ExplorOz Traveller Beta Testing

Email sent Dusta thanks.

FYI CarPlay by Apple and Android Auto by Google will never allow other navigation/mapping apps into their system as they only want you to use THEIR own product - ie. Apple Maps, Google Maps, WAZE. Nothing we can do about it - however you can try the screen mirror feature to broadcast your Traveller app from your phone to your indash unit IF your unit supports that feature.

There are a couple of apps that support CarPlay and allow 3rd party maps to be downloaded. Ones is Gaia GPS, they don’t have many Australian maps, but a large variety of USA maps.

https://www.gaiagps.com/map/?loc=11.0/138.6106/-33.8332&layer=GaiaTopoRasterMeters

Avenza Maps currently don’t have CarPlay but say they will implement soon. They have access to a variety of Australian maps.

https://www.avenza.com/avenza-maps/

Apple probably bought them out then or have partnered with them somehow. We checked it out thoroughly and not an option. But we'll look again to see if anything's changed however you would lose all the touchscreen features of the Traveller app so it would reduce the functionality of the app to only be a driving navigator and Traveller is so much more than that so potentially may not even be a viable proposition.

We do consider the CarPlay market to target online travellers more than our market - offline travellers. So if the expense to completely redevelop a compatible app for CarPlay was considered we may not be able to justify the development expense as its not our market place and there are already much bigger companies in that market that will that space quite adequately.

As a very small company, we feel its best to stick to what we do and do it well. We target Australian travellers and our country has very different mapping needs to the US - they have the full support of government produced topo mapping and they are online everywhere they go so their developers are not used to dealing with the complexities of offline coms. We've been dealing with this issues with US developers and their tools for many years. As an Australian developer we very aware of how critical the offline requirement is - not just for the mapping but for the tracking.

No,

https://www.gaiagps.com/company/

Gai make it clear that the Australian maps they offer are official Australian Government maps - which tells you the problem - Australian mapping has not been updated by the Government for many years. Of course its up to you what you're prepared to buy/use, but you can't travel around Australia with those maps and feel confident that you've got reliable, accurate data.

Thanks for your informative replies. Just a couple of observations.

Why would you loose your touchscreen functionality with CarPlay ?

I have been 4WD for many years using paper and digital offline maps, Oziexplorer. Last year did Canning & Googs Trk. I purchased your 2019 maps and used them in Ozi. I have no intention of using Gaia maps in places like this just pointing out that CarPlay using 3rd party maps is possible.

Over the last few years I have been reducing the number of screens in my car(radio, reverse camera, Bluetooth, mapping). Most newer 4WD’s come with CarPlay/Android Auto as standard and I think the demand will be for one device to do all.

I think your maps are the best available and that the CarPlay/Android Auto market is where the future growth is.

Thanks Mike, Invite sent via Apple.

Thanks, Invite sent via Apple.

Msg send Rod (maybe twice)

Thanks you should have received an invite to the program via email from Apple. You will need to load the TestFlight app and install the latest Traveller.

It goes over the top so you only have one version and the offline maps and all data will operate as normal without you having to reload etc. It should just work. Beta is going well so far so I expect you will not encounter any problems in trying the BETA.

David

FYI - We are likely to release this in the next week or so and the upgrade will go over the top then also so you are just able to do it a little earlier and maybe pick up something that no one else has yet!