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International Herald Tribune

Earthquake, weather information part of Honda's car navigation system upgrade

Published: July 4, 2007

TOKYO: Honda's car navigation system already maps the quickest route to a destination, avoiding traffic jams. Now, drivers will get information about earthquakes and warnings of heavy rainfall ahead on roads.

Honda Motor Co.'s service, shown to reporters Wednesday, will be offered starting with the remodeled Fit subcompact going on sale in Japan later this year. There are no plans so far to offer it overseas, executive Manabu Nishimae said.

"We believe information services are an important part of a car's quality," he told reporters.

The service is free, but drivers pay mobile phone bills for relaying data. Data transmission cards for a set monthly fee of 1,000 yen (US$8; $6) are available for frequent users. About 530,000 drivers use the current navigation service in Japan, or about 40 percent of Honda owners.

With the latest upgrade, e-mail warnings will be sent to a pre-assigned address when car with the system is in an area of a strong earthquake — handy in a quake-prone nation. If heavy rain is forecast on a planned route, icons of exclamation marks pop up on the monitor.

Japan's No. 2 automaker also upgraded its map system so updates take just a few minutes to download. Up to now, disks with map data had to be changed...

Excerpted: Earthquake, weather information part of Honda's car navigation system upgrade