Subject: [NEXTEL-1] Where do I get offf? Cell phone tells me Motorola's Viamoto service brings turn-by-turn satellite guidance to the masses.

From: [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 27 Apr 2004 04:09:39 -0400

Where do I get offf? Cell phone tells me Motorola's Viamoto service
brings turn-by-turn satellite guidance to the masses.

April 23, 2004: 12:32 PM EDT

By Peter Valdes-Dapena, CNN/Money staff writer

MEDIA, Penn. (CNN/Money) - Electronic navigation
systems are a popular option in luxury cars, where the
integrated systems with color maps can cost thousands.
Now Motorola, in conjunction with Nextel, has rolled out
turn-by-turn navigation for the common man.

There is no tricky installation -- no maps to load, no CD-Roms.
It's just a cell phone, a suction-cup mounted cradle and a
cigarette lighter power adapter. That's it.

Motorola's Viamoto technology is currently
available through Nextel at a price of $9.95 plus
data download charges. (Nextel's Total Connect
plan costs $9.99 for 1 megabyte of data per
month.) The service and phone are also
available for $9.95 a day when you rent a car
from Avis.

The Viamoto-enabled phone I tested looked like
a low-tech hard-working cell phone, a G.I. Joe
walkie-talkie in a land of sleek, folding camera
phones.

It had a plenty-loud speakerphone, however,
through which it blurts out turn-by-turn
directions from its post in the
windshield-mounted cradle.

Destination addresses could be keyed in directly -- a somewhat
tiresome process on a phone keypad -- or called in to an actual
person who keys in the address on a computer so that it can
be quickly downloaded to the phone.

Addresses can also be added from the Viamoto.com Web site.
Enter the addresses before you take your trip and they'll
already be loaded on your phone when you need them.

As you drive, your route is automatically calculated based on
your current position, discerned through Global Positioning
Satellite technology. Along the way, your position is
continuously updated and instructions are given step-by-step
as you go, just like the pricey systems.

On the road

To get a sense of how well the Viamoto system worked, I
brought it along on a five-day driving trip to visit family
scattered throughout southeastern Pen nsylvania.

I enjoy a nice, long drive but I'm a poor navigator. I'm terrible
with maps, worse with spoken directions and I always get left
and right mixed up. When it comes time to buy my next car, I
hope to get one of those fancy in-car navigation systems. For
the time being, the Viamoto promised to be the next best
thing.

During our trip, the Viamoto generally did its job well, especially
considering its price. Outside of New York City, at least, it
delivered on the promise of helping me arrive at my desired
destinations and it even helped me find a couple of places I
didn't know existed.

It did have a few problems, though.

Some were issues endemic to any kind computerized navigation
system. One was the tendency to choose a complicated route
that saves a nominal amount of time over a simpler,
easier-to-drive route that might take a little bit longer.

The list of businesses under the phone's "Search Directory"
function also had some holes in it. In one instance it failed to
turn up a Border's book store when we were half-mile away
from it, directing us instead to one in Wilmington, Del.

Roads that have more than one name were a bigger hassle.

We tried to go to a produce market that was near the
intersection of Routes 3 and 252. The market's name did not
appear in the directory. When I tried to enter the intersection,
that didn't work either. When I called an agent for help, I was
told with great confidence that no such intersection existed.

In fact, it does and the market is there. But at the juncture,
the roads have names (Newtown Street Road and West
Chester Pike) in addition to their route numbers. When the
Viamoto failed, I was forced to rely on old-fashoned directions
provided by mere humans. A terrible disappointment.

The road less travelled

On the plus side, the device did find a nice little playground for
my young son in the small suburb of Media, Penn. It also
allowed me to ply a new route between towns of West Goshen
and Media, which I never would have dared attempt on my
own.

Thanks to Viamoto, I was treated to views of 200-year-old
farm houses and stone bridges rather than billboards and
office parks. And I got to my mother's home a few minutes
faster.

A couple of times, I missed a turn because of vague or slightly
mis-timed instructions. (There were frequent intersections
marked only by quaint, hard-to-read little signs.) Landmarks
are easier to see than street signs, but for now, a computer
can't tell you to turn left at the 7-11.

When I did miss a turn, at least I was immediately alerted. I
pulled over and pressed the "reroute" button and got back on
my way.

I quickly learned that, when uncertain, I should just go
somewhere. If I guessed right, fine. If not, I'd find out soon
enough.

The lack of an overall map view can be disconcerting, especially
for those who are skeptical of the technology and want to see
where they're being sent before they start driving. The
cell-phone screen is simply far too small to show a map, but
the device does offer a step-by-step text overview of the route
before pressing a button starts the one-step-at-a-time talking
guide.

Viamoto didn't work so well
when I tried it in New York
City. Problems there,
Motorola insists, are caused
by the preponderence of tall
buildings which interfere with
the system's global
positioning technology.

So, if you're driving through
a "concrete canyon," go with
the low-tech route and ask a
cop or a taxi driver. But if
you live someplace with
enough open sky over your
head, Viamoto could make a
decent alternative to the
pricey navigation systems.

It's not perfect, of course,
but neither are cops and taxi
drivers. And it's definitely
better than asking me.

http://money.cnn.com/2004/04/13/technology/personaltech/viamoto/
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