What did people do before there were onboard electronic navigation systems? Decades ago, there was a very simple tool you could use to chart your course from one place to another: a paper map. Of course, not everybody could fold one the same way twice.
Today, state-of-the-art onboard electronic navigation systems — whether a portable navigation device (PND) made by any of a wide range of brands, including Garmin, Pioneer, Sony, TomTom and more, or a built-in navigation system for your new car — can guide you with spoken directions and detailed maps, and there’s no need to fumble with paper as you hurtle down the highway.
Once offered only in expensive luxury cars, electronic navigation systems are now available in many types of vehicles and at many different price points. In fact, navigation systems are practically mainstream features today, says J.D. Power and Associates, which has released the results of its eighth annual Navigation Usage and Satisfaction Study. In the past six years, J.D. Power says, there has been nearly a sixfold increase in the number of vehicles offering a navigation system.
Choosing a navigation system is no easy task, however, especially if you’re shopping for a new car. Should you buy the optional factory-installed system, or get a PND? Your decision is one you’ll have to live with for as long as you keep the vehicle.
Here we’ll discuss the key differences between portable and built-in navigation systems, suggest some strategies to make effective comparisons and take a look at what’s expected of new navigation systems down the road.
The cost-benefits analysis
When it comes to the bottom line, a portable navigation device already is much less expensive than the built-in option. Generally, prices for PNDs range between $300 and $1,000, while the factory-installed options usually cost between $1,500 and $2,500, depending on the brand and the model of the vehicle. In addition, some vehicles package a navigation system with other extra-cost options, so the bottom line is even pricier than it has to be. Moreover, prices for many PNDs are expected to decline during this year’s holiday shopping season, while prices for the factory-installed systems are unlikely to budge.
Cost should not be your only consideration, however, experts advise. On each side, there are benefits and drawbacks to consider as well.
The most obvious benefit of a PND is right in the name: portability. Because it’s not permanently installed, it can be taken from vehicle to vehicle and passed among family members. As Anne Louise Hanstad, vice president of marketing for TomTom, Inc., in Concord, Massachusetts, reminds us, this means you don’t have to give up your carefully acquired stored destinations, route preferences and other settings.
Hanstad also notes that some PNDs can store and play digital audio files and even display digital photos, so they can be personalized to a far greater degree than a built-in navigation system. She points out that TomTom even has a selection of customized voices for its PDN that includes television personality Mr. T and comic actor John Cleese.
Moreover, Hanstad says, because the development cycle for a new car can approach nearly five years, innovations are introduced in PNDs far more frequently than for built-in navigation systems. Some of these can help bring PNDs up to the sophisticated standard set by built-in navigation systems.
In at least one sense, however, longevity favors the built-in systems. While the warranty for a PND typically extends to only a year or two, a built-in system is covered by the vehicle’s warranty, which lasts years longer. Mike Ippoliti, product strategy manager at Volvo Cars North America in Irvine, California, also tells us that components for the built-in navigation systems are better engineered to withstand the harsh automotive environment, which includes vibration and temperature extremes.
The biggest benefit of a built-in navigation system is its integration with the vehicle’s other electronic systems. For instance, a built-in navigation system can automatically mute or lower the volume of the radio when it wants to speak directions to you, and the brightness of its display can be tied to the illumination of all the gauges in the dashboard.
To a limited extent, this kind of integration is possible with a PND, too, TomTom’s Hanstad tells us. Early next year, TomTom will start selling a $150 car connect kit for its $600 GO 510 and $700 GO 910 PNDs that can be installed behind the dashboard and link the navigation system to both the vehicle’s audio system and its headlights.
Built-in systems typically have larger displays than PNDs and they are located in an easily visible spot within the dash. PNDs are typically stuck to the windshield or the top of the dashboard with a simple suction cup, which means they can obstruct a driver’s vision through the windshield and might even become a projectile in the event of a crash. A PND is also vulnerable to theft for this reason.
In fact, depending upon where you live, the location of the display may have to be the deciding factor in choosing between a PND and built-in navigation system. For example, windshield obstruction laws in California and Minnesota make it illegal to mount a PND on the windshield in those states.
Comparing features
According to the 2006 J.D. Power navigation study (based on a survey of 14,103 people who recently bought or leased a new car with a factory-installed navigation system), the top five vehicles with the most highly rated built-in navigation systems were: 1) Lincoln Zephyr ; 2) Acura TSX; 3) Acura RL; 4) Lexus IS and 5) Lincoln Town Car. The five vehicles with the worst built-in systems rated by the survey were (starting with the lowest ranked), the Mercury Mariner Hybrid, Jeep Liberty, Ford Expedition, Mercedes-Benz C-Class and Toyota Avalon.
These results aside, however, the most valuable comparisons for you will be between the systems offered in the vehicles you’re thinking about buying and the specific PNDs you’re pondering, too. And, in general, there are attributes and features worth considering regardless of brand or model.
Especially among PNDs, more money buys additional features, such as a bigger display, a built-in MP3 player and a Bluetooth-compatible telephone connection to call a phone number at your destination. In addition, some PNDs store the map data in reliable flash memory, while others use an integrated hard-disk drive, which is more prone to failure.
One of the newest features for both PNDs and built-in navigation systems is real-time traffic information, plus (in some devices) automatic or on-demand rerouting around traffic jams. BMW introduced free real-time traffic with automatic rerouting in September for the optional navigation system found in the 2007 3 Series coupe. Now this navigation system is also available in the 3 Series sedan and will be offered soon in the new X5 sport-utility as well. The real-time traffic feature raises the price of the navigation system to $1,900 from $1,800, but the service is provided free for the duration of the vehicle’s warranty. Real-time traffic services for other built-in navigation systems carry a monthly subscription charge.
Another thing to consider for your navigation system is the number of “points of interest” (POI) in its database, such as gas stations, hotels, restaurants and retailers. This gives your system a dimension of utility that you’ll really appreciate every day.
The POI number varies widely among brands and models, both for PNDs and built-in systems. Among PNDs, the $600 Pioneer AVIC-S1 offers 1.5 million POI while the $750 JVC eAvinu offers more than 13 million.
In terms of ease of use, built-in navigation systems have a distinct edge over PNDs. For instance, Volvo’s $2,100 system allows the driver to control nearly every function with a control button located on the steering wheel. And DaimlerChrysler’s new MyGig device, which will be offered in the Chrysler Sebring, Dodge Nitro and Jeep Wrangler in 2007, offers destination entry by voice recognition at a price less than $1,800.
Perhaps the simplest interface for a built-in system comes with the OnStar Turn-by-Turn Navigation service for GM vehicles, which requires OnStar’s “Directions and Connections” upgrade package. The user calls the OnStar operator with the vehicle’s built-in cell phone, and the operator sends an audio file with the directions directly to the car. The guidance is played through the vehicle’s audio system and also appears on the radio’s faceplate or in the “driver information center” behind the steering wheel.
Prices for OnStar’s turn-by-turn navigation service (including the necessary upgrade) range from free to $100 for the first year, depending upon the vehicle, and up to $299 per year subsequently. But the OnStar service does not yet provide real-time traffic information or rerouting without another phone call to the operator.
Road to the future
Going forward, PND makers are planning to introduce even more innovative features, while automakers are envisioning improved integration with other vehicle systems.
For example, Sony’s upcoming $500 NV-U71T nav-u PND, which will be available this winter, will offer a Gesture Command function that activates certain features — such as “take me home” — when the user “draws” pre-determined shapes with a finger on the touchscreen display.
Dash Navigation, a new PND maker, is planning to launch next year with the Dash Express, which will offer live two-way Internet access through built-in WiFi and cellular connections, among other high-tech features. The Internet connection can be used to access and search the Web from the car — for instance, to find unusual destinations that don’t appear in the POI list.
Meanwhile, TomTom and Johnson Controls are jointly developing a “Bluetooth Mobile Device Gateway” that will allow users to verbally send commands to TomTom’s GO devices. Intended to be wired into the car as a factory-installed option, it also will tie the PND to the vehicle’s fuel gauge, TomTom says, so the PND can notify the driver when the tank is low and offer a route to the nearest gas station. The gateway is expected to be available in 2008 vehicles.
In the future, predicts Mark Dahncke, product marketing manager for Land Rover North America, an automaker could tie the built-in navigation system to the vehicle’s traction control system. As a result, the vehicle could prepare itself for an icy road ahead based on information received from a real-time traffic service.
Of course the best thing about any electronic navigation device remains the simple fact that you don’t have to figure out a way to fold it up and put it away in the glovebox like a paper map when you’ve finally arrived at your destination.
Da Cruz
gustavo.mdacruz@gmail.com
+258 82 409 7336
Maputo, Mozambique
