Home » Review: Garmin DriveAssist – Behold, the future of Sat Navs

Review: Garmin DriveAssist – Behold, the future of Sat Navs


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Satellite navigation hasn’t really changed much in the last 10 odd years. Yes, it was rather exciting when they first popped up on the market, but not much has changed about them since their introduction. You have a few major players, who keep churning out products, while mobile apps are giving them a good run for their money. In fact, free apps such as Google Maps and Waze have really made the need to buy one redundant. Garmin, though, have other ideas. The premise is simple. Offer consumers something that they don’t already get. The Garmin DriveAssist is one such effort. Not only does it pack a dashcam into your already useful sat nav, but the camera also packs in features such as lane assist and forward collision.

Specifications

Let’s start with a basic set of specifications on offer.

  • Satellite navigation
  • 5″ Screen, with pinch to zoom, capacitive touch
  • Lifetime Map updates
  • Real photos views of junctions, lanes and destinations
  • Link to phone and get notifications directly on your sat nav via your screen, and use your sat nav to make and take calls
  • Built in Dash Cam
  • Driver Alerts
    • Red light & safety cameras
    • Approaching traffic jam
    • Traffic avoidance
    • Fatigue warning
    • Sharp curves
    • Speed changes
    • Nearby school zones
    • Railroad warnings
    • Animal crossings
    • Wrong way on a One-Way

Setup and the app

There isn’t much of a setup involved with the device. If you like, you can pop it on and get going straight away.

However, there are a few things that can enhance your experience.

First one happens every time you turn this on, which helps you align the camera. The camera at the back is on a swivelling mount, allowing you to set the front properly. This can then be used to assess forward distances as well as lanes for the driver alerts. Of course, it is also used as a dash cam.

The second one is using the Garmin Smartphone Link app. While this isn’t needed, it also enhances the experience, letting you not only use your Sat Nav to make and receive phone calls, but also get notifications through it. You can access traffic information via your phone’s internet connection, and also search for things. You can also send locations to your device via the app.

This app is also useful for when you do not have the ‘approved’ power cable connected, as it is needed for traffic reception.

It does have an annoying feature to it that it pops up every time you boot up your phone, trying to connect to the device. I am not entirely sure how much battery it takes, but I wouldn’t be surprised if there is a usage in the background.

Navigation

The navigation function is fairly straight forward, and offers you the standard Garmin interface, and pretty much the standard interface you get from most sat navs. You can easily search for various places, be they via standard search, post code, or even Four Square. This means that most points of interest that you can image are already covered.

When running, the screen has a frame rate that is slightly slower than your phone. This is not normally noticeable, but can be seen if you put a phone sat nav against this.

Of course, the beauty of this device is that it is more than just a sat nav.

The nuisance

As already mentioned, it prefers to have the charging cable/car charger connected to the device so that it can get traffic reception through FM/DAB. This one was particularly annoying as the charger that comes with the device is just for this and this alone. There are no extra USB slots or a bypass connector on it, meaning if you did want to charge other phones or devices in the car, you’d need another 12V slot. If you don’t want that, just connect it to your phone. This could be bit of an issue if you are travelling around different countries and do not want to rely on your roaming internet connection.

The other nuisance to the sat nav is the fact that it still operates on a mini USB connector. This means that if you were to bypass the given connector, you will probably still need to source a mini USB cable rather than the more popular micro USB ones.

The DashCam

The dash cam is the feature that makes this most attractive. You have two modes of operation. It can either work as a constantly on recording device, or only kick in when you have an accident (i.e. a sudden break/impact). This means that it won’t always record. An alternative is to go to Apps on the main screen of the device and just press record.

The quality of the video itself is HD, and it records not just the video, but your location, date/time, as well as speed. There is a very slight fish eye lens affect on the video.

When viewed in the sat nav, you can see the whole video on the screen, or see the video and the map of your location side by side as well.

Fortunately/Sadly, I wasn’t able to test the ‘impact’ feature.

The Extras

The difference between this and other ranges from Garmin are the Drive Assist features.

As mentioned above, these are:

  • Red light & safety cameras
  • Approaching traffic jam
  • Traffic avoidance
  • Fatigue warning
  • Sharp curves
  • Speed changes
  • Nearby school zones
  • Railroad warnings
  • Animal crossings
  • Wrong way on a One-Way

The device brings to you the kind of features you only get in fancy cars. Things such as forward collision, lane alerts and such like automatically kick in when you are driving. You are normally alerted with a gentle beep as well as a message on the screen. I found that feature useful over and over again. This was particularly useful on motorways, when you may drift between lanes if you are tired, or if a vehicle pulls in front of you. You simply get advised, and you can adjust your speed or position accordingly. Over long journeys, it also advises you to take breaks.

The fact is that you can easily get sat nav apps, or cheap dash cams that will do whatever you want them to do. However, to get all of this in one simple package, combined with the features above is what really makes this stand out.

More information

More information on the Garmin DriveAssist can be found on their website. It is available via various online retailers, such as Amazon. It generally retails for £279.99, but can be found as cheap as £239.99 online. It comes with European maps as standard.

Verdict

The device is a simple way to upgrade your car to bring it in line with the latest high tech vehicle. The sat nav and the dash cam are great, but it is the drive assist features that really make this stand out for me.

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