​Voice Guidance for Tours

About Voice guidance for tours
by Bob Usner
The Hurricane chapter is starting to roll out voice guidance for our driving tours.  You might ask "why?", "what is it?", and "how can I use it?"    Well, I'm here to help!

Basically the answer to “why?” is because it is safer, more convenient and adaptable than paper cue sheets.   As to “what is it?” and “how can I use it?”, the remainder of this article explains all that!

Most everyone is familiar with in car navigation (such as part of PCM) or as provided by a Garmin or TomTom or as maps on smartphones.   These allow you to specify a destination and the maps and voice guidance tell you how to get there.   Even if you miss a turn, the navigation adapts to that.

For our BBQ Runs and Tours, we don’t just want the fastest or shortest route to where we are going.   We want the “best” route, which usually means curviest and hilliest.   When we make paper cue sheets, that is what that captures. 
 
But what if we could stick that cue sheet into a navigation app or device so that we get that adaptable voice guidance oriented to the route we want?   It would be great if the in car navigation could do that for us (hello Porsche AG?!?) but alas, we need to improvise a bit.
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What we want is an app or device that will:
  • Take in a GPX file that contains the route we prefer along with any rest stops and collection points.
  • Perform voice guidance on the GPX
  • Operate off line even if cellular coverage is lost.
  • Adapt should the driver go off route for some reason (in other words get the tour member back on route)
  • Allow for on the fly changes due to unexpected route problems (by skipping via or waypoints).  
Many apps will take in a GPX file.   But few will do voice guidance on the result (think Google Maps).  And even fewer will operate offline.  
Here are ones that do:
Apple iOS
  • InRoute   
  • Navigon
  • MapOut
Android
  • Locus Map Pro
  • Navigon
Various Garmin, TomTom, or other navigation devices.   
InRoute App

Currently we know all of the ins and outs of using InRoute for both creating custom routes, saving them as GPX files, and then importing those GPX files into InRoute for everyone to use (I’ll cover the latter in a moment).  

If you are are on Android, or want to use something else on iOS (I don’t make any claims that the above list includes all of the possible options!), I would be happy to work with you on a setup process and test to validate that the app or device in question will do the trick!   Just let me know.

InRoute does cost money - it is not a free app to do what we want.   InRoute Pro is $3.99 a month or $29.99 a year.   You can try it for free.   (For BBQ Runs and short tours only - not full length tours - InRoute Premium will suffice for a one time payment of $14.99).

Using InRoute for a tour or BBQ Run could not be easier.   Choose the “Share” icon and then “Import XLSX, GPX, KML…”, choose the GPX file for the route you want, choose “Restore” on the dialog that follows (do NOT load from cache!!), and then choose “Go >”.   You are ready to go!
How can you integrate this into your car?
Wouldn't it be great if the Porsche navigation built into your car could be your map and voice guidance for each BBQ run or tour you might do?   Well, alas, it's not quite that easy.  

Instead we have to make do with one of these approaches:
  • Smartphone or Navigation device audio
  • In Car Audio from Smartphone
    • Bluetooth
    • USB connect
    • Audio in cable
    • FM transmitter

​I usually have my Porsche navigation map up (at 0.2 mile resolution) while I am using voice guidance from my Smartphone (connected as Bluetooth Aux).   Some folks will just use their smartphone (or navigation device) as the navigation with audio just from that.   I find that the in car audio is easier to hear, but choose whatever works for you!   

Here are some notes on in car audio connection.   Because these differ by age of car, model and options, I can only summarize generally.   If you have specific questions, I would be happy to help.

Bluetooth

Phone and car must have bluetooth enabled and be paired together.   Once that is done once, it should by default connect whenever the phone is near the car.   Some cars will pick up the Bluetooth Aux connection by default if it is there, others (such as 991’s and 981’s and later) will need the audio source selected as Bluetooth Aux.

USB connect

When the smartphone is connected via USB cable, most cars will see that as an AUX connection for audio.   We have seen some instances, however, the the car will interpret every voice prompt from the Smartphone as a phone call!   It is not clear, for those of us who have seen this, exactly what makes it stop dong this!?!   But it is definitely helpful for this not to occur.

Audio In cable

Some cars may have a 1/8” stereo audio in connector.  If so, that can be used to feed audio from the smartphone into the in car audio.

FM Transmitter

For cars that offer none of the above, we have used a low cost FM Transmitter module that attaches to the smartphone and provides the smartphone audio to an unused FM frequency on in the in car audio system.
On any of the above, please note that if you have music playing from your smartphone, you may need to adjust the relative volume of the navigation app and music on the phone to insure that you can hear the voice prompts.   Sometimes I have found the music not dropping in volume enough when voice prompts occur.

Hopefully, that is enough to get you started!   Again, any questions or help that you may need, plase let me know.
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Thanks
Bob Usner