Auto Nav 2000 Plus, Inc. - Laptop vs. In-Vehicle Nav System
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!
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.
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!
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.
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