Continuing on the theme from the last article about location based services in Japan, I came across a really nice looking service from AU today which allows you to navigate, sat-nav style, on your phone, whilst driving your car.

The service runs on your cell phone and takes your position using the GPS chip in your handset and gives on screen directions and maps to help you navigate yourself around whilst driving.

Well, actually the service is not meant to be used by the driver but by a passenger; the Japanese quite rightly, as in Europe, do not allow you to drive whilst using your mobile.

The system is available as a one off, free, download and costs a monthly fee of 315 yen ( $2.80 )for heavy users and 157 yen ( $1.4 ) for light users ( excluding packet charges ).

It is really easy to use, you just enter in your desired destination and either follow the on-screen map or the directions presented to you, very similar to the in-car navigation systems. The phone does well with its small screen, but really it is not something you can use by yourself - you would definitely need someone riding in the passenger seat shouting instructions.

This entry was posted on Monday, September 5th, 2005 at 8:24 pm and is filed under Services, Technology, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.