I’ve just bought a new car – and it’s got Sat Nav (of sorts) inside – maybe I should clarify what exactly is in there. It’s a CD-driven system, running off what I believe may well be a TeleAtlas set of maps. The entry of destinations is via a scroll wheel, with a “head-up style” of display in between the speed/revs dials.
Anyway, what I have found is that this Sat Nav is faster and more accurate than both a dedicated Sat Nav system or a Mobile phone with GPS on-board! I have been conducting an entirely unscientific experiment over the last few days, running the car’s system against Sat Nav units, and some mobile devices over the last few days – this has leads me to some interesting conclusions:
• Accuracy – the cars system is more accurate, that’s for sure. It will announce when to take turns at precisely the right moment, rather than remaining quiet until after the turn, as other portable units do
• Laggy – the car’s Sat Nav is fast with the calculations required both initially to plan a route, and also with dynamic route updates whilst driving – both portable Sat Nav units and mobiles are slower at calculating / changing routes.
Why could this be? Well I could postulate:
• More processing power available in in-situ car unit (+ mains powered)
• Better/more satellites reception enabling better accuracy
• No Graphical display to update (well not a 3D map anyway), so runs faster
It might well be a combination of some or all of these reasons, but nonetheless, the car’s Sat Nav is a quicker unit, with accurate directions, that rarely falters.
Have any of you compared your car’s Sat Nav with those packages that Mobile Handset offers? What’s your opinion – should cars come with it as default? Let us know!
[Image via: Which.co.uk]