You have another reason to fear the robot revolution.
Navigon, maker of some of the more attractive GPS devices available is releasing an even more intelligent GPS navigator. Granted, most of the drivers in the world who use GPS devices already trust their lives to a small piece of machinery that’s just one simple voice command from driving them over a cliff and into certain death. But while you many not think that your GPS navigator needs to be smarter, Navigon disagrees.
Available this summer, the Navigon 4300T is a fully featured GPS device that packs all the usual features-a wide touch screen, text to speech, construction and traffic updating, Bluetooth for handing phone calls-the device also comes with an intelligent driving computer that learns the routes you prefer to take at which times of the day, and uses this data to better serve you with a route, all while taking into account traffic and accident warnings. The device will even suggest up to three different routes, and let you choose the one you want to take. Even better, live spoken traffic updates are included free for the life of the device-not shabby, considering that it costs $99 to add onto other models.
Similarly, the Navigon 3300 Max is a slimmed down device with the basic navigation software. Several add-ons will be available for the device when it’s released, including map updates and a Zagat application that will show restaurant ratings and reviews.
Ummmm…why would I need a GPS receiver to learn ‘my’ routes? Does anyone really use the GPS device to route them when they already know the route?!? Traffic, construction and accident info to the GPS is nice, but the fact that it learns what routes I like? That makes no sense.