Vent Windows
Air conditioning, to the city-dweller, is often the line separating a rugged existence from a civilized one. In the past, what you had instead was the vent window, a magnificent triangular piece of glass in the front door windows which rotated to funnel air into the cabin and cool the occupants. Crossing large expanses at high speeds means lots of fresh air, but as we transitioned to an urban population, those high speeds were replaced by sweltering traffic and air conditioning has completely replaced the vent window.

Crank Windows
Nearly everyone reading this post probably grew up with a car featuring crank windows. They're cheap, they're reliable, they're light weight and they make you exercise to get at that sweet, sweet fresh air. All reasons they're being naturally selected out of the automotive gene pool. It doesn't help that even on the most beautiful days, everyone stays bottled up with their air conditioning humming.

Keys
The idea of a key to operate your car was first implemented by Cadillac, since their cars featured the Charles Kettering starter, making ignition so easy anyone could steal your car. As time progressed thieves upped the ante with master keys or bypassed the key entirely by hotwiring. Since computer technology and the commonization of keyless entry have advanced, the metal key finds itself succumbing to the digital one. These days its common to find cars with a short-range radio frequency transmitter in the key fob and a push-button starter. They still come with emergency metal keys, but its only a matter of time before those disappear.

Vinyl Seats
If you're old enough, the searing pain of hot vinyl bench seats turning your thigh into a roast is one of your earliest car memories. You learned quick to sit on your shorts and ease down on the bench, otherwise those vinyl covers, hot as the surface of the sun which baked them, would inevitably bake stitch marks into you. Unsurprisingly, as material costs dropped and buyers decided not to maim their children, vinyl seat options are becoming scarce. Believe it or not, they can still be had on the ultra-base Toyota Prius.

Manual Transfer Cases
Driving off-road used to be a test of manliness. You had to know things; what a low range meant, how to roll a truck back and forth to get the manual lockers to engage, and most importantly, you had to be a master of the secret handshake of the non-synchro transfer case. Electronic, on the fly, fully synchronized and push-button transfer cases have made the second shifter next to the gear selector an anachronism. It will survive with the rock crawlers, but it'll never see the light of production again.

Jump Seats
When the man killed the folding jump seats in the Land Rover Discovery, a little piece of us all died. How many grew up facing the back of a Country Squire watching the world evaporate behind them at a Federally mandated double nickel? Oh sure, we're all technically "safer" without the jump seat, but are we happier? Probably not.

Being Lost
Used to be if you wanted to get anywhere, you had a Rand McNally road atlas and your sense of direction. It required spatial awareness, planning, paying attention to the road signs and at times a little luck. Now Navigation systems are becoming standard equipment on even the most basic models. In a few years, it'll be hard to avoid finding a Navi in any decent used car you look at. Discounting preinstalled Nav, portable units are crossing the magical $100 barrier, making them accessible to the unwashed masses. There will always be hold-outs clinging to their old-timey maps, but your kids won't be among them.

Cigarette Lighters
As goes the smoker, so goes the cigarette lighter. We're not fans of smoking in cars, it inevitably leads to burns in the upholstery, but having a readily available fire source in your car seems useful. If nothing else cigarette lighters provide hours of entertainment to danger loving pre-teen boys. And who will ever forget cleaning out the disgusting and too-small chewing gum repository they become for non-smoking families. On a wider note though, lighters, and they're counterparts ash trays, are some of the last remaining automotive artifacts left over from the greatest generation. When lighters disappear completely, something elegant and confident will die out too.

Hanging Your Arm Out The Window
Possibly the most insidious on the list, it's one of the greatest pleasures in a car nut's life; To hang your arm out the window on a cool summer night, cruising down the main drag, your significant other at your side, a mellow tune belting out on the radio and from under the hood. There's no greater bliss for any automotive aficionado. Much like with window vents, this past time faces an end from the evils of air conditioning, but it also will die out as a result of government regulation in the form of ever-more-stringent side impact requirements forcing windows and beltlines higher and higher. As it stands there are few cars on the market today you can hang an arm out of without significant discomfort, and we'll be very sad when there are none. In fact, in our recent Muscle Car Wars showdown, the only member of the threesome we could comfortable accomplish this in was the Mustang. Camaro? Challenger? Fail.

Photo credit: Zimbio

The Danger Of Death
To date, we've seen cars with two front air bags, knee bags, thorax bags, side curtain airbags, rear thorax bags and a center rear airbag. Cars have adaptive cruise control, can brake to a stop automatically, detect blind spot danger, protect pedestrians from a frontal impact, pretension your seat belt, brace your neck in a rear collision, and automatically apply brake force to avoid a rollover. At some point, barring egregious stupidity, cars will become essentially death proof. So much for fear as a motivator for responsibility.

Photo Credit: Armend Nimani/AFP/Getty Images

Aside from occasional pokes at others’ devices, I’ve never used a GPS. But I can certainly attest to the gradual softening of the brain that comes with the violent expansion of high-quality mapping tools of the past few years.

When I moved to Budapest in late 2000 from a leafy riverside town in Southern Hungary, I spent weeks memorizing the grid of my surroundings. This was years before Google Maps and this area—where I haven’t lived or worked for six years now—is still the only part of the city I know down to the street level. It took until my regular uptake of city running to re-engage my spatial skills after years of lazily indulging in the geo-glut of Google Earth.

Katayama reports on a similar experience in her home of San Francisco:

At first, the GPS (I have an old Garmin) was a novelty-a tool for experimentation. It was fun to see how long the thing thought it would take to get from point A to point B. I was just the receiving end of a network of commands relayed through the voice of a nice British lady. But then it became a habit, and weird things started happening to me.

I started to forget how to get places without it. The map in my brain became a distorted blur. And then my driving became more reckless. I invented this game where I tried to beat the estimated arrival time that the GPS gave me. Often, that entailed running yellow lights and exceeding the speed limit.

Make no mistake: satellite mapping combined with GPS is an amazing invention, a genuine HOLY SHIT which makes it hard to imagine the state of the world before.

Still, like the automatic transmission and the running shoe with kevlar arch support, it comes with a price. And while the sheer convenience of being able to navigate any random spot on Earth with fine precision is wonderful, it may not be unwise to not entirely forget how to do this with the aid of nothing but our senses and our brains. Satellites, for instance, may fall out of the sky.

And if you read Jalopnik, you’ll certainly appreciate the proprioceptive pleasures of heel-and-toeing a car with a fine manual gearbox.

Photo Credit: Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images

The study, funded by GPS-maker Navteq, evaluated three groups of drivers in Dusseldorf and Munich: those without a navigation system; drivers with a navigation system; and drivers with a navigation system that included traffic. None had used GPS devices previously.

The results show drivers using navigation devices drove shorter distances and spent less time driving. Overall fuel consumption dropped from 2.2 gallons / 62 miles to 1.93 gallons. The study found a nearly 1553 mile drop in distance driven per year per driver, and an average of $541 in annual savings on fuel.

The findings also revealed a learning curve with the use of sat navs: greater decreases in trip times and distances were seen in the latter half of the study and the largest reductions were seen with drivers using sat navs with traffic built-in during peak travel times (7-9a, and 4-7pm). Greater reductions were seen during non-routine trips.

The study results reflect more than 2,100 individual trips, more than 12,400 miles and almost 500 hours on the road. It was funded by digital mapping firm Navteq (owned by Nokia). Full press release below.

Study shows drivers could save over euro 400 in fuel costs per year

Chicago,IL— NAVTEQ, the leading global provider of digital map, traffic and location data for in-vehicle, portable, wireless and enterprise solutions, has revealed the results of a proprietary research study designed to assess the consumer impact of everyday use of navigation devices. Previous studies in this field focused more on "getting lost" scenarios versus the benefits to drivers of navigation system use during the course of their normal driving habits.

In a three pronged study which evaluated drivers without a navigation system, drivers with a navigation system, and drivers with a navigation system that included traffic, the results revealed that the drivers using navigation devices 1) drove shorter distances and 2) spent less time driving. Conducted in two metropolitan areas of Germany - Dusseldorf and Munich - the study also showed that drivers with navigation devices had a 12% increase in fuel efficiency, as measured by liters of fuel consumed per 100 kms. Fuel consumption among those drivers using navigation fell from 8.3 to 7.3 l/100kms. When the study results are annualized, they equate to a nearly 2500 kilometer drop in distance driven per year per driver, and an average of euro 416 in savings on fuel annually per driver.

The participants, who had not previously owned a navigation device, had their vehicles outfitted with a logging device which was used to track the route they drove and their driving speed. The study results reflect more than 2,100 individual trips, more than 20,000 kilometers and almost 500 hours on the road.

The study was conducted by NuStats, a social science research firm that over the past 25 years has established itself as a leader in population surveys and qualitative research pertaining to transportation in general, and personal mobility and transit use in particular.

The findings also revealed additional areas of learning:

Reductions in trip times and distance driven increased over time: There was a marked "learning curve" with the use of navigation devices; greater decreases in trip times and distance driven were seen in the latter half of the study.

· The addition of traffic information further reduced trip times and distance driven: The largest reductions were seen with participants using a navigation device with traffic during peak travel times (7:00 - 8:59 AM; 4:00 - 6:59 PM).

· Greater reductions were seen during non-routine trips: When traveling a route other than what was customarily traveled, the reductions in trip times and lengths were also higher.

"With the robust methodology behind this study, we have confidence that these results are representative of a trend that globally has often been implied, but not previously proven in the realm of everyday use. Consumers can enjoy the advantages of navigation not only in relation to a more positive driving experience, but also in terms of the positive impact it can have on their wallets," says Judson Green, president and chief executive officer, NAVTEQ.

About NAVTEQ
NAVTEQ is the leading global provider of digital map, traffic and location data that enables navigation and location-based platforms around the world. NAVTEQ supplies comprehensive digital map information to power automotive navigation systems, portable and wireless devices, Internet-based mapping applications and government and business solutions. The Chicago-based company was founded in 1985 and has approximately 4,000 employees located in 196 offices and in 36 countries.

Photo Credit: Team Polizei

Taking a line out of the Top Gear playbook, a trio from G419 raced from Manhattan to the Capitol in Washington, D.C. via plane (a commuter jet to D.C.), train (local Amtrak) and automobile (Dodge Challenger). To keep things fair, the driver couldn't put gas in his car (he had to make his tank o' gas last) and the other two were forbidden from taking anything but public transit.

Here's the interesting part — they tracked their progress with Google's new Latitude feature on Google maps apps for both Blackberry and iPhone. By getting a quick view of each other on their mobile devices, all the competitors have a fair way of assuring someone isn't cheating as well as having a way to adjust their speed on-the-fly. For instance, at one point Matt in the Challenger notices J.F. in the plane closing in, so he estimates the distance and speeds up his drive — putting the Challenger's low fuel economy to the test.

The endpoint was the Grant Statue in front of the Capitol yet, hilariously, two of three got lost in front of it. Perhaps they could have used the mapping feature on Google Maps? We'll withhold the ending and just say it's close.

There are a lot of interesting ways to use this technology other than the way it was initially intended. It's great for racing, as seen in the video. It's also useful for a hi-tech game of car tag. Many businesses, like local delivery companies, use expensive tracking systems for following their employees. This system is free and works, though we wonder if some employees might not be tempted to turn on the "hide" feature.

Overall, the ability to track friends via mobile devices using something with the simple and straightforward Google Maps design opens up countless possibilities for communities, businesses and people with a lot of time on their hands.

Both systems use GPS to determine the precise location and direction of travel of a vehicle, and then determine if a dangerous situation is imminent. In the case of the wrong way warning system, it’s simply a case of recording the position and direction of ramps in map databases, then equipping cars with some sort of warning device.

The pedestrian collision warning system is a bit more complicated, relying on those pedestrians carrying GPS-enabled cell phones. The location, direction and speed of those cell phones will be compared to the location, direction and speed of GPS-equipped cars, if the possibility of an impact is detected it will trigger an alert within the vehicle.

Technology already exists from other manufacturers to automatically slow cars when a potential collision with another vehicle is detected by on-board radar. Unfortunately, in the case of the Mercedes Fog system, it's not always successful. It’s conceivable that the two technologies could be combined to create virtually collision-proof cars. Indeed, that’s the direction automakers like Volvo are hoping to go in the future with vehicles that could do without any physical impact protection in favor of car-to-car, car-to-pedestrian and car-to-road communication. While previously manufactures saw that communication taking place directly via radio transmissions, this development could point towards GPS and communications satellites facilitating its implementation.

Us? We’ll just be keeping our eyes open.

The press release follows:

January 26, 2009

West NEXCO and Nissan Begin Joint Research on IT-Assisted Road Information System
- Research Alliance to Build a System for Accident Prevention and Road Information -

West Nippon Expressway Co., Ltd. (West NEXCO) and Nissan Motor Co., Ltd. today announced a cooperative effort to research systems to help prevent accidents and furnish road information to drivers. West NEXCO, which operates expressways in western Japan, and Nissan will enhance and complement existing information systems using information technology (IT) to provide road and traffic condition information to help improve safety and driving comfort on expressways.

The joint project will take advantage of the widespread use and multi-functionality of today's cellular phones. The system will use the Global Positioning System (GPS) and a detailed map database to warn drivers about a number of potentially dangerous situations and conditions - including driving the wrong way on expressway ramps, which frequently causes serious accidents. Responding to frequent occurrences of wrong-way driving with the increase in senior citizen drivers, West NEXCO set up a project team in May 2008 to address this issue as it considered the possibility of joint research with automakers and others using information technology.

The IT-assisted road information system will also employ telematics to help warn drivers about unintended speed changes on ramps and long downhill stretches to help prevent accidents and congestion. Nissan and West NEXCO will also undertake research to assist drivers with probe data on traffic jams, part of West NEXCO's goal of working to help establish total road safety and comfort.

For its part, Nissan has been working extensively with its Intelligent Transportation Systems to halve the number of fatal and injury accidents involving Nissan cars between 1995 and 2015. Through its SKY project it is developing a vehicle communication system linked with traffic infrastructure to help reduce accidents at intersections. Nissan has been conducting large-scale testing of an information system that furnishes drivers with information on pedestrians using communications between vehicles and GPS cell phones held by pedestrians. It has also established a service that warns drivers of icy conditions ahead.

An outline of the joint research project follows:

Joint R&D Using GPS
A new computer application and detailed map data in the car navigation system will be combined with GPS data to help give the driver audio and visual warnings when the car is going the wrong way on a ramp near a service area or interchange.

Joint R&D Using Telematics
Text warnings will appear on the car's navigation display: "Beware of speeding" on long downhill stretches where accidents are common, and "Beware of slowing" near ramps prone to congestion.

Driver Assistance Using Probe Data
Probe data from road-control centers will be better utilized to provide value-added information to vehicles on expressways.

Press Demonstration on Wrong-Way Driving Detection Using GPS and Car Navigation System
The team will conduct experiments to test detection and reporting of wrong-way driving by reprogramming the existing Nissan navigation system and simulating driving the wrong way on a rest-area exit ramp. The experiment will also be open to the press, along with a driving demonstration. The details will be informed later.

After returning from a Brazilian beach the twenty something Scandinavians were hoping to return their car when they got lost. They attempted to use their GPS system to get back on the right route but the navigation system instead told them to exit the main road and cut through the Mare slum complex, which is considered dangerous even by Rio de Janeiro slum standards. It wasn't long before the three were under gunfire, with one of the young men receiving some hot lead in his arm.

They were able to get to safety and quickly left the country, their good times in Rio cut short by gunfire. Family members of one of the victims are blaming a fault in the GPS, though we wonder if it didn't have something to do with someone accidentally selecting "drug gang-occupied slum" instead of "airport" in the Point-of-Interest menu. It happens to us all the time.

[Source: Reuters via Yahoo]

University of Iowa Public Policy Center’s Road User Study
Background Information

History

• The Highway Trust Fund supports transportation infrastructure and receives a majority of its money from the motor fuel tax, which is imposed on every gallon of gasoline purchased nationwide.

• Over the past ten years, the motor fuel tax has increasingly failed to generate sufficient funds to repair damaged roads and bridges, fill potholes, and maintain the safe and efficient operation of our highway system. Improved fuel efficiency of the nation’s vehicle fleet is the main reason.

• The University of Iowa Public Policy Center has been awarded a $16-million federal grant to study a new approach to financing the nation’s roadways. The system, which uses on-board computers, may one day replace the gas tax.

About the Study

• Over the next two years, the Public Policy Center will conduct a national field test of the system in six cities across the U.S., including San Diego, CA; Austin, TX; Baltimore, MD; the Research Triangle in North Carolina; Boise, ID; and Eastern Iowa. Cedar Rapids, Dubuque, the Quad Cities, and many small towns in eastern Iowa will be among the sites included in this groundbreaking national test.

• The Iowa study tests an approach that will allow drivers to pay only for the actual number of miles they travel. A small computer will be installed in participants’ vehicles to store a record of these miles. The total amount owed will then be uploaded to a central database, much like what is used by credit card companies, which will then distribute funds to the states, counties or cities in which the travel took place.

• The privacy of motorists’ participating in the study will be strictly protected by providing an identification number to each participant, rather than using personal information and at the end of the study all documents containing personal information of the participant will be destroyed.

• It is likely that acceptability of the new approach will depend to a large extent on perceptions regarding privacy. In the maximum-privacy configuration, it is significant that the only figure that can be tied to a particular vehicle is a single dollar amount for total user charges that are due. When data are transferred from the vehicle to the network operating center, these data are encrypted to assure anonymity. It is not necessary to know which vehicle generated a particular sum of user charge for each jurisdiction; all that is required is the amount to be apportioned to each of the jurisdictions. This approach maximizes user privacy and ensures a fair distribution of revenue.

• There remains an issue of audit-ability, however. The OBC can be configured to provide the user with a detailed record of charges. While this record would enable the vehicle’s owner to understand the exact basis for the user charges in billing statements, it is possible that the detailed record could be subpoenaed in criminal or civil cases involving the owner of a vehicle. The OBC can be configured to allow the owner to choose between privacy maximization versus having substantiation of user charges. Because the trade-off between privacy protection and audit-ability is one of the key issues we are addressing in this national evaluation study, we will enable participants to experience each method during the course of the field-testing.

• Prescreened and selected participants of the study will have the on-board computer temporarily installed in their vehicles. This installation will not in any way damage the vehicle. The computer will store a record of charges accrued from road use.

Research Goals

1. Appropriateness of the technology. Test the reliability, security, flexibility, user-friendliness and cost-effectiveness of on-board computers (GPS and GIS);
2. User acceptability. Evaluate driver acceptance of such a system; and
3. Find out why vehicle operators accept or reject the system, what they like and what they don’t.

(Hat tip to Drew!) [Source: University of Iowa Public Policy Center]

Jalopnik Snap Judgment: Just because something can be built does not mean it should be built. While we're sure there are some noble uses for this product, we can't think of any. It's built for spying and stalking, and as such will be used almost exclusively to foster distrust and paranoia among families, lovers and employees. Think about it: What's the most conniving, illicit way you can come up with to use the GPS Tracking Key? Drop your filthy ideas into the comments and enjoy the full press release below.

NAPA Dealers Add GPS Tracking Key to Their Automotive Product Line

CARY, Ill., Sept. 2 — LandAirSea Systems, Inc. has announced that they have begun distributing the increasingly popular GPS Tracking Key to NAPA automotive dealers across the country. NAPA has been a long time supplier of replacement parts, accessories and service items to the automotive repair industry and they are confident that the Tracking Key will be a profitable addition to their inventory.

About the Tracking Key:

The award winning GPS Tracking Key is a small, pocket sized device that receives signals from the twenty-four Department of Defense satellites orbiting the earth. Its internal computer determines the GPS location of a vehicle and records detailed travel activities such as times of departure, routes traveled, speed of vehicle and duration of stops. The recorded data can then be displayed with Google Earth(R) over a street map, satellite images or in a text report. Among the growing list of consumers for this device are parents of teenage drivers who have found it to be a helpful tool in keeping track of their teens' whereabouts. By making the GPS Tracking Key available to its customers, NAPA is hoping to attract this most recent category of buyer.

About NAPA

The National Automotive Parts Association (NAPA) was founded over 80 years ago to meet America's growing need for a national auto parts distribution system. They are a retailer's cooperative which distributes parts and equipment to both corporately and independently owned auto parts stores. Today, NAPA oversees 6,000 auto parts stores, 69 distribution centers, 13,000 affiliated NAPA auto care repair facilities and over 320,000 parts in inventory every day. With the advent of 21st century sophistication, the automotive industry and its affiliates have become increasingly complex, their product line expanding to include more than the basic nuts and bolts. The GPS Tracking Key, though unimpressive in size and appearance, is destined to become a standard feature in vehicles nationwide, as more and more consumers become dependent upon its wide range of capabilities.

"The Tracking Key has been proven in the GPS tracking industry to be one of the best devices in the world for passive GPS tracking. It is a very powerful, affordable and extremely easy to use device," said Rob Wagner, CEO of LandAirSea Systems, Inc.

About LandAirSea:

Currently headquartered in Cary, Illinois, LandAirSea plays host to the world's most powerfully engineered GPS tracking equipment. With several varieties of GPS tracking systems in operation across the globe, LandAirSea has become an industry leading provider of effective, affordable tracking solutions for thousands of civilians as well as a multitude of government and law enforcement agencies. For more information, please visit http://www.landairsea.com.

[GPSTrackingKey.com]

How does it work? If the Go x40 LIVE sees a large number of cell phones stationary along a major highway, it’ll determine that traffic is not moving and plan a route around the hold up. Such a system should work better than current systems, which rely on a limited number of stationary traffic sensors along heavily traveled roads only.

The LIVE also allows drivers to add fuel prices to maps, letting other users find the cheapest prices, and it's still capable of connecting to TomTom’s existing High Definition Traffic Service. The GO x40 LIVE will be initially available in the Netherlands, the UK, Germany, France and Switzerland, but the company does plan to expand its service to other countries in the near future. Let’s hope it comes here. [via MotorAuthority]

One item I neglected to mention in the video is that the device has a very handy gas prices application built in. It can find gas stations and tell you the price for standard unleaded. It will also sort by price or distance and you can search other regions for gas prices, which could be very handy for road trips.

Overall the Dash Express was fun to use and provided more functionality that any other third-party GPS units we've seen. It does have its quirks; directing me to the wrong place once and having a very slow startup and satellite discovery time. The touch-sensitive buttons on the top were a bit of an annoyance as well. If you drive for your job in a major metroplex, this could be a lifesaver or it could be helpful in very large cities prone to horrible rush hours (like Dallas). Since it relies partially on other users for data, the larger the driving population, the better your unit will perform.

One of the major downsides is the price. This unit itself is available for $299, which is about average for a high-end GPS navigator, but it does require a $13 monthly fee to pay for the two-way services. You just have to ask yourself if paying a monthly fee for a GPS unit is worth it for your needs. Me? Personally not, but maybe it will be for you. [Dash]

Unfortunately, there's not much you can do with the G.P.S. According to Apple, the iPhone's G.P.S. antenna is much too small to emulate the turn-by-turn navigation of a G.P.S. unit for a vehicle, for example.

Instead, all it can do at this point is track your position as you drive along, representing you as a blue dot sliding along the roads of the map. Even then, the metal of a car or the buildings of Manhattan are often enough to block the iPhone's view of the sky, leaving it just as confused as you are.

The GPS manufacturers have nothing to be scared about and because it's the fault of the hardware, don't expect TomTom or other GPS manufacturers to get involved creating supported iPhone software.

Also, don't expect to rush to the store to pick up the vehicle mount or other accessories, because the GPS as a navigation device is pretty bunk. But at least you can geotag your photos! Yeah! [NY Times; Giz]

With towns constantly installing and removing cameras, the 9500ix can be updated regularly with the latest information about speed cameras. Pick it up later this month for $500. [Product Page via SlipperyBrick]

What's confirmed is the Moov 308's ability to make and receive phone calls and text messages. Using data technology, the Mio will also be able to look up addresses and other information on the fly. [Mio via Giz]

The details differ from company to company, but they all rely on modern on-board diagnostic systems. Progressive's original "TripSense" is plugged into you car's diagnostic port, every six months being removed to have the info uploaded and sent to the company. The new system, called "MyRate," uses a telematic device that wirelessly transmits the driver data over a cellphone network.

GMAC's program utilizes a car's existing OnStar system...which just happens to have GPS capabilites. They insist that GPS tracking is not used to monitor your every move — just your mileage. You know, because checking the odometer just isn't good enough. GMAC does admit "There is an opportunity to get other information, and as we do we will be able to correlate risk to actual driving behavior itself rather than more predictive factors." Of course, you'd still have to pay for the annual OnStar subscription, so you'll have to judge whether the insurance savings makes the OnStar spam you'll get each month worthwhile.
[WSJ]

• Text-to-speech
• Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) capability (screen control)
• Bluetooth wireless technology (pair with phone or headset)
• FM transmitter
• Picture navigation: routing to a geocoded point in JPEG files
• Included traffic receiver via MSN Direct receiver for North America
• Last position: The unit automatically marks your position when you remove it from the windshield mount, so you can navigate with the Nüvi on foot and find your way back to your vehicle
• Location and Text messages
• Instant on
• Web drop: create favorites in a PC browser and send to Nuvi via USB (.gps files)
• Route planning with via points
• USB 2.0, high-speed connectivity and mass storage
• SD card slot
• MCX connector (external antenna)
• Digital Elevation Maps (DEM)
• Embedded Linux (OS)
• Replaceable battery, high-capacity Lithium-ion (up to 5 hours use)

In addition to this extensive list, the 880 also has a 4.3-inch screen to go along with its most-touted feature: speech recognition, which can be activated with the remote. [Amazon via Navigadget]

Simply wait for the perp to stop somewhere or try to ditch the vehicle and swoop in and bust the guy. You may want to keep the helicopter on the perp, just in case he or she is rocking one of these. [StarChase via OhGizmo!]

TomTom told BBG that the GPS company isn't even working on anything for the iPhone, at least not right now. So where did the initial Reuters report come from? It could have been an overzealous developer simply speculating, or somebody just pulling the chain of the collective automotive tech world. Or the anonymous source could just be trying to throw everyone off the trail. Time will tell. [BBG]

Applications may not be designed or marketed for real time route guidance; automatic or autonomous control of vehicles, aircraft, or other mechanical devices; dispatch or fleet management; or emergency or life-saving purposes.

This means that any hope Garmin, TomTom or any other GPS interface manufacturer had for releasing an iPhone app has officially been shot down, likely due to some ball-cradling agreement between Apple and Google Maps, the current GPS utility for the iPhone. After all, if the TomTom or Garmin interface was available on the iPhone, fewer people would use the Google Maps mashup available by default. [BBG via Giz]

There aren't currently a lot of details regarding what version of the iPhone the TomTom software supports, when/how it will be available and at what price, but there's a good chance that a TomTom navigation interface on the iPhone could trump the Google Maps mash-up that Apple is looking to offer with the 3G iPhone. Cue the death march of the traditional GPS navigation unit. [Reuters via Giz]