maybe it will come here too one day

 

[IndyJeffrey]

Thank you.

I cannot get my OBD tool (BlueDriver) to connect to ABRP. I had the 14 day trial, but cancelled because of this.
I tried ABRP community to try to get resolution; no luck,

My question: if I cannot get my OBD tool to connect, what, if any, are the benefits of premium?

I do not see the benefits of premium, but I am open to suggestions.

Thank you

 

[music_cities]

GoogleMaps/Waze I won’t bother with these with zero EV features these can help find the closest gas station if you’d like (huh?).

Google Maps has an EV mode.

My question: if I cannot get my OBD tool to connect, what, if any, are the benefits of premium?

Aside from supporting the developers (now owned by Rivian, so maybe not important anymore) you also get real time weather, and the CarPlay display. So, worth it for a month when you’re doing road trips.

 

[amaranth]

Just did a round trip from Central NJ -> Acadia ME (about 1000 miles round trip). Used ABRP with upper and lower bounds of my trip efficiency to map out stops. I would use 2.6mile/kwh as the lower bound, with 2.9mile/kwh as the upper bound. I would pre-nav the route at home, then jot down the actual address of the chargers and put them into apple maps. Worked pretty well for me. I prioritize Superchargers due to 1. Reliability 2. Number of stalls 3. Price. Superchargers are usually 10cents/kwh cheaper than the EA/Rivian counterparts without the pass; I did however purchase a pass as I knew I would be able to get back my pass price given how much I needed to charge. I set my soc to be 15% when arriving at a charger in ABRP, this gives me room to either be more aggressive and arrive faster with less charge, or just in case the charger was completely out of service to find another charger. With how reliable the superchargers are, I might drop that to 10-12%.

 

[music_cities]

jot down the actual address of the chargers and put them into apple maps. Worked pretty well for me.

I should take my favourite chargers and add them as favourites in Apple Maps.

I have been adding all my favourite chargers or road trip chargers (chosen with ABRP and PlugShare) to Connected Navigation as a favourite. Then, connected navigation works quite well for me. I adore not relying on my phone when executing a trip. I like my CarPlay display to be focused on music. Connected navigation has that adorable little mini card at the bottom of the display that tells me the next turn is in 42km or whatever.

But I do use Apple Maps too, mostly for voice commands.

 

[benk016]

My question: if I cannot get my OBD tool to connect, what, if any, are the benefits of premium?

ABRP only works with BLE adapters. Not regular Bluetooth.

The main benefits of premium is more data points included in route planning such as weather and wind. Plus it logs all your data in the cloud on trips to review later. And then main benefit is enabling Android Auto or carplay functionality.

 

[TNGreenMachE]

I used the Ford Nav for a short 75 mile trip. I was amazed at how terrible it was. This was all 2 lane highways going to a northwest destination,. The Ford nav gave alternate routes for absolutely no reason that I could discern.. Sometime going East, sometimes going West on backroads. I think we went an extra 35 or 40 miles and you could literally watch the route change while driving. After that I just went with Apple Maps, or Google or ABRP.

 

[Tbird]

That's not what I've found. I wouldn't use the Ford Connected Navigation for multi-day planning but I've found it works well for each day's travel.

However, I usually check the route it plans using ABRP. I have found it occasionally includes a poor charger choice (not often, though) and it certainly doesn't include Tesla Superchargers that may be better options. ABRP will find those and I'll manually add them to the Ford Connected Navigation or to Waze in parallel. Often I'll let the Ford Nav operate to think it's taking me to a DCFC in a town and then use Waze to actually navigate me a nearby Tesla Supercharger. However, that's only to get the advantage of preconditioning.

I look forward to Ford (Garmin) actually adding Tesla Superchargers to the Connected Navigation. At over a year since we gained access to Superchargers, @Ford Motor Company has run out of excuses for not making this happen, especially in a subscription product.

I have not renewed my subscription to the Ford Nav because they do not include the Tesla charging stations. They made such a big deal about Tesla charging and now they are still not included in the Nav search. What's up @Ford Motor Company??

 

[music_cities]

I used the Ford Nav for a short 75 mile trip. I was amazed at how terrible it was. This was all 2 lane highways going to a northwest destination,. The Ford nav gave alternate routes for absolutely no reason that I could discern.. Sometime going East, sometimes going West on backroads. I think we went an extra 35 or 40 miles and you could literally watch the route change while driving. After that I just went with Apple Maps, or Google or ABRP.

I find the "alternative routes" in Ford Navigation entertaining! Useless, but a fun diversion! However I have found that if there's actual congestion, and the normal route is abnormally slow, the chosen route does change to something useful.

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