"Short Wave Sportfishing" wrote in message
...
On Wed, 19 Sep 2007 08:05:44 -0700, Chuck Gould
wrote:

On Sep 19, 3:04?am, wrote:
3. Set notifications for your travel route- No more missing an exit on
a freeway, and then taking a 3-mile detour! Your GPS navigator can
guide you along the way so that you don't miss any turns or highway
exits...http://personaltechinfo.googlepages....e_your_new_gps

4. Get so damn distracted playing with the buttons and watching the
screen that you run into somebody else, with injury or death a
possible result.

You mean like distracted listening to the radio or CD player? Or your
cell phone?

They are no more or no less dangerous than any other car compartment
device. Including air conditioning.

We've got one of those devices built into the wife's 400H. It has a
safety feature included that makes it impossible to do very much with
the screen unless the transmission is in Park. I'd be astonished to
learn that the portable units selling for a few hundred bucks and
plugging into the 12V cig-lighter fitting are similarly equipped. The
Lexus also has a "voice recognition" system that allows the driver to
name a pre-programmed destination, say "begin guidance", and then the
system will give verbal instructions that don't require looking at the
screen. "Take next exit, 1 mile ahead", "Take exit in 1/2 mile", "Take
exit 200 yards ahead", "Exit now, turn right at end of ramp...." No
visual interaction with the screen required. Why in blazes would
anybody mount something on top of the dashboard, where it would block
vision whether in use or not?

All portable devices have the ability to turn off the device, or cause
it to go dormant, at or above a certain speed.

Mine also has voice recognition, but I don't use it. I can also use
it to stream data from traffic cams, hook it into my cell phone and
have automatic reroutes based on traffic reports - all done
automatically.

Cost me $200.

Your review mirror is mounted on the windshield and if you have a toll
pass system (like EZ Pass) that has to be mounted on the windshield.
And if your state goes to milage based usage fees for highways based
on GPS, you are going to see a lot of windshield mounted devices for
those autos that don't have accesible data from a GPS.

My GPS is located on my dash board in plain view and blocks nothing of
my vision. I would be happy to supply you with an image of same.

I see the near collisions, disregard for rules of the road, unsafe
passing, and failure to moderate wake when appropriate that result
from people allowing the electro nav stuff to run their boats.

I would be more concerned at the amount of drug or alcohol impaired
drivers than somebody playing with their GPS.

With all these new electronic automotive items, would it be smart for the
auto industry to build a shelf into the grill with built in connectors to
mount all these new gadgets coming down the pike?