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We were riding on the highway this afternoon and this car just happened to have a GPS navigation system. It has a pretty slick interface and it will talk to you and everything, but it had absolutely no idea where the golf course was. We entered in the name of the town and the name of the golf course and it returned results to courses in a “database” that came pre-loaded on a DVD. These results are rarely updated with new landmarks because people have to install the new updates and the CD’s sometimes cost upwards of $200. That is only an estimate because of a co-worker of mine that asked about it for his Honda Odyssey. Here is a tip on how to improve this service. Listen up carmakers.

First off, the interface for the navigation system was pretty slick. It used a good spelling interface to jump to letters that may possibly follow a letter that was input into the system. It is sort of like the T9 word interface on cell phones. Here’s what I am peeved about, a golf course that has been there for over 50 years cannot be found, but real time traffic can be easily accessed by the system? COME ON. OK, maybe that isn’t THAT big of a deal, but it is quite dangerous to use the system while you are driving. The state of New York has banned cell phones and they should ban the use of these “interactive” GPS’s as well. Clearly, the main problem is looking down at your phone to call someone. Well, it is no different using this system. The LCD is in the dash and there is a little wheel and joystick to move stuff around. GREAT IDEA (sarcasm). Hey let’s crash into other cars while we are searching for where we are going! What’s that? Voice activated? Yeah, here’s my gripe about that too.

Sure you train your car to “learn your voice”. But the few instances where I have seen the user voice activate something, let’s just say it was like buttered toast taped to the back of a cat, you throw it up in the air and you have no idea which side it’s going to land on. It just keeps spinning in mid-air. That’s how it looked like it was going. The user said “Restaurants” and then the car responded with “RADIO ON”. Then he said, “Restaurants”, and the car wryly responded with, “RADIO OFF”. Yeah, need I say more?

All in all, the navigation is great and I would definitely use it, but the interface and heads up display needs to be updated. The display should be embedded onto the windshield of the car where it was still visible, but the driver is still paying attention to the road. Voice Activation is not the way to go in the car. But a touch sensitive steering wheel where it is designed like the touch wheel on an iPod. So all the controls are not necessarily on the middle spoke of the wheel, but on the outer rim of the steering wheel. A touch of a button can turn the system on or off. Couple that with some cellular broadband into your car and you have a system that is dynamic and functional. So for now, Google map your directions and keep them cell phones holstered. Happy Driving!