Travel info from space

After taking a tour of a "concept vehicle" in the XM display at the NY Auto Show, it's clear that the company is moving further and further into being a provider of driver and travel information, as well as its familiar satellite radio programming.

We've already seen some factory and aftermarket GPS navigation systems that can display XM's real-time traffic alerts in a number of metro areas nationwide. On the nav screens, they typically provide color-coded traffic flow information for major highways and pop-up icons noting the location of accidents, roadwork, and so on.

XM is also already providing real-time weather information for marine and aircraft use, which can be displayed as satellite-generated weather maps and include regionalized weather warnings. According to an XM representative, the next step is to bring this weather info—and more—to drivers.

XM is working with both automakers and aftermarket companies to create systems that can overlay satellite weather data over a nav system's display and automatically warn drivers of hazardous road conditions related to snow, fog, wind, heavy rain, etc. According to XM, the first product to offer this capability will be the Bushnell Onix 400 hand-held GPS device, due this June. The first automaker systems with this capability are expected within the next year.

Another service on XM's drawing board is real-time parking info for major cities. The concept vehicle was able to display the location of several parking garages in Manhattan as well as—and this is potentially sweet—the number of open spaces in each. XM says this concept could be applied to municipal and metro garages, airport and mass-transportation parking, and shopping malls. Again, the first applications of this are expected to be a year or more away.

In our experience with XM's traffic info, we've found its usefulness to be limited, depending on what highways you use and the quality of the incoming data, which, as we all know from current radio reports, can dramatically lag reality at times. Likewise, the quality of the parking info will depend on how many garages are contracted with XM and can reliability provide real-time data. It's always possible, for example, that a non-contracted garage with plenty of open spaces could be right next to the crowded one that's displayed on your nav screen. And, of course, it would help to know the competing prices before you drive in. It sounds intriguing, and as soon as we can test these applications on vehicles or in portable GPS systems, we'll let you know what we find.

--Rik Paul