POLL: North-up or Heading-up

[cpa]

Why would anybody use North up???

Maybe because we spent over sixty years of our lives using those paper thingys called road maps. Easier to read the words and numbers on those maps because they were all oriented with north up.

Maybe because it is easy to know our compass direction based upon the geography and the sky.

Meanwhile, it would be nice to have a legend permanently embedded on the maps, especially a distance key. And it would be nice to include a physical map instead of purely political.

 

[eli_]

Yeah for turn-by-turn directions I definetely prefer "heading-up" since I'm making relative left/right turns and don't need to know the big picture, but for just driving around on my own "north-up" is better. I have an easier time orienting myself, i.e. I know where major roads or geographic features are relative to me in each cardinal direction. If the map is spinning around constantly it gets really confusing. I have to "unwind" the rotation in my head.

I guess it's kind of like inverted aiming settings in a video game, it depends on how you project yourself internally onto the virtual map.

 

[Mishakim]

I vary with where I am - near home, I prefer north up because it matches my mental model of the surroundings and I know which direction things are relative to my position and bearing. When away from home, heading-up, because I don't know what direction anything is anyway, so the relative view is most useful.

 

[WhiteMountains]

I use north up. It is easy to figure out what to for turning directions, but I really want a sense that I am driving in the right direction and the nav isnt sending me to the wrong place. I really don’t want to risk driving for an hour in the wrong direction before discovering this.

Correct me if I am wrong, but I thought that there was a setting for defaulting to either style.

 

[CjRichMar]

One of my small irritants with the Model 3 is that it always defaults to heading up when using navigation, unlike the X and S which defaults to the last setting used. I much prefer north up - it helps you learn to navigate a place without GPS. I like being able to know where I'm going without my car holding my hand the whole way there.