One of the big benefits of digital maps over paper ones is "where am I on the map", and GPS alone doesn't send any data back.

Even then there were lots of apps out there which provided maps offline before Google maps was even an idea.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Microsoft_Streets_%26_Trips

https://winworldpc.com/product/softkey-key-master-maps/10

And then that's also completely ignoring the hundreds of portable GPS devices sold before Google Maps was a thing which had offline road databases.

I can navigate anonymously without cell signal easily. My car has a GPS in the dashboard which, at least for the maps and routing, doesn't go online at all.

> I can navigate anonymously without cell signal easily. My car has a GPS in the dashboard which, at least for the maps and routing, doesn't go online at all.

I agree that this is indeed possible. The problem is with the propaganda that says that you should not agree to such a low standard of only being able to see the map and route your trip based on road connectivity and nothing else. Modern route planning takes into account inherently real-time information such as accidents and other roadblocks, which is only available online.

>I agree that this is indeed possible. The problem is with the propaganda that says that you should not agree to such a low standard of only being able to see the map and route your trip based on road connectivity and nothing else. Modern route planning takes into account inherently real-time information such as accidents and other roadblocks, which is only available online.

I'd note that while real time traffic updates are nice, they are just a convenience, not a necessity.

In fact, GPS (unless you're in a war zone and need to direct munitions or out in the middle of nowhere) is also a convenience and not a necessity. What's that? It is a necessity? Tell that to Ferdinand Magellan -- hell he didn't even have a paper map.

That's not to say GPS/online traffic updates and the like aren't useful. They absolutely are. But they aren't necessary and at least for me, if the choice is to use such tools and be tracked or use another method that doesn't track me, I'll choose the latter every. single. time.

Not because I have anything to hide, but because my business is my business and no one else's.

> Modern route planning takes into account inherently real-time information such as accidents and other roadblocks, which is only available online.

in mid 2000s very offline igo could pull traffic information via RDS-TMC and adjust route according to it. navigation systems in modern cars can use traffic information from satellite via sirius-xm

Yeah, I'm disappointed more cars/GPS units don't have this functionality. It's really not even that complicated of a data stream and it's already right there in most US metro areas waiting to be used.

i think the only time recently that i saw TMC used, it's in my wife's mini countryman. but it worked only in last few months of leasing after they updated firmware or maybe plugged some cable during service

Paper gets heavy real quick and personal microfiche readers never caught on.

At least paper does not run out of battery, though

I imagine it's really hard to drive a car and use a microfiche reader at the same time.

The Electro Gyrocator essentially worked that way. You placed transparencies over the CRT for the map section you were currently in.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electro_Gyrocator

https://www.pistonheads.com/news/ph-features/ph-origins-navi...

Have you tried to buy a paper map lately? It's next to impossible, at least here where I am atm.

Where are you that it's "next to impossible"? That really surprises me.

I'm in the UK, and you can walk into any Post Office, WHSmith, bookshop, most newsagents, etc., and pick up maps of the local area or country, usually Ordnance Survey[0] maps.

And (at least when I was in secondary school, about a decade ago) map reading was still taught as a valuable skill, using OS maps.

[0]: https://www.ordnancesurvey.co.uk