are the new ticket for finding your way around an unfamiliar city. It's a new car option, well worth it for those that might have a tendency to get lost on occasion while on the road. Includes an LCD screen mapping the route with an audio feed telling you where to turn. ....they even tell you when you made the correct turn with a specific chime sequence. Way cool technology! I rode in a rental car in Houston in October that had this option installed. As a passenger, I was enjoying the machine telling us where to go (where we wanted to be).

A GPS peripheral has been available for my preferred brand of laptop computer for several years, but having to fire the unit up while lost just hasn't made enough sense to buy it (it's not that expensive, about $200 for both the hardware and software).

Mapping software isn't expensive, and the software that I have will update it from their website concerning changes for free (construction detours and such), but the GPS system in the car is the nuts for finding your way around.

Bob