Satellite navigation technology streets ahead

By ALASTAIR SLOANE motoring editor

BMW managing director Geoff Fletcher will ask the New Zealand motoring industry to adopt a satellite-navigation system it has developed with two Auckland companies, digital mapping specialist Air Logistics and computer company Civic Wholesale.

The system is being tested in Auckland, and Fletcher, overseas and unavailable for comment, will outline his company's involvement at a Motor Industry Association meeting this month.

He will ask the heads of mainstream and luxury carmakers to help to finance the completion of the dedicated New Zealand system, called SmartMap. BMW has so far spent about $100,000 on the project.

Air Logistics, in which Carter Holt Harvey has a plus-30 per cent holding, uses SmartMap to produce Wises street guides.

Its managing director, Phil Allen, says the satnav system is "a significant leap forward for the automotive industry and road safety in New Zealand".

The trial area links roads between BMW's Mt Wellington headquarters, Ellerslie, Mangere Bridge, Auckland airport and east Tamaki.

Air Logistics - soon to be renamed GeoSmart - used satellites, aerial photography and legwork to map the area. Civic Wholesale loaded the information on to CD.

An Australian-spec BMW 7-Series set up for satnav and voice-activation was shipped across for the trial, managed by BMW national service manager Paul Ardin.

"We have to regard the current situation as stage one of a greater process," says Ardin. "Having made this initial investment, we are keen to see navigation made feasible for the New Zealand market, but the timeline will depend on who is prepared to join us in funding the rest of the process.

"We believe no single company can justify the cost of funding the programme, nor are they likely to want to do so."

BMW has looked at introducing satellite-navigation in New Zealand before, in 1994 and 1997.

"At each stage the issue raised has been the cost of getting a system up and running and the difficulty of getting a return on that investment within a reasonable time," says Ardin.

So how does it work? The car must have a suitable communications system, dashboard screen/monitor and a CD unit. Otherwise it's back to the dog-eared Wises book.

Pop the map CD into the audio unit slot and select satnav from the list of menus on the screen.

The car's GPS system tunes into three or four satellites - there are 24 in orbit - which, with backup from the CD map, plots the required route.

Brief interruption here: The signal from satellites cannot go through buildings or dense bush, so a car navigation system based solely on GPS will not always work on a tree-lined street or among tall buildings. The SmartMap CD uses a gyroscope and distance hub meters to provide a guidance system as backup to GPS.

Now, back to the future. A map showing the car's location and nearby roads fills the screen.

Say you want to go from Mt Wellington to the airport. Select airport from a destination sub-menu using a street list or alphabetical search function.

The screen then displays options such as the "fastest route", the "shortest route", or one not yet applicable in New Zealand, "avoid road tolls". You can also plot your own route. You can also, using voice activation, tell the system where you want to go.

Thereafter, it's a breeze. In this case, the trial car showed off by instantly plotting a route up Great South Rd, via Mt Smart into Onehunga and on to the motorway and the airport.

A zoom function displays distance in 100m increments for city streets or out to 100km in the country.

You follow your progress on a coloured map via straight-ahead or left and right arrows and a distance countdown to the next turn while listening to the system's female voice say things like "prepare to turn left" or "you have arrived at your destination".

Stop mid-journey and the system will ask if you wish to resume the plotted route once you restart the car.

Try and hoodwink it by taking a deliberate wrong turn and the voice will say "make a U-turn if possible". Ignore that advice and it will plot another route to get you back on track.

There are hiccups. Software programmed to map off-ramps from left-hand lanes can't compute the right-hand off-ramp from the motorway into the city's Nelson St. This will be fixed.

So, too, will the confusion caused by off-ramps like that on the Northern Motorway into Constellation Drive which, as far as the satellite is concerned, continues on through the lights and back on to the motorway again.

But the flexibility of SmartMap, says BMW's Ardin, is far in advance of other GPS/map-based systems in New Zealand. It would add between $4000 and $7000 to the cost of a BMW, depending on the vehicle and specification.

Satnav became available in cars overseas in 1990. By 1998 more than four million systems were in use. Last year, one million were sold in Europe alone.