Subject: [NEXTEL-1] When Satellites Do the Steering

From: [email-masked]
Date: Mon, 04 Aug 2003 21:08:33 -0400

August 3, 2003

When Satellites Do the Steering
By ELIZABETH MESSINA

THE family road trip is a journey for the brave of heart, especially when it
involves tension between driver and navigator.
Enter the Global Positioning System, which offers a measure of harmony to the
family car. It was a four-week
cross-country summer car trip that made me, the technology averse navigator, a
G.P.S. believer.
Here is how G.P.S. works: a constellation of satellites transmits radio signals
that allow receivers on the ground to pinpoint longitude, latitude and altitude. A
network of ground stations known as the WAAS (Wide Area Augmentation System)
monitors and corrects errors caused by atmospheric changes and other factors.
G.P.S. receivers that are WAAS-equipped can tell you your location within 10 to 23
feet.

Put that positioning technology into a mini-computer with a database of street
maps and addresses, and even technophobes are finding G.P.S. to be pretty handy.
Matt Swanston, a spokesman for the Consumer Electronics Association, said that the
number of car navigation systems has increased steadily since 2001, from 17,000
receivers sold to 28,000 so far in 2003 (not counting hand-held units). The pace
of sales is projected to more than double by 2006, with prices going down as
consumer interest increases. Buyers can now get many functions of a built-in
system in a hand-held device costing far less.
The receivers developed for car travel have real advantages over paper maps. Newer
models have won over drivers, Mr.
Swanston said, with such features as a routing function that gives turn-by-turn
instructions as you drive.

We began each day by programming a destination into our portable G.P.S. unit and
waiting while it calculated our route.  Momentarily, a confident voice would be
directing us from parking space to roadway and on to the next stop. If, on the
way, the blood sugar needed a boost, the co-pilot would use the controls to look
up the closest coffee shop. The only time buttons need pressing while the car is
moving is to respond "yes" or "no" when the machine says you are off course, and
asks if you would like to "recalculate." Otherwise, it's fairly hand-free.

With a moving map display, an icon representing your car shows your position on
the map. You'll know when you've gone astray. It helps to alleviate that moment of
doubt when you've driven 30 minutes without a sign or gasoline station, and
intuition says you took the wrong exit. These are generally not the conditions for
affectionate conversation between driver and navigator.

Exit Ahead

Usually, you will be alerted to a highway exit several miles ahead, then a mile
away, then a half mile, then 400 feet, and so on.
Somehow, coming from the voice in the machine, this does not seem like nagging -
as it might from a passenger.
Many rental-car companies offer cars equipped with G.P.S. guidance. If you're
thinking of buying car with a built-in G.P.S.  device, trying one in a rental car
is a good way to see if it's of value to you. Our small portable unit worked fine,
and we can easily use it in another car - or even on foot if we're in an
unfamiliar city.

For several years, auto manufacturers have offered optional G.P.S. units with
color screens built into the dash. They often are packaged with
roadside-assistance services that incorporate two-way cellular communication. This
optional "telematics" equipment can add several thousand dollars to the price of a
new car. Electronics connoisseurs can also find high-end systems by such companies
as Pioneer, Alpine and Kenwood with features like large high-resolution screens,
voice-recognition and touch-screen controls. Prices start around $2,500.

But now systems are being designed and priced for a more general market. You can
get most of the functions of a built-in system in a portable G.P.S. device costing
far less. Basic handheld receivers, about the size of a TV remote control, cost
about $190 to $550. These include the Garmin eMap, the Lowrance iFinder Express
and the Magellan Meridian Color Deluxe. Units in this price range include mapping
and routing functions but may not have features like a color screen, turn-by-turn
directions or voice prompting.

The same is true of plug-in G.P.S. receivers that are sold as an add-on to a
Pocket PC or a P.D.A. (personal digital assistant).  Such devices as the Navman P
Series and the Rayming TN-206 Bluetooth G.P.S. Receiver vary in function and ease
of use, and range from about $150 to $350. Manufacturers and retailers strongly
recommend that a driver not try to operate the controls on this kind of unit while
the car is moving.

Midprice Portables

Because of the expense of built-in systems and the lack of function of the smaller
handheld units, midprice portable models are becoming popular. These include the
Garmin StreetPilot III, the Navman iCN 630 and the Magellan 750M Plus. They offer
the best features of the built-in systems and can be moved from one car to another
- or you can carry them with you if you're biking or concerned about theft. These
models cost about $500 to $1,800 and come loaded with a map database, but users
then may have to buy CD's of detailed street-level maps and travel data for a
specific geographic region. The data are transferred to the unit's memory via a
personal computer.

G.P.S. devices are sold in stores like Best Buy and Circuit City. Such Web sites
as www.gps-america.com and www.gps-store.net sell navigational systems
exclusively. Many are available directly from manufacturers' sites.
We bought our Garmin StreetPilot III last year for about $650 on Amazon.com and
then spent $250 to upgrade its memory and to buy street-level maps for all regions
of North America. It's a little black box the size of a pound of butter that has a
four-inch color screen and can run on standard AA batteries or plug into the car
cigarette lighter. We relied heavily on its routing function to plan our route
last summer.

We had very few problems with accuracy or outdated data. As a bonus, we made
several serendipitous discoveries thanks to its advice. The attractions database
led us to a tour of a coal mine in West Virginia that turned out to be one of the
most memorable experiences of the trip. We bumped our S.U.V. over a remote,
roughly paved but stunning "scenic route" through Idaho that we probably would
have avoided if we had not had faith that our guardian satellites would see us
through. And, since I was pregnant and our children are in the accident-prone age
group, it was a comfort to know that we could find the closest hospital.

Although the displays all have zoom-in-and-out function, the small screen limits
its ability to show large geographic areas, so we continued to use our road atlas.
The Garmin Web site (www.garmin.com) offers a guide to using the G.P.S. in
conjunction with traditional maps. It also has a guide to help the new user
understand how the simple earthbound husband and wife can harness the power of a
multibillion-dollar government investment to find the nearest restroom on I-95.
http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/03/travel/03prac.html

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