A week or two ago, while my parents were in town, we (Lucy, my parents and I) all had dinner with my godmother and her husband. My godmother was telling me how she had a hand-held GPS navigation device from NavMan. This piqued my interest a bit, as I've been wanting one for a while. (Since I can't really read the map while driving, I'm terrible with navigating, and Lucy has trouble giving me directions from the street directory. Sorry Lucy 
)
She told me about how you could speak to the device and give it a destination, and it would plot a course for you. The directions are then given when approaching specific points (e.g. "turn right in 300 metres"). I know these come standard with many cars nowadays (her husband has a CL500, and the one in there was apparently even better), but it's still a novelty to me. 
Looking on the NavMan website, though, the cheapest of the bunch is the iCN 510… at around A$900-1000. Ouchies. Maybe one day.
But that got me thinking about what else could be done with the GPS navigation systems. Directions are great, but there's no way to know if a particular road is closed, or has road works (as is very common in the city, with the construction of the Cross-City Tunnel). Similarly, if there's congestion along the Bridge or approaching the Tunnel toll booths (because some jackasses decide to cut into the normal lanes after speeding down the E-Tag lane… grumble grumble), or an accident in the Eastern Distributor (which is what happened the other day, stopping peak-hour traffic for a great deal of time), drivers won't know.
It'd be great if the RTA (or another associated entity) made use of the traffic monitoring cameras and knowledge of the conditions to broadcast this information to GPS navigation systems, which would then take into account any problems and provide an option to the driver to take a different route. I believe there's something to this effect in Europe (my Renault has a feature called "iTraffic", which I believe is supposed to do this), but integrating it with in-car navigation systems would be great.
Hmmm…
At least in the US, Acura provides a similar service using their navigation sysem and satellite radio. Of course, its only available for the larger cities and requires a subscription to XM Satellite radio’s traffic service (About $4 US a month). And currently this is only available on their flagship sedan, the RL, but will be rolled out to other models in the next year or two.
That is an interesting thought. It would save so much time if we could be forewarned about traffic conditions and road closures. However, it is probably just another way the government can make money off us though.
What an idea! They could rake in money (and appease the toll road companies) by funneling you into particular toll roads that aren’t particularly profitable.
“There is currently congestion on William Street. I suggest taking the Cross-City Tunnel.”
Is there any way that I can be traced using a GPS reciver thorugh internet, like if am outside and my GPS is working is there any application by which anybody can trace me sitting on computer?
My husband epitomizes the term “geographically challenged.” I’m surprised he can find his way from the house to car at times! LOL. He found this product and bought it. (I was skeptical because it was refurbished.) However, he’s 100% satisfied with this GPS. He uses it every time he’s in the car. He’s done all kinds of testing where he tries to fool the system. Without fail, it puts him back on the right track. I would recommend this to anyone who wants to get from Point A to Point B (especially a man who won’t ask for directions).