The best feature of the system was the large,
well-lit display that was easily visible to the driver, a feature that
can help to avoid excessive neck and eye strain while navigating the
vehicle.The street maps were clearly displayed with cartographic
quality
annotation.Voice commands facilitate navigation and the screen will
refresh
automatically as the location of the vehicle moves beyond the bounding
rectangle of the area on the screen.The Lexus website even touts the
fact that
this model is Bluetooth enabled so that an alternative way to input a
destination is by typing the phone number on your Bluetooth enabled
phone and
the system will do a lookup on the address.
Editor's Analysis: GDT was most
interested in noting that the contract with
Denso was a major move into the in-vehicle navigation market, sending
notice to
NAVTEQ that its dominant market share position had a suitable
competitor.Indeed, GDT's entry into this market was a necessary
investment given NAVTEQ's years of near total dominance for in-vehicle
systems.As in-vehicle systems become more ubiquitous on other
makes and models of cars, NAVTEQ and Tele Atlas will need to
enhance their product offerings with different content besides simply
streets and points of interest.Each company is already making
alliances with other content providers for real-time gasoline prices
and weather information as well as wireless companies who can
deliver these data.