Sat Navs are now firmly established as the must have in-car accessory. Whether you're planning a trip abroad or have finally decided to ditch the awkward paper-based road maps, you'll find these invaluable aids now have more than enough features to get you from A to B easier and quicker, in fact you'll wonder how you lived without one.
What is Sat Nav?
Sat Nav (short for Satellite Navigation) typically refers to a device that contains maps of each street and road within a country (UK) or even continent (Europe). The device uses satellite technology and built-in software to show you the fastest route from where you are to where you want to go, using easy-to-use touch-screen and voice prompts. They are powered from your car's cigarette lighter and mounted on the dashboard or windscreen, meaning you can usually just plug in and go.
Satellite Navigation incorporates a method of navigating using a network of satellites through GPS (Global Positioning Systems) to acquire the position of the user and determine their location on a digital map. Using this information and the Sat Nav system's map database it can then give directions to the user in order for them to reach their destination.
Maps
Modern in-car navigation systems generally feature a slanted top-down view for the road map displayed on screen, which rotates as the vehicle turns so the drivers view and map are always aligned, along with very accurate speedometer, distance & time information, visual & voice prompts, and touch-screen displays.
Map data for a specific county (e.g. UK, Ireland) or region (e.g. Western Europe) is pre-loaded onto a memory card (typically SD) and supplied with the Sat Nav unit for that territory, with the option to purchase additional maps for other regions.
Points Of Interest
As well as maps of roads and streets, Sat Nav systems provide ‘Points Of Interest' (POI) such as petrol refuelling stations, restaurants, hotels, ATM cash machines, public parking and even safety/speed cameras to alert the driver of known speed traps and unlike radar detectors, GPS-based speed camera warnings are currently not illegal in any country except Switzerland.
Traffic Updates
Newer Sat-Nav systems can pick up real time data updates via radio (TMC - Traffic Message Channel) or other wireless transmission either for free or on a subscription bases. These updates can provide up-to-the minute weather and traffic congestion information, suggesting alternative routes to help you avoid traffic jams.
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