So, pondering a new car satnav unit that, unlike a smartphone, carries its maps onboard and thus doesn't depend on the cell network.
Signs point to Garmin (definitely not going for TomTom again). Except....
Garmin's car satnav units (with road maps), as well as any other name-brand ones I'm finding, appear to be strictly GPS-dependent. Considering how unreliable the fed.gov is looking these days, I'd really like something that can switch to Galileo, GLONASS, or whatever that Chinese alternative is called. Not that I trust the EU, the Russian government, nor the CCP, mind you, but I figure at least one of the systems ought to remain usable by the public, if only out of contrariness.
There are plenty of pretty-cheap, multi-system satnav receiver modules out there nowadays, so you'd think they'd be turning up in the electronic roadmaps, no? At least in some premium-priced model? Apparently, no. Seems it's an option for the off-road units for hikers, sailors, and aviators, but not the on-road units for drivers.
Hmph.
Also, it seems that road atlases on optical media are no longer a thing. I've got a recent one on paper, but the thing about paper is that you can't zoom in and see the surface streets. An atlas on DVD-ROM might be frozen in time like a paper one, but at least I'd be able to get detail around a destination.
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