Archive for the ‘Satellite Navigation’ Category

Here at TheCarConnection.com, we see a lot of gadgets designed to enhance the driving experience. Like the Mercedes-Benz mbrace system we mentioned yesterday, most are telematics devices offering directions, traffic news, and other familiar data. But MIT's SENSEable City Lab envisions something different: an onboard robot capable of giving drivers feedback on their driving style, reminding folks to buckle up, and generally providing a more "symbiotic" relationship between vehicle and driver. Most curiously, the Affective Intelligent Driving Agent -- code-named AIDA -- also conveys expressions via its Wall-E-esque, stylized human face. MIT...

First, the good news: technologically speaking, the Aha Mobile traffic app is at the front of the pack. It pairs the iPhone's built-in geolocation capabilities with data from INRIX, Yelp, SitOrSquat, and PhotoEnforced, making Aha your one-stop-shop for data on traffic, food, bathrooms, and speed cameras -- without having to deal with itty-bitty maps. Other features allow you to communicate with nearby drivers and post to Twitter and Facebook. Also, it's totally free.

The bad news? Aha works better in some cities than others, its geolocation tools occasionally go off-track, it's a memory hog, and it's somewhat unstable. But as long as Aha is...

Navigation systems using GPS seem to be behind a whole host of bad behavior. They lead BMW drivers to the brink of cliffs, and now they're causing truck drivers in New York State to drive into bridges.

The engineering magazine IEEE Spectrum reports that GPS devices are directing truckers, especially out-of-state drivers unfamiliar with the region, onto limited-access parkways that ban commercial traffic and have bridges too low for modern tractor-trailer rigs.

The New York State Department of Transportation cites more than 1,400 truck-into-bridge accidents over the past 15 years, with the vast majority of them on the Hutchinson River Parkway...