Garmin intros roadcam-fed satnavs Garmin has pushed its latest satnav out of the garage, adding a novel feature to the list of satnav regulars: live traffic cam pictures. Yes, the NüLink 2300 line of GPS gadgets - different models provide different maps - will feed you video from roadside cameras to convince Doubting Thomas motorists that the gadget is right …
I have to agree that the idea of distracting drivers from the traffic building up in front of them with the option of looky-loo camera updates is probably not a good safety feature.
I have seen that in the event of a crash, the Highways Agency often stop the publicly available camera feeds anyway.
Because nobody ever checks the traffic whilst parked (or already stuck on other traffic) and this feature can only be used whilst someone is driving, and only by the driver, and the people who would allow themselves to be distracted by fiddling with satnavs or watching real-time 'Police Camera Action' whilst driving cannot possibly find another wheeze to distract themselves with...
/sarcasm
Aren't single purpose Sat Nav devices somewhat obsolete.
Along with their ridiculously over priced map replacements. I mean why would I pay £60 + for a map of America when the English is already out of date and the device only cost me £100 in the first place.
I'll be glad to see these device consigned to the draw reserved for over priced out dated technology.
UK company mxdata with their TrafficTV application has been doing this since, well as long ago as I can remember, on Symbian, Windows Mobile, and obviously more recently on Android (amongst others?). They used to have moving pictures but then ACPO Ltd or someone told them they could only have still images, which was a shame as it then became near-impossible to distinguish between a stationary traffic queue and a frozen-video fault in the camera feed.
Me like. Me not connected with mxdata, except as a multi-year happy paying customer.
...but the Traffic receiver that you can already get for Garmins, does this job fine without the camera feeds to back it up. It works very well (as long as you are not "blessed" with a still buggy firmware that causes shutdowns with the traffic add-on), without the extra distraction, and the service is FM based (so reliable), and reasonably priced at £30p/a.
I keep hearing that dedicated Navs have no future, and I couldn't agree less - some of us find the focused, single purpose unit extremely good at what it does, which is way better than any "generic platform" based similar version. For touring across Europe, on a pre-planned route, taking in specific roads/tourist hotspots, for decent routing, for good screens in direct sunlight, for waterproof usability (I use my Garmin on the motorbike and in the car), coupled with the range of mounts, bluetooth conectivity, and travel apps, I think at the non-basic navigation end of the market, navs will be with us for a long time yet (with or without traffic cam feeds).
(I certainly hope so, anyway!! ;) :) )
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