When TomTom and Toyota announced at Frankfurt that they were introducing “the first embedded portable sat-nav in the world”, it made a lot of sense to me. European buyers will soon be able to order up a Yaris with a built in dock for a portable TomTom unit. I like the idea of being able to pop out the unit and use it elsewhere, but in the car it will have a nice, factory integrated look. No suction cups, no dangling cords and you hear instructions via the car's speakers.
It's unclear if this option will spread to other models or if it will ever make its way here. Hopefully you should be able to upgrade to newer units when they are made available, because that is one of the biggest drawbacks up the factory units: sure you can change out the DVD, but you don't get to get the latest interface.
Speaking of interfaces, the latest units in GM cars looked great. When they picked us up in the new Enclave, the navigation really "popped" even from my seat in the second row. I really liked the fact that the navigation system showed landmarks. I've found that even with today's system, there are times when things a still a bit vague: I think 3D landmarks are the next step in making the right turn crystal clear.
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