August 28, 2007 8:00 AM PDT
On-board navigation--built-in mapping that gives directions and helps drivers choose a route--is another area that people can expect to see major changes on even budget car models.
Volkswagen has been working with Google and Nvidia to develop a navigation system that incorporates the realistic look of Google's 3D maps with weather and traffic updates in real-time.
"Next evolution of navigation will be about how I get there the fastest and the safest, and traffic data becomes very important...Long term is where every car sends a signal and you now have a dynamic organization that's giving traffic information as it happens. But that's down the road...2013 or 2015...somewhere in that range," said Frank Weith, technical strategy manager for Volkswagen of America.
Photo by Volkswagen/Google
