Laptop vs. In-Vehicle Nav System
Why purchase an In-Vehicle aftermarket navigation system instead of using laptop computer software?

  1. Laptop computers were designed to be used as information storage and retrieval systems, and not so much as In-Vehicle Navigation systems. You can take a 25” color TV from your house and use a power inverter to watch T.V in your vehicle, but why would you want to? You match your needs with what is available and best suited foVr the condition. A 12 volt TV with a 7” color display monitor designed for the car will be more suitable for an in vehicle entertainment system. A laptop computer monitor is not designed to be used under direct sunlight and does not perform well under those conditions. And most In-Car Navigation system display monitors are designed to be 4 times brighter then a laptop computer, and is engineered to be used in the vehicle under some direct sunlight conditions! Not to mention that most laptops are not actually designed for ‘true mobile' use. I.E. they can be transported, but generally the on board HDD is not designed to take the beating an in car navigation system gets while in operation. For example the PCMCIA HDD used on the Pathmaster is designed to survive, and continue operating after taking a 100g hit. This is equivalent to falling about 3 feet onto a solid concrete floor! The HDD and display are designed to operate in temperature limits that far exceed laptops, because that's what you get in your car. Most HDD's are not designed to operate at temperatures over 50C, 121 F. This is a common temperature in many vehicles when parked in the summer months. In some places, 160 degrees is possible! The LCD displays in most laptops just don't function when they get that hot, and they don't function very well when the temperature in the vehicle gets below about 40F either. Frankly, laptops are designed to be used in places that you can work with your street clothes... That's why vehicle navigation systems use “Industrial Rated” HDD's, PCMCIA HDD's or CD ROMs. These devices have been specifically designed to take this sort of abuse. Your laptop wasn't... And of course, if your laptop is damaged, not only does it NOT fulfill your vehicle navigation needs, it won't do anything else for you either! So lets say you are using it for navigation, and it has your power point presentation for an audience of 500. How are you going to make the presentation if it gets damaged due to it falling in reaction to a sudden accident avoidance maneuver while driving, or the HDD has failed as a result of operation out side the environmental limits for it?

    Laptops are valuable, and have wide general use, so you can't leave it in the car, nor can you easily hide it. Most vehicle Nav systems can be installed either in trunks, or under seats, leaving very little for a potential thief to notice.

    Use the right navigation system to fit your needs! Don't compromise!
     
  2. A customer will have to currently own or purchase a laptop that will perform with some of the aftermarket map software currently available. For example: Delorme Road Worrier / version 8.0 map software or something comparable. The only drawback with this map software is that when it is used in laptop computer for navigation, it cannot reroute you when you take a wrong turn. You will have to pull over and reprogram the computer map software again for a new route.

    Vehicle Navigation systems use multiple sensors to provide essentially an inertial guidance system that is COMPLETELY independent of the GPS. It is crosschecked when possible, but can provide accurate guidance information for many miles between fixes. This is something GPS only systems are completely incapable of. This guidance either comes from obtaining this information via an onboard gyro, vehicle speed and reverse sensors (which are on the vehicle as inputs to things like cruise control, and the engine management computers that are on virtually all vehicles built since the mid 1980's. Some of the later versions of Vehicle Navigation systems have eliminated the need for these inputs from the vehicle, by incorporating all of the components of a true inertial guidance system much as you would find in a commercial airliner. These sensors are able to detect movement and measure acceleration in all directions.

     
  3. The laptop computer does not have additional needed sensors to guide the navigation system if the GPS signal is lost. Most In-Vehicle navigation systems incorporate the use of a Gyro, Speed Sensor Input, Reverse Circuit Input, and map matching software along with Dead Reckoning Technology to keep the user on course, even if the GPS signal is lost. A laptop computer does not have these extra sensor inputs. When only 1 out of the 4 sensors are available, the laptop unit would become crippled if it loses its input from that sensor. A laptop computer using GPS map software is just that. It only uses GPS signals to position the vehicle, and if the GPS signal is lost, users are lost!
     
     
  4. Most laptop GPS map software is not aware of turn restrictions like, ”No left turns between 9-5PM”. Or other restrictions like, one-way streets, speed limits and, stop signs compared to stop lights. Another problem you will encounter with laptop GPS map software is that sometimes streets or highways that are shown to cross each other on the map don't necessarily merge together in reality. This might be due to the fact that the road is above you, like an over pass that crosses a main road 60 feet above the road, and no physical entrance exists to merge on to the overpass! Nor are they aware of things like divide roads like parkways, where there may in fact be a median strip between you and the left turn it tells you to take! Vehicle navigation systems need a lot of data that isn't strictly GPS map data. If your generating maps, you show roads, and where they go. Maps generally don't tell you if there is a median strip, a no left turn sign, or a one-way street, yet this information is absolutely essential to a vehicle navigation system.
    Most laptop GPS software will have these errors due to a lack of information in the map database. However, NAVTEQ maps already have this information and utilize it!
     
     
  5. Without the knowledge of speed limits, turn restrictions, stop lights vs. stop signs, most laptop GPS software will not be able to determine the quickest route, shortest route, most or least use of freeways, or avoid toll roads! In-Vehicle Navigation Systems use NAVTEQ map software that is specially designed for use in these systems. NAVTEQ map software already contains this type of information to help users navigate their vehicle correctly and more efficiently.
     
  6. A laptop takes up 5 to 6 times the space that an In-Vehicle Navigation system does. This is space the passengers need or use. A laptop is much more cumbersome to use and in the way most of the time. It takes the driver much longer to navigate through the map software program because the keyboard is not design to be used as a vehicle navigation input device. It takes the drivers full attention to use the laptop program. The aftermarket In-Car navigation system normally takes only a few clicks of the input keypad to navigate quickly and safely to the programmed destination.
     
    An even greater concern is how do you securely mount the laptop so it can run, and you can see the screen? A slight error here, and when you make a hard turn, or have to stop short to avoid an accident, your laptop goes sailing. A short review of the cost of repairing a laptop should convince most just how bad an idea this really is unless you like spending money. The laptop was priced competitively, however they figure once you own it, it is like a car. The parts are not priced competitively. If, for instance you break the display, on many laptops, the cost of replacing the screen is nearly as much as you paid for the entire laptop...
     
  7. Laptop programs go as far as asking you to input zip codes or the State that you are in while programming. Most In-Vehicle navigation systems only ask for the city, street name, and number. That's because the GPS receiver, along with Dead Reckoning, already knows where the vehicle location is at all times. You just need to tell it where you want to go and it will navigate you there safely and quickly!

    A laptop computer is great if you do not wish to use a paper map but you cannot compare a laptop computer with a True GPS In-vehicle navigation system. The best comparison will be comparing a Sport Utility Vehicle to a Race Car, they both can do the same thing by getting to your final destination, but one will take much longer to accomplish if you are driving in an off road terrain condition and you have a Race Car to compete with! It can be done but with much greater effort. Use the right tool for the right JOB!

  

 

 

Auto Nav 2000 Plus, Inc. specializing in sales, service, and professional installation of GPS vehicle navigation systems and GPS tracking devices AVL fleet solutions. Sometimes referred to as car navigation, in-car navigation, or GPS navigation, portable GPS systems, PNAV, PND these systems are specifically designed to help guide you while driving to get to your destination by providing either audio voice instructions, a visual map representation or both.

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