Amy - *OT* If you want an 'aftermarket' traffic NAV system and have 2k to blow, Panasonic just came out with one. Here's the scoop on it.
Best regards,
John
En Route to the Beach, Seeking Guidance From Above
By MICHELLE HIGGINS
Published: July 8, 2005
AS the Friday afternoon traffic on the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway ground to a halt at Exit 35, like many a Hamptons-bound driver I despaired that my quick trip to the beach was about to turn into a marathon journey. Just then, my $2,200 traffic-guidance system, the AVIC-N2 from Pioneer Electronics, spoke up. Though not, unfortunately, with advice about the current predicament. "In 30 miles there is slow-moving traffic," it said in a lilting female voice. "Do you want to re-route?"
AVOIDING BACKUPS A new car navigation system, the AVIC-N2 from Pioneer Electronics, warns of problems on the road.
"Yes!" my passenger and I cried in unison. The computer recalculated our route, but just two minutes later, it had more bad news. Now the traffic 50 miles away was backing up. Stuck in a sea of S.U.V.'s and cars packed with beach gear and waiting to get onto the Long Island Expressway, we figured we'd stay the course.
It's summer travel season, when Americans by the millions head out on the roads. Indeed, an estimated 33.9 million vacationers hit the highways last weekend alone, according to the AAA. On popular routes, that can mean frustrating hours in traffic for vacation-bound drivers.
But what looks like a headache for vacationers is an opportunity for automakers and consumer-electronics companies hoping to sell navigation systems for cars. Telematics Research Group of Minnetonka, Minn., expects the number of in-vehicle navigation systems in the United States to grow from 1.17 million this year to 4.43 million in 2011 - and that doesn't include the even larger market for portable devices and cellphones with mapping capabilities.
But the truth is, navigation systems are most helpful when you don't know where you're going. Most of the time, drivers know their route - but not what to do if they get caught in traffic. Guidance "makes navigation much more desirable," said Egil Juliussen, a principal analyst with Telematics Research Group.
That's where Pioneer's new navigation system comes in. The gadget, which comes in two models, uses a service from XM Satellite Radio called XM NavTraffic to warn drivers of traffic snarls on the road ahead and help suggest ways around them. Navteq, a digital map data provider, supplies traffic information for the XM NavTraffic service, assembling its reports from a variety of sources, including road sensors, traffic helicopters and police reports. The information is broadcast to the in-car navigation system via XM's network of satellites and ground-based repeaters, which amplify the signal in places where tall buildings or other obstructions may block it.
But how well does it work? To find out, my co-pilot and I took a car outfitted with the AVIC-N2 for a drive at rush hour on a Friday night on the notoriously congested Manhattan-to-the-Hamptons route.
Things didn't start out too well. Just two blocks from the midtown Manhattan garage where I'd picked up the car, I found myself at a standstill, with no warning from Ms. XM. Curious to know why the system hadn't alerted me, I pressed the touchscreen's "XM TRFC" icon. A message popped up on the screen: "There is no traffic information on your route."
The problem, Jaed Arzadon, a Pioneer spokesman told me later, is that the system relies on existing traffic-reporting methods that aren't always comprehensive. Some tie-ups, especially those due to accidents not serious enough to be broadcast over police radio, may not appear on the map.
Once we got out of Manhattan, and then past that bottleneck where the B.Q.E. meets the Long Island Expressway, the system hit its stride. It originally routed us straight out the L.I.E., but, shifting gears when Ms. XM sensed traffic down the road, it detoured us on a circuitous route up to the Northern State Parkway, down the Sagtikos Parkway, back onto the expressway, then eventually onto Route 27, which leads out to the Hamptons.
While we drove, the system's six-and-a-half-inch screen showed the pace of traffic on nearby roads, letting us compare our progress to that of other, non-XM-equipped drivers. Green indicated traffic moving at 40 miles per hour or faster. Red was cars crawling along below 20 m.p.h. Yellow was somewhere in between. Accidents and construction each have their own icons - a rolled car for an accident, for instance.
But trying to take that in while whizzing down the highway threatened to earn us a spot on the navigation screen. And the system's seeming obsession with blockages farther down the road seemed a bit absurd, especially when we were stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic ourselves.
The system will only suggest a detour if the alternative "makes sense and will save you time," said Chance Patterson, a spokesman for XM Radio. If it determines that the current route, even with traffic, is still best it will keep you on it.
THE biggest perk was being freed from the tyranny of traffic radio. Once we would have turned off our music and turned on the radio hoping to hear the traffic report in time to make a decision about which way to go; now the system conveniently muted Beyoncé and spoke up whenever it noticed congestion or when we asked it to.
On top of the purchase price, customers must subscribe to the XM NavTraffic service, which costs $9.99 per month. XM Radio subscribers currently paying $12.99 per month pay an additional monthly fee of $3.99 for XM NavTraffic. Currently, the service covers 22 metropolitan areas, including Atlanta, Los Angeles and Washington.
Despite its success in getting us out to the Hamptons, the system didn't notice the worst traffic we hit on the entire trip, as we were heading home from upstate New York (we'd done a looping road trip over the weekend). In northern Manhattan, where the Harlem River Drive becomes Franklin D. Roosevelt Drive, we came to a standstill and crawled all the way back to Lower Manhattan with not a word from the computer. Where was Ms. XM when we needed her?
A Pioneer spokesman said the ground repeater used to amplify the XM signal along that stretch of road was recently taken down and is being reinstalled.
The bottom line: "This unit is only as good as the infrastructure within the city we're covering," said Mr. Arzadon of Pioneer.
Fact Sheet
GADGET Pioneer's AVIC-N2, a new vehicle navigation system.
WHAT IT DOES It uses a service from XM Satellite Radio, called XM NavTraffic, to discover traffic problems, like accidents or road construction, along the way and to suggest ways around them.
COST About $2,000 for the device; $9.99 per month for the XM NavTraffic service. Current XM Radio subscribers, who already pay $12.99 a month for XM Radio, pay $3.99 more per month for the service.
WHERE TO GET IT Best Buy, Circuit City and other consumer-electronics stores. |
