CES 2008: XM and Sirius Talk In-Car Navigation

It seems car tech is all the rage lately. Bluetooth enabled vehicles, Microsoft's Sync, and On-Star are all prominently featured in car commercials these days as major selling point for vehicle lines. Why not expand our driving experience? Many of us spend a large amount of time everyday in our vehicles getting to and from work and social engagements, so why not find ways to enhance that experience?

Both XM and Sirius unveiled their new navigation technology yesterday at CES (when are these two going to merge, already!), which, not surprisingly, did not seem too horribly different than each other. The XM system was more of a graphical upgrade to the streams, which is nice, but it also added channels for traffic, sports scores, weather and potentially parking-assist and gas finder. No announcement was made for partnerships just yet. The Sirius system, Sirius Travel Link, while including many of the features of the XM system, showed nice touches and improvements. The navigation system is designed to read traffic and create re-routes if things get too congested, the weather system allows you to check the forecast is a few different ways, and a gas-finder with prices so you can find the cheapest gas in the area. Sirius Travel Link was announced to be included in the Ford Flex and Lincoln MKS.

It seems to me that these services are a natural extension of the satellite radio world, and a great fit for car tech. The neatest feature of the Sirius system, in my opinion, is when you have your phone connected via Bluetooth. You can search for movies, for example, and once you find the movie and ticket time, simply push a button and the system will call the theater so you can buy tickets, then set up a route to get there. That's the kind of integration I want to see before I hop on the GPS bandwagon. (well, I suppose I'd have to actually start using my car too...)

[via: CNET]