GPS getting better

I’ve been a big fan of GPS navigation systems for years. In fact, the technology may be responsible for saving my marriage. OK, that’s an exaggeration, but the navigation system in our car has prevented many an argument between my wife and me. Instead of having to argue whether to turn left or right, we let the GPS make that decision for us.

Most of the time GPS’s advice is right, but every once in awhile, a GPS device has steered us in the wrong direction. Admittedly, this happened several years ago, but one early GPS unit I tested encouraged me to drive my car into a lake to get to the other side. Fortunately, I was looking out the window and overruled it before the wheels touched the water.

Lately I’ve been testing the Magellan Maestro 4200 series GPS – a $349.99 unit with a 4.3-inch-wide color screen, a voice to tell you where to turn and voice recognition to let you access some of its features without having to take your hands off the wheel. Magellan also makes the Maestro 3000 series, which is nearly identical in features but smaller (3.5-inch screen) and cheaper, starting at about $250.

Although it comes with a cord for the car’s cigarette lighter, the device also has a battery that can run the unit for about four hours and it’s small and thin enough to slip into a pocket so you can easily move it from car to car or – as I do – and take it with you on trips to use in a rental car, when you probably need it the most.

The unit is pre-loaded with maps of all 48 contiguous states along with Hawaii, Puerto Rico and Canada. It also has a points of interest database of 1.3 million locations including gas stations, restaurants, ATMs, hotels, parking lots, public parks, airports and other places you’re likely to drive. When looking for a place, you can search by name or category or search through data from the AAA tourbook.

Like most GPS navigation systems, the Maestro has a speaker and the ability to tell you not only whether to turn left or right but actually say the name of the road or highway you should turn on. Unlike some devices, it pronounces the road name in a natural voice that doesn’t sound like one of those text-to-speech computer voices.

But it can listen as well as speak. If you say the word “Magellan,” the device wakes up and listens for your next command. Unfortunately you can’t just give it an address, but you can tell it to “go home” (navigate to your home location) or find the nearest coffee shop, restaurant, gas station or ATM.

You can also say “Where am I?” to get a pinpoint on your current location or ask for roadside assistance to get the number for AAA road service.

Aside from its very limited vocabulary, my other problem with voice recognition is that you have to practically shout at it. The receiver is not very sensitive, especially in a noisy car. The only way I can get it to work right is to either talk so loudly that I annoy my passengers or pick it up and talk into it – but that defeats the hands-off nature of the technology.

One nice feature of the Maestro is the ability to work with BlueTooth-enabled phones. You can pair your phone with the GPS to use the GPS as a speaker phone or have it automatically dial numbers from its points of interest database. So, in addition to finding the nearest restaurant and getting driving directions, you can automatically have Magellan and your cell phone call for directions.

Some Magellan units also support an optional traffic alert system which, for a monthly fee after the initial 3 months of free service, sends real-time traffic reports to the screen with the ability to re-route you around traffic.

If you use a Maestro to find your way around, you might need to be patient with it. There are times when it just can’t find your location or it might take a minute or two to locate you. That could be because of the positioning of the satellites or because you are in a location that’s not mapped, such as in a parking lot.

Usually if you wait a few minutes to drive on to a main street, it will find you.

One final bit of advice: as with any GPS system, it’s wise to use your eyes and a bit of common sense. Sometimes turnoffs on the screen are not as clear as one might want, but if you look out the windshield, you should be able to figure out where you’re going.