AP News: Toyota Cars in Japan Can Map Best Routes

DarquePervert · 04-11-2007, 04:59 PM

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Quote:

Toyota Cars in Japan Can Map Best Routes

Apr 11, 12:57 PM (ET)

By YURI KAGEYAMA

TOKYO (AP) - Toyota cars in Japan will soon sport up-to-date roadmap and traffic data so drivers can instantly learn the quickest routes.

Toyota Motor Corp. (TM) said the service will include a "map on demand" with constantly updated information on the nation's roads. The car maker will roll out the technology next month in all new models sold in Japan.

The basic offering, G-Book mX, uses a cell-phone connection and is free. The driver needs to buy navigation equipment and pay the phone bill. The more advanced G-Book mX Pro comes with an on-board data-transmission device. Costing $100 annually after a free year, it has extra features such as automatically alerting authorities when an air bag inflates.

Besides constantly updating map data that's available in the car, the service tracks how quickly cars are moving and sends the information to a central computer system. That way, traffic congestion can be factored in when the device is calculating routes, Toyota officials said.

The new service is more accurate than the electronic route-mapping systems now available, they said, because it has access to information collected from thousands of Toyota cars on the road.

All the world's automakers offer versions of such services, but they tend to target luxury car owners and aren't as zealous about delivering the latest updates.

Toyota Executive Vice President Akio Toyoda said a similar service will be offered in China but did not say when. Plans in the United States and other foreign markets are still undecided.

(AP) Toyota Motor Corp. Executive Vice President Akio Toyoda points G-Book mX screen as he announces...

EricE · 04-11-2007, 05:05 PM

Sounds cool but I can see it being used as Big Brother. The central computer knows where you are and how fast you are going. It is unclear if it knows WHO you are.

Nomader · 04-11-2007, 05:14 PM

let's put some cameras in the car interiors for security..

and the system
will be aware of what is happening in the back seat

MobiTekLink · 04-19-2007, 03:31 PM

They're doing this anyway, and they havent' actually done it already due to civil rights concerns.
They were talking about municipalities checking cell phone tower signals, they even know in urban areas whether or not the cars are in a car as opposed to pedestrians.
They need to know this first in more autocratic and homogeneous countries like Korea, JP, etc before they can do it here. We Americans care more about protecting criminals/Terrorists sometimes than to provide the majority of people with valuable data.

MatrixPC · 04-20-2007, 03:44 PM

They have to make the best route because traffic in big cities is insane. Last time (2002) I was in Japan (Tokyo, Kobe, Kansai) for a tour, it took 30 min to go 1km during rust hr with no accident. The driver said that it was normal.