Text messaging while driving is quickly making its way into law books across the US, and so is even talking on your phone. However, that leaves a bit of a gray area as far as using maps and GPS on your smartphone, but the State of California has cleared up the confusion and officially made it a law that you can’t use the GPS function on your smartphone unless it’s hands-free.
The California appeals court ruling essentially states that using your phone in any way while driving will get you a ticket, even if you’re trying to look up where your old friend lives. Of course, the problem doesn’t exactly lie with using GPS while driving, but using GPS to look down at your phone to type in an address to scroll through a map.
You can still use your phone while driving, but it must be completely hands-free, meaning that you have to hook it up via Bluetooth and use voice control to navigate through your phone. Of course, a recent study determined that even hands-free use of a phone is still dangerous, since your brain still focuses its attention on the phone, rather than on the road.
However, there are a lot of loopholes in the new law. For instance, many newer cars come with navigation systems built into the dashboard, and many of them are completely touch-controlled, which means it’s essentially the same thing as using the GPS on your smartphone, only it’s built into the car. These are still legal, but we’re guessing that auto makers will be more aware of creating navigation systems that are more voice-controlled — not only to follow the law, but to actively make driving safer.
It looks like Apple may be jumping back into the Maps business, and in order to do so, it has acquired the indoor-GPS startup, WifiSLAM. The company was a startup that came to fruition about two years ago with the help of one of its co-founders, ex-Google software engineer intern, Joseph Huang. Before it was acquired by Apple, the company helped app developers add indoor mapping features to their retail and social networking apps.
Sources stated that Apple purchased the small startup for $20 million. The news was later confirmed by an Apple spokesman who said that Apple “buys smaller technology companies from time to time.” Google has already jumped into the indoor-mapping game and it currently offers indoor mapping services for several locations, including certain airports, retail venues, and sports venues.
WifiSLAM works by allowing mobile apps to detect the user’s locations using the WiFi signals in the building. The service says that by only using ambient WiFi signals, your smartphone can pinpoint you to 2.5m accuracy. Not only is the startup used to help with indoor navigation, but it is also used to help create proximity-based social networking apps, and improve retail customer engagement.
Apple will most likely use the startup to add an indoor-mapping feature to its Maps app, but there are also many other possibilities that the startup can offer. Apple may also have a difficult time convincing customers to use its Maps app again. The app was notorious for giving bad directions, something that several people in Australia can account for. But of course, it’s Apple, so I’m sure the company will find some way to convince consumers to give Maps a second chance.
This week the folks at TomTom have made it clear that the TomTom Rider will not be fading into obscurity, re-releasing a new iteration of the device with the same name here in 2013 with a brand new set of specifications and features. This device is made to sit on and with your motorcycle and allow you to get guided in real time, find local hotspots, and share routes with fellow bikers wirelessly via Bluetooth. They’ll need a TomTom Rider as well, of course, so pick up a few!
This version of the TomTom Rider allow you to use Bluetooth to listen in on directions inside your helmet – all you’ll beed is a pair of Bluetooth-friendly earbuds. There’s a new charging bike dock with this model that turns the device on or off with the ignition on the bike you’re riding, and the display you’re working with is improved as well. This newly enhanced 4.3-inch screen is touch-friendly and biker glove-friendly – so you wont have to de-glove each time you want to tap!
The lovely scene and mini-movie you’re seeing above should encourage you to pick one of these devices up, if only because it makes you feel so flowery and friendly inside. According to Managing Director of TomTom Consumer Corinne Vigreux, the TomTom team sought out feedback from motorbike communities that they then used to create this newest-gen device. They found that “the overwhelming majority of bikers use their motorcycle for recreational purposes”, this leading the TomTom team to include features that allow the biker to find and ride “the best scenic routes in the world.”
With Tyre software you’ll be able to search and create routes on your PC at home before you head off into the wild blue yonder, uploading them to your TomTom Rider device before you head out. From there you’ll be able to share the route with fellow riders (as mentioned above) with this device’s “Upload Routes and Go” feature. You’ll be able to use this device in all types of weather without worrying about damage, and you’ve got Free Lifetime Maps with your purchase as well – updates forever, free!
All this and more are available for pre-order today for 329.99 GBP or MSRP $299 USD – get pumped up about the Summer season right this minute! Note: that’s a MASSIVE price cut compared to the 2nd Gen model of the Rider – things are looking up!
Before Apple released their own free mapping solution, a lot of iOS users resorted to third-party apps that offered free GPS turn-by-turn navigation, and Waze was one of the few that many users turned to. Now that Google Maps and Apple Maps are available, Waze has been becoming less important for travelers. However, the company has reported that in 2012 alone, 500 million map edits were made by 65,000 users.
Furthermore, the app’s 36 million users shared a total of 90 million “reports,” which include things like speed traps, road hazards, and accidents. In total, Waze recorded over 6 billion miles of driving from its 36 million users. That’s a lot of gas — approximately $850 million worth based on an average 25 MPG and a gas price average of $3.54 according to the EIA.
What’s perhaps even more astonishing, is that the app has reached 110 countries. Plus, back in December, the company revealed that map issues are practically fixing themselves thanks to community-driven editing capabilities. On average, map editors are resolving nearly 70% of problems in any given 30-day period, and almost all user-reported map errors are fixed within a week.
Back in October, Waze revealed that their map-editing community was growing extremely quickly, with a 40% month-over-month increase in new editors. The app’s newest feature, which now includes gas stations and their latest prices, have become increasingly popular amongst users, and for good reason. The first month of the feature being live resulted in over 50,000 gas stations being added.
This year the automotive world really stepped it up when it comes to technological breakthroughs, especially when it came to connecting to drivers’ personal mobile devices. What we’ve seen was everything from integration of mobile chipsets into automobile systems to wireless connectivity to smartphones from many of the top car and truck brands across the spectrum. Have a peek at some of the highlights in our 2012 run-down right this minute!
Note: the following set of vehicles and technology is in no particular order – the innovations we’re seeing this year are essentially all groundbreaking as we’re seeing the dawn of the mobile connectivity age in auto right before our eyes!
Audi A6: Google Maps, NVIDIA Tegra SoC, Bang and Olufsen audio
Back in January of this year we heard direct from Audi that they’d be teaming up with NVIDIA to bring the Tegra 3 quad-core mobile chipset to their automotive lineup. The Audi A6 took the opportunity to work with that processor and bust out a lovely touchscreen panel with 3D Google Earth views that the pilot is able to control on the fly. There’s also a touchpad where you can write commands to the vehicle one letter at a time as well as voice controls for next-generation control.
This machine works with Bang & Olufsen audio to keep your beats strong, and Audi assures the user that they’ve got plans for upgradeable entertainment and graphics modules as well. Keep an eye on our Tegra Portal to see NVIDIA continue working to bring high-powered processing to the market!
Tesla Model S: the year’s most infamous electric vehicle
The Tesla Model S has been in the news for months upon months now, gaining a spot up at the top of the “best of 2012″ lists for auto publications galore here near the end of the year. This machine is the flagship of the Tesla fleet and works with a collection of massive battery options – have at its birth the longest range of any electric vehicle on the planet.
This machine works with a beastly 17-inch capacitive touch LCD display with built-in navigation (with seven years of free updates if you pick the right package) and connection to a high-definition rear-view camera. This machine is shifting the way we work with cars here in the now, an essential cog in the machine that drives us toward an all-electric vehicle set for humanity.
Fisker Karma: a lot of bad press for a radical plug-in hybrid luxury sports sedan
What we saw with the Fisker Karma this year was nothing short of a negative press nightmare with two major recalls, one starting in December of 2011 and reverberating through the press through 2012, the other logged in August of 2012. The first recall was for a battery fire risk caused by coolant leakage, the second was for a faulty cooling fan unit. Then there were several fires, one of them in May in Fort Bend County, Texas, another in August in Woodside, California. After a single vehicle model has more than a couple incidents with it such as these, the press tends to pick up even the most minor incident – the result was that this futuristic beast had a lot more “negative” visibility than it did positive in 2012.
On the other hand, Fisker hasn’t fallen to the press. They’re bringing on the Fisker Atlantic EV early in the year and a new $100 million dollar investment round in September. They’ve also got plans for a less expensive vehicle by the name of Fisker Atlantic which will be appearing no sooner than 2014.
BMW 3 Series and friends: packed tight with technological mainstays
The folks at BMW have brought on a fabulous mix of high-tech features to not just their 3 Series and X3 SUVs, but the BMW X1 Crossover [check out our full review here] as well, most notably with the iconic center control station you see in the photo below. BMW comes correct on more than one model this year with blind spot detection, heads-up displays, lane departure warnings, and both rear and side parking cameras so you’ll never miss that rambunctious pet of yours.
BMW brings on adaptive cruise control, auto-high-beams, and internet integration with your center stack display – you’ll want to pick up a brand new 3 Series or X3 SUV for every single one of these features should you pick up the right package. It’s not going to come on cheap, but BMW created some of the most impressive packages the whole year long.
Ford Focus: an affordable line of forward-thinking vehicles for the whole family
The Ford Focus lineup includes several lovely little beasts pumped full of technological features, including the hatchback, the sedan, Focus ST with EcoBoost engine, C-Max station wagon / MPV coming in two iterations (hybrid and plug-in hybrid), and the fabulous Focus Electric. These vehicles each have their own fabulous feature high-marks like electric power-assist steering, iPod jacks, Bluetooth wireless connectivity to your smartphone, and parking sonar.
With Ford’s parking sonar technology ties up with electric power-assist steering to bring on automated self-parking and brings on cross-traffic alerts as well. You can upgrade your Focus in several cases with on-screen navigation, and there’s a bit of brand Ford brought forward that’ll place a smile on the faces of parents everywhere: MyKey. With MyKey, parents are able to limit how fast a Focus can stop, the on/off and volume of the vehicle’s audio system, and crash notifications via the web.
We also got a hands-on look at the AT&T-branded MyFord Mobile app for the 2012 Ford Focus Electric earlier this year that you’re going to be able to have a peek at below. This app works on iOS and Android and allows you to jump right into the guts of your vehicle without even being in the same neighborhood – hot stuff!
Nissan Altima: it’s got two display size options, sure, but it’s really all about the tires
The Nissan Altima works with either a 5 or 7-inch display ready to work with your tunes and your backup camera. This display allows you to work with Pandora radio, Google-powered local destination alerts, text messages, and more – though for some of these items you’ll need a connected smartphone. You’ve also got blind spot warnings, lane departure warnings, and moving object detection too. This machine also packs a simple AUX-in port that every modern vehicle should so you can connect your MP3 player or smartphone with a simple headphone-sized audio cord right out of the box.
The most instant-win technology you’ll get on this line is Easy Fill. With the technology known as Easy Fill, you fill your tires up with air until the vehicle beeps once when you’re near the correct pressure, then again when you’re there. Extremely simple feature that we’re certain most people would love to have.
Toyota Prius: a hero for the hybrid class gets a big tech upgrade
This year the Toyota Prius blasted forth once again with the new highest-mpg on the road along with the all-new Entune music and smartphone connectivity system. The Prius line carrying Entune works with your Entune account, your compatible smartphone connecting with the official Entune app and Bluetooth (or USB) with apps galore. Bing brings you local points of interest, as does OpenTable – dinner reservations too, Pandora and iheartradio bring on the runes, and MovieTickets.com allows you to pick up tickets for the next big blockbuster from your center console.
Entune also brings on local Fuel Prices, Stocks, Sports, Traffic, and Weather information too – and of course Entune isn’t limited to the Prius, it’s hit quite a few of Toyota’s 2012 and 2013 models. The Prius line is coming forth with Bluetooth and USB jack standard from now through the foreseeable future, too, Toyota making such connections an expected feature in cars across the industry (so it is expected).
Hyundai Santa Fe Sport: geofencing, smartphone connectivity, and a massive display up front
Earlier this year we had a test drive of the Hyundai Santa Fe Sport and had a peek at its futuristic insides. This machine brings on an 8-inch color LCD touchscreen with full navigation integration. This vehicle’s system includes Bluetooth connectivity to your smartphone for music streaming as well as an iPhone app for remote start, locking, and unlocking. You’ve also got the option to “geofence” this vehicle digitally, setting physical limits for where this vehicle can drive – drive too far and the whole vehicle shuts down.
2013 Cadillac ATS: with the Cadillac User Experience (CUE) in full effect
We had a close-up peek at the CUE in our 2013 Cadillac ATS Review – it was clear basically immediately that the high-quality interior on this machine was right in step with the competition, starting with its 8-inch capacitive touchscreen and running right through to USB and SD card compatibility. Have a peek at the hands-on video with CUE and feel the excellence in informatics and entertainment – Bluetooth connectivity with up to 10 devices included as well.
This machine works with physical buttons galore as well, pushing information to another 5.7-inch display in the instrument cluster and a heads-up display as well. The audio in this machine works with Bose technology, including a noise-cancellation system to reduce road and engine noise while you’re jamming at high speed.
Kia Soul (Eclaim!): bringing the Microsoft UVO Infotainment System to the great outdoors
The Kia Soul comes in several different spec models, as many fine modern vehicles do: our Kia Soul Review from earlier this year went by the name !, or Exclaim! This machine brought on the Microsoft-powered “UVO Infotainment System.” This system works with a 7-inch touchscreen in this case, bringing on Bluetooth stereo, USB and aux-in connections for your smartphone, and voice control. You can work with Sirius XM satellite radio right out the gate, and of course there’s a back-up camera so you’ll be in-line with governmental regulations for many years to come.
Mazda CX-5: with SKYACTIV, this machine may well be the best competition future-friendly electric batteries have
This machine takes on the hybrid and all-electric competition with Mazda’s SKYACTIV technology, combining “weight reduction, efficiency improvement and design rethinking”, as our Mazda CX-5 Review mentions right up front. This machine also works with three-stage heated front seats, rear-view mirror auto-dimming, and of course, a 5.8-inch LCD display. This display is touch friendly (provided you get the right package) as well as TomTom-powered GPS navigation.
Wireless connectivity with your smartphone is provided by Bluetooth and syncing allows you to access you contacts and make a call from the vehicle’s touchscreen. There’s a controller down by your parking break called the Multimedia Commander that you can use to scroll through selections on your touchscreen – or you can just use the generally OK voice command system via the dedicated activation button on the vehicle’s steering wheel.
Wrap-up
SlashGear will continue to be your source for the top technology coverage in automotive through the future with many more high-powered vehicle reviews to come in 2013. Be sure to check out our monstrous [Car Portal] to see the futuristic automobile segment from any angle you do so choose, top to bottom, and get pumped up about the connections you’re about to make!
In a move that will certainly have the folks at Telenav (creators of Scout) gaining a whole lot more users in the immediate future, they’ve pushed their voice-guided turn-by-turn navigation features down to the free portion of their app. While Scout’s voice-assisted navigation has existed in the premium model for some time, the Telenav team have seen an opportunity to assist those looking for an alternative navigation system if they’re not all about Apple’s own Maps system built-in to the iPhone 5 and iOS 6 for legacy iDevices.
With Scout you’ve got a free model – the download is free either way – and a pay model that includes “Scout Plus” for either 1 year or per-month, the former costing $24.99 and the latter costing $4.99. The premium features you attain when upgrading include real-time traffic updates, lane assist (with highlighted exit lanes), red light camera alerts, posted speed limits, speed trap notifications, and Always There Navigation.
With Always There Navigation you’re getting support for GPS even when you’re offline. You can download maps of your local area to your device, there thereby also relieving you of the charges you’d incur with data from your cell company from accessing the maps on the fly. Without Scout Plus you’re still able to work with turn-by-turn voice navigation though, starting today for free!
Have a peek at Scout on not just the iTunes Appstore today, but also the Android-loving Google Play app store as well. See the timeline below as well to get deeper insight into the world of Scout and its creators at Telenav. And get yellow!
This week Bloomberg is reporting that they’ve got a source assuring them that Apple’s own Richard Williamson was pushed out this week amid a Maps team shakeup. This change of the guard was spoken of by an anonymous source close to the dealings who said Senior Vice President Eddy Cue was responsible for the push. While we’ve not yet been able to confirm 100% that this move was made in Apple – or if will ever be made official if it is true, we can take this from the situation one way or the other: readers want to know what Apple is doing with their in-house Maps app.
Also reported today was a note that Cue was continuing to work with the maps company that’s responsible for much of the inner workings of the GPS information in Apple’s current Maps app, TomTom NV. Cue previously took over the now-defunct MobileMe program at Apple and is also reportedly working with Apple to improve the Apple TV ecosystem.
Recently there’s also been word that the Apple Maps system as well as the iPhone superstar Siri will be moving forward to the OS X desktop environment. This move would have a MapKit framework pushed to developers so that they might embed the workings of it into their everyday mapping apps from top to bottom. Siri similarly would be expanded to all manner of cross-platform apps and apps that would be greatly improved by talk.
Meanwhile the iPhone 5 has been reported to be the hottest selling phone in the USA over a period of 12 weeks leading up to October 28th, this according to analyst group Kantar. Chevrolet continues to show their support for Apple with next-generation MyLink with Siri in their next-generation vehicles, and the iPhone 5 is replacing BlackBerry left and right.
A new set of two API releases for developers will soon have 3rd party apps working with Google Maps features that will allow them to be location aware – with location information not just relegated to GPS. The first of two releases is the Google Maps Tracks API, this allowing developers to integrate the display and analyzation of GPS data on a map, with this API being built on top of Google’s own cloud infrastructure for reliability that’s unmatched. The second of two releases today works with Google Maps Geolocation API, this enabling developers the ability to integrate location data found by looking up said information on nearby wifi access points and cell towers.
With these two new API releases, 3rd party app developers will be able to take the massive beast of a dataset that Google has in their Google Maps archive and integrate it into their own apps at a whole new level. With this information, apps of all kinds will be able to map their own location – that being the device they’re being run on, of course – and help people find the locations they’re aiming at. Should a bakery have an app, for example, Google Maps integration would be able to lead the user of said app to the physical location of the bakery, even if they don’t have GPS switched on.
If you run a business – or work for a business as a developer – you can also pay for support from Google to make this system work for you. You’ll be able to work with Google’s own set of advanced features such as geo-fencing. With geo-fencing, a company can create a virtual space on a map that’ll be able to send notifications if a device enters or exist its bounds. This system could certainly be automated and do away with a central dispatcher – if that’s your kind of business, of course.
Have a peek at a timeline of recent Google Maps related stories and see how the system has been evolving of late. It’s Google that’s still in the limelight here in the GPS maps universe as the rest of the brands fight for glory against such a titan as the big G. Stay tuned for more on the iPhone Google Maps story specifically, where a re-release of Google Maps app data in app form constitutes a giant news release.
An AR heads-up display wasn’t the only navigation hardware Pioneer showed off at CEATEC 2012. The firm also took the opportunity to tear the wraps off a new line of gesture-controlled Raku Navi GPS units. With the infrared-powered Air Gesture feature, drivers can wave their hand in front of a device to pull up a menu with commands such as setting their home or a personal haunt as a destination or skipping to the next tune on a playlist. Once a hand is retracted, the menu will be replaced with the usual map interface. Though the solution isn’t completely hands-free, horizontal hand waves can be assigned one of ten different functions. Japanese store shelves will be lined with two dashboard-embeddable units by mid-October, while four console-independent models will join them in early November. As of now, there’s no word if the hardware will make the pilgrimage stateside.
You won’t be able to leap tall structures in one of Chrysler’s new cars with Garmin in-dash GPS hardware, but at least you’ll be able to see them. 3D buildings and terrain are among the fresh features in the navigators, along with a new UI, trip planner, improved junction view (by a factor of 25), and enhanced routing. The nav company is one of the cogs in Chrysler’s Uconnect service, which will roll out in four models next year: the Dodge Journey, Charger and Dart along with Chrysler’s 300. Other players in the service are SiriusXM, which provides weather info and entertainment; and Sprint, which shoulders the in-car data workload through its cellular service. Lest you think that all this infotainment will distract you right into the ditch, worry not — most of the controls are voice activated. If you want a beaming dealer to getcha into one of the new models, the PR is after the break.
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
