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2 Silicon Chip
GPS navigation
in cars
How many times have you been really frustrated as you drove down an unknown city
street? While I know Sydney comparatively
well, there have been times when I have been
completely lost, in spite of the fact that I had
an up-to-date street directory open on the seat
beside me. One of the big problems, in Sydney
at least, is that there just aren’t enough street
signs and some of the signs on major highways
are downright misleading.
On some long streets in Sydney, you can
travel for kilometres without seeing a sign
which clearly identifies the street you’re actually on. And many a driver has
been unwittingly forced to cross the Harbour Bridge, the Harbour Tunnel
or has entered a tollway because of confusing signs. I am sure that this is
partly because the bureaucrats who design the signs never actually travel
on the roads where they are posted.
But now there is a solution in the form of GPS navigation in cars. This
has been available for a number of years in up-market BMWs and in recent
months has been available as a no-cost option in Hyundai Sonatas. And it
has just been released as an option in Holden Commodores. The system
covers Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide and Canberra, as well
as major highways. It draws information from three local global positioning
satellites, maps on CD-ROM and the vehicle’s speed and direction to guide
you through a maze of city streets.
Your car is actually depicted on an on-screen map, with all the streets
identified. And the map moves as you drive along, which is a big advance
over what happens when you are using a street directory – when you change
the page you have to orientate yourself again.
You can set up the system to give you voice prompts along the way to
a particular location and it will give you plenty of warning of up-coming
turns; with calm, measured suggestions in dulcet tones. This could be a
real boon for me - some of the most heated arguments I’ve ever had with
my wife concerned street directions. Why is that? What is it about driving
along unknown streets that causes stress with your loved one?
Mind you, even with GPS navigation in a car, I’m not sure that there would
not still be the occasional uttered swear word. Let’s face it: city streets will
still be city streets and the traffic will still be the same.
On the other hand, the GPS navigation system in the Commodore is pretty
pricey at $4495, considering that the Hyundai Sonata’s is at no extra cost
and the cost of some handheld GPS receivers is now under $300. On the
positive side, this technology can only get cheaper.
In the meantime, I might have to continue to make do with the street
directory. Either that or catch taxis!
Leo Simpson
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