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Just a thought - with the advent of the pre-programmed "safety devices" would it be a good idea for these to be installed in trucks and buses and be programmed to include such things as low bridges etc. For motorists they could also be programmed to warn of accident blackspots and other features such as filling stations. Presumably you could then tell it what you wanted notifying of. If such extra safety / convenience features were included it would then be difficult for the DFT to argue that this type of kit should be banned.
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I'm all for anything which alerts the driver to hazards around him, but all against anything which prevents the driver controlling his vehicle.
German law requires the driver to be in absolute control of the car, with no input from satellite-controlled speed limiters and suchlike.
If the Germans had not such a strong law, we might well see the Leeds University project kit being installed soon. In a 30mph limit it can be set to stop the vehicle travelling faster, even to avoid an accident.
Roughly translated, part of the German reasoning is that nobody could ever be charged with speeding, the speed would be nothing to do with the driver, but set by "big brother".
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The device i would like to see, alas as far as I am aware does not yet exist. It goes like this.
I would like a full blown sat nav system. Friend of mine has a very good VDO full colour screen system that does an excelent job. Does not have *TMC on it tho. The problem is that altho you can enter waypoints or points of interest, it does not have (and as far as I am aware nor does any other system) a computer input port. here is the nub. I would like the sat nav to accept a common database input, so I could load in a speed camera database, an accident blackspot database, MS autoroute pushpins database, etc etc. This is not rocket science, most sat navs run an imbeded unix type system so its easy to incorporate a com port.
The only thing that comes close is a MS pocket PC device, but the usefulness is limited by screen size and memory.
*Is TMC working in the uk?
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The Kane Car Pilot has the ability to have databases uploaded to it as it is a pda as well. The screen isn't massive but there is a speech function to warn you of upcoming objects. I'm afraid I don't know the website but a search provides a lot of onformation.
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The Kane Car Pilot has the ability to have databases uploaded to it as it is a pda as well. The screen isn't massive but there is a speech function to warn you of upcoming objects. I'm afraid I don't know the website but a search provides a lot of onformation.
Thanks for the info, yes this a pocket pc device. Having used a proper DVD based Sat Nav with a 7 inch screen, it makes PDA devices running tom tom navigator type routing look silly. They do however have the flexibility thats required.
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>>Is TMC working in the uk?
Yes, I have it on my VDO Sat Nav. And very useful it is too.
On your other points, a colleague has a road angel which is apparantly GPS driven, and plugs his laptop into it. He uses it for Sat Nav, but I guess you could do pretty much anythign you want with it.
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Yes Mark that is an option, some of the dedicated GPS camera locators do have an output for the GPS raw data, that can be hooked into a PC to run on say MS autoroute. Bit clumsy tho.
What model is your VDO?
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>>What model is your VDO?
MS 5400 (I think).
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I\'ve found the website of the Kane Car Pilot I was talking about earlier if anyone is interested.
www.kanegear.com
I don\'t know if that will come up as a hyperlink, maybe Mark could alter it for me if its doesn\'t. Thanks
Jonathan
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