Ten years in the right direction Siemens VDO celebrates the anniversary of European in-car navigation

The debut of the BMW 7 Series in September 1994 marked the premiere of European automobile navigation. The luxury car was the first on the market with factory-installed navigation system fully integrated into the cockpit as an optional accessory. The system developed by a predecessor company to Siemens VDO Automotive AG and offered for vehicle installation in the aftermarket under the "Carin" product name, guided drivers reliably and safely to the selected destination. However, the Carin pales in comparison with current generations of navigation systems. In 1994, a 400 kilometer journey took 35 seconds to calculate, whereas new systems find the way in the blink of the eye.

Driver navigation became dynamic three years after its debut. Since 1997, traffic conditions have been included in route planning using the Traffic Message Channel (TMC) allowing routes that bypass the traffic congestion to be calculated. While it was mainly highways and important main streets in larger cities that were originally digitized, today Germany, France, the Benelux states and most of Western Europe are fully covered and can be requested on a single DVD. In addition, the navigation systems from Siemens VDO now talk in eight languages and know hundreds of thousands of interesting roadside locations from hotels to outlet stores. They increase the vacation and traveling experience with digital travel guides or phone directories and by alerting drivers to stationary speed safety cameras or dangerous traffic-light intersections with camera surveillance. This applies both to factory-installed and aftermarket navigation systems, which are sold under the VDO Dayton brand.

To offer drivers a clear view through the data jungle and keep them up-to-date, Siemens VDO developed the C-IQ concept two years ago. VDO Dayton provides every customer regularly and free of any extra charge during his term of contract with the latest navigation data. With a simple code, the driver can flexibly activate at anytime additional road maps for individual countries, as well as access additional information, travel guides or databases for single days, months or years.

In view of this range of services, navigation systems' sustained benefits are acknowledged by everybody and have been confirmed in numerous studies like the ones conducted by the largest German automobile club ADAC. Research has demonstrated that navigation systems reduce stress and the risk of accidents; they also help to avoid detours, to optimize travel times and to reduce fuel consumption and emissions.

Decreasing prices and enhanced functionality lead to almost 2 million annually installed navigation systems as original equipment and in the aftermarket sales. Projections show the market growing to more than double over the next five years. Siemens VDO is in position to secure a large proportion of this development through easily integrated devices for car manufacturer and cost-effective basic systems targeting new consumer groups in the aftermarket. Whoever buys their factory installed navigation system in the future will increasingly have the route information displayed directly on the windscreen using a head-up display with the computer fully networked with the vehicle's electronics and entire infotainment system - a new technology developed by Siemens VDO together with the BMW group. The next generation of navigation will not end when the vehicle reaches the parking lot. New software will be able to simply transfer route information to a mobile phone to facilitate the continuation of the journey outside the vehicle. As a result, navigation systems of the future will be more versatile and comfortable.