With the increasing use of technology and smartphones behind the wheel, driver distraction has become a concern. But technology in general is not the problem. The most important question is how it is being used and integrated into the car so that it doesn’t distract drivers. Garmin’s new multi-controller concept provides a new and unique way of controlling essential functions of an in-car infotainment system, such as audio, apps, communications and navigation. It is a concept development from Garmin’s automotive OEM group, providing further research for enhanced reduction in driver distraction.

Garmin’s concept positions the screen higher up on the dash inthe driver’s eyesight and combines it
with a rotary infrared controller in convenient reach, a touch pad, and menu mode buttons. The infrared sensors of the rotary controller automatically detect an approaching hand and the system reacts by displaying menu options even before it is touched. Because the system “knows” when a user is reaching for the controller, menu buttons on the screen are hidden when not needed. At all times important information, such as driving directions and the name of a song or radio station is kept at the top of the screen so the driver always has a single reference point. Four buttons with infrared sensors on the rotary controller allow switching between different menus, such as audio, apps, communications and navigation.

In addition to the rotary controller, radio preset buttons with infrared sensors are positioned below the screen to allow a driver to feel for the right button without having to press it – when their finger is close to a preset button, a highlighted preset image appears on the display, allowing the driver to select a station.

Tied into this system can be HVAC controls, vehicle bus information, connected services and apps from a smartphone. Existing technology like text-to-speech, voice command, Bluetooth hands-free calling and traffic services also helps alleviate driver distraction to avoid potentially dangerous situations.

Garmin’s automotive OEM group utilizes the company’s long-standing experience in interface and hardware design from its automotive, avionics and marine segments to develop innovative in-car navigation, telematics and infotainment systems. Garmin already provides integrated cockpits to the aviation industry and is dedicated to bring a similar level of technology, integration, safety, reliability, and efficiency to the automotive market. Garmin recently announced its first fully integrated infotainment system for most 2013 Suzuki vehicles.

Finding parking can be challenging, especially in bigger cities. While traffic services have advanced tremendously over the last years with historical and crowd-sourced information available, services to find parking just started moving beyond simple points of interest.

Garmin recently introduced a Dynamic Parking feature that is available through the Garmin Smartphone Link app for Android phones.  This new feature provides detailed information on parking garages nearby, such as pricing, opening hours and facility type. Users can simply pull up a list of parking options nearby and compare their hourly rates. When selecting a garage, users can view more pricing details, opening hours and the address, and with a simple hit of a button start navigating.

Garmin utilizes data for street parking and garages in 43 U.S. cities from leading provider BestParking. Users receive the parking information through the phone’s data connection, so it’s always up to date. “We have a street team that manually visits every facility to gather parking information,” said Ben Sann, founder of BestParking. “This guarantees that our data is the most accurate and up to date on the market today.”      

Smartphone Link is an app for Android phones to provide live services to nüvi devices, utilizing the smartphone's mobile data plan. Garmin Smartphone Link is available at no cost in Google Play and includes several free live services as well as premium in app purchase options such as Premium Traffic, Fuel Prices, Advanced Live Weather and photoLive traffic cameras. The Dynamic Parking feature is available at no cost.

You’re on the road in the middle of nowhere and suddenly your iPhone is running out of battery, so you have to pull that dusty paper map out of the glove box and navigate the old school way. Obviously, you didn’t get a navigation app to have that happen to you. Using your smartphone for navigation is great when you’re traveling, since you don’t have to bring a separate device. But smartphones aren't built primarily for navigation so there are a few things to keep in mind. Here are some tips on how to make sure you’re getting the most out of your StreetPilot app and you don’t have to look at a paper map ever again.

1.    Get a car charger for your smartphone

When you navigate with your smartphone, your battery will drain quickly. This is because the screen and the GPS receiver are turned on constantly. To make sure you’re not left without road guidance, make sure to get a car charger for your phone so you can leave it plugged in while you’re driving. It’s also important to close your Garmin app when you arrive at your destination to avoid that it will continue to run in the background.

2.    Mount your smartphone on the windshield

This one can’t be repeated often enough: Not only is it safer to mount your smartphone if you use it for navigation in the car, this will also make sure that you don’t loose GPS reception. All GPS-powered devices need free view to the sky in order to be able to communicate with the satellites so don’t position your phone too far inside the car or it will block the GPS signal. We strongly recommend a windshield mount, which are available at various price points. A good option is, for example, the NAVIGON Design Car Kit, which also comes with an extra long charging cable.

3.    Add live services

Smartphones are connected devices and our StreetPilot apps take advantage of that fact in order to provide you real-time information on the road. You can easily upgrade your app with various live services, such as live traffic information, weather, fuel prices or even real-time images from traffic cameras. Just go into the “Extras” in your app to view the available options.

4.    Choose the right route profile

Garmin’s StreetPilot apps offer various settings to personalize your navigation experience. Most importantly, you’ll want to make sure you pick the right route profile. Select between the fastest or shortest route or go for off-road navigation if you plan on driving in the wild. You can also block certain road types that you wish to avoid, highways for example.

5.    Add some fun

There are a few ways you can make your navigation experience more fun: If you go into the settings of your StreetPilot app, you can pick a different vehicle icon to be displayed on the map. The Garmin StreetPilot onDemand app also offers a variety of voices to choose from. 

The Cadillac Ranch in Texas (Credit: Flickr user waxhawian)

Even though gas prices have gone up over the last couple of months, a road trip probably is still one of the most budget-friendly ways to spend your summer vacation, and hitting the road to explore Americas back roads is a ton of fun, too. With the summer road trip season approaching, here are some great Garmin tools that can be useful and fun on the road.

Check out the Cadillac Ranch and other cool attractions

Road trips are all about the journey, but it doesn’t hurt to know where you’re going or what kind of attractions are on your way. Garmin’s nüvi devices and StreetPilot mobile apps come preloaded with millions of points of interest and there are also full travel guides available that you can load onto your device. Spot it out offers many different guides with interesting destinations across the U.S. You can, for example, download a guide with the weirdest locations across the country, such as little museums, “world’s largest” sights, natural and unnatural mysteries, over-the-top tourist traps, oddball folk artists, monuments, and statues. The picture above shows the Cadillac Ranch in Texas as one example of the destinations included in the Attractions and Oddities guide. Also available are guides for historic or family destinations.

Let Darth Vader guide you

To add some fun to your trip, especially when travelling with kids, Garmin offers a wide variety of voices for nüvi device, ranging from Darth Vader to the SpongeBob. Or, even better, if you prefer to let your friends or loved ones guide you in your next adventure, then just download the Garmin Voice Studio and start recording.

Save at the pump

T.S. Eliot said that “the journey not the arrival matters,” so you don't have to worry about the fastest route, but that doesn’t mean you’ll have to waste fuel on the way. A fuel-efficient vehicle still is the best way to save at the pump, but how you drive also matters. Garmin’s ecoRoute feature can help you analyze and improve your driving style so you’ll get the most out of every trip to the gas station. You can also save by using Garmin’s Smartphone Link app, which allows you to search in real-time for the best gas prices nearby .

Dodge this week announced pricing and availability for its new compact car, the 2013 Dodge Dart. This sporty new vehicle combines fuel-efficiency and a compact form factor with beautiful design and great performance. Garmin's award-winning navigation is available as an option for most trim levels as well as a class-exclusive 8.4-inch touch screen and a 506-watt sound system.

Starting at only $15.995, the all-new 2013 Dodge Dart is anticipated to arrive at U.S. dealer showrooms in June 2012. 

More compact and fuel-efficient cars have quickly gained popularity over the last years. A recent survey of in-market car shoppers found that 51 percent of respondents are now considering a smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicle.

Are you ready to switch to a smaller car to save at the pump? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.

Two days before the New York International Auto Show opened its doors to the public last Friday, we started demoing our first in-car infotainment system to the press at the Suzuki booth. This new system marks Garmin's entrance into the in-car infotainment market and not only provides navigation but an all-in-one solution including everything you'll need behind the wheel such as an AM/FM/CD radio, backup camera support, Bluetooth^® hands-free connectivity, Garmin's award-winning navigation and Pandora^® internet radio.

Car tech expert Doug Newcomb stopped by the Suzuki booth and recorded the hands-on video above. Check it out to see the features in action and take a look at the intuitive user interface with voice recognition. The Garmin infotainment system will be available for select 2013 model year Suzuki vehicles.

The New York International Auto Show will be open to the public until April 15, so make sure to stop by if you have a chance. Many of the major car manufacturers have new vehicles on display, including the Chrysler Viper, a new 2013 Toyota Avalon and Nissan Altima as well as the BMW i8 electric car, just to name a few. 

We’ve provided navigation solutions to automakers for quite some time now, but today we announced our first factory-installed infotainment system that has everything you’ll need behind the wheel. The system will be available for most American 2013 model year Suzuki vehicles and combines a 6.1-inch high-resolution touchscreen display with a full-featured infotainment platform, including AM/FM/CD radio, multi-media playback, backup camera support, Bluetooth^® hands-free connectivity, Pandora^® internet radio and Garmin’s award-winning navigation. The intuitive user interface with advanced voice control makes it easy to operate the system and switch between functions.

Here are some more details on the features of the new system:

Media and music integration: Music and media is integrated in multiple ways, providing users a wide range of options to choose from. This includes an integrated AM/FM radio and CD player as well as several interfaces that allow user to play music from external devices such as a mobile phone or iPod, including a USB and AUX jack, Bluetooth and a SD card slot. Also included is an integration with Pandora (via a connected smartphone[1]) that allows users to easily browse and select their personalized radio stations, skip a track or give a song a thumbs-up or down.

Navigation: The system integrates Garmin’s intuitive and award-winning navigation, providing premium road guidance with spoken turn-by-turn directions and street names, PhotoReal Junction View with lane guidance, optional traffic via TMC, speed limit and current speed displays, millions of points of interest, a customizable data menu and many other features. The navigation system has access to vehicle speed sensors to provide precise location information even when a GPS signal is not available, for example in tunnels. When switching to other menus, such as the music player, navigation directions will continue and visual cues will be displayed at the top of the screen. Map updates can easily be downloaded to a SD card from a Garmin Web portal.

Full voice control: Users can control the system with voice commands, which helps reduce driver distraction. This includes all the integrated functions, such as navigation, radio, CD player and Pandora. Garmin’s one-shot address entry technology allows user to speak a full address at once without going through multiple steps. Additionally, the system includes steering wheel control buttons on selected vehicles to activate voice recognition or directly control certain functions, such as the volume, switching between radio stations or accepting and ending calls.

Connected services: Real-time information, such as traffic, dynamic parking, weather and fuel prices, will be available through Garmin Smartphone Link[2]. This app can easily link an Android phone to the Suzuki infotainment system via Bluetooth. It utilizes the existing data connection of a smartphone to bring live services to the vehicle, so users don’t have to pay for an extra data plan.

Backup camera support: When backing up, the system automatically displays the backup camera on the screen, so drivers get a better view of what’s behind the vehicle.

Hands-free Bluetooth: The integrated Bluetooth calling function allows users to make calls hands free. A phone can easily be synced via Bluetooth and then controlled with voice commands.

Finding parking spots can be a real hassle, so we’re excited to let you know that we just launched an update for our Smartphone Link app that adds a feature to help you find available parking spots at commercial garages and airports. The new version of Smartphone Link also adds a tracking functionality, so your friends and family can keep track of where you’re headed. Additionally, the update includes the ability to send addresses from Google Maps on your Android phone straight to your nüvi. The new version is available today at no cost in Google Play.

Here’s what’s new for the Smartphone Link app:

Dynamic Parking

This new feature helps you locate parking areas close to your destination. For some commercial garages, it also provides you with the number of spots available and the current cost of theparking spot. Covered are 42 major metropolitan areas and 79 airports in North America with details about the garage, including addresses, phone number, capacities, size regulations and prices (early-bird, evening, holiday, specials, etc.).

Garmin Tracker

Garmin Tracker allows you to track the location of your nüvi on the Garmin website or with the Tracker app, so your friends and family can see where you’re headed. It is also possible to send a link via Facebook, Twitter or email to track you as you travel with your nüvi.

Send Google Maps Addresses

Smartphone Link now lets you send locations and addresses from Android's Google Maps to your nüvi. You can simply click on an address in Google Maps to open a pop-up window that will allow you to send it to your nüvi via Smartphone Link. 

Smartphone Link is an app for Android phones to provide live services to nüvi devices, utilizing the smartphone's mobile data plan.Garmin Smartphone Link is available at no cost in Google Play and includes several free live services as well as premium in app purchase options such as Premium Traffic, Fuel Prices, Advanced Live Weather and photoLive traffic cameras.

Live Fuel Prices with Garmin Smartphone Link App

Garmin Smartphone Link is a free Android app that utilizes the smartphone’s data connection to provide real-time information to nüvi navigation devices. One of the premium functions available through this app is the ability to search for the lowest fuel prices at gas stations nearby. For $9.99 per year, users can find the best prices for any grade of fuel in their area by tapping the screen and selecting a station.

Garmin ecoRoute

Garmin ecoRoute calculates the most fuel-efficient routes by factoring in fuel consumption data, the number of stops, speed limits, and more. ecoRoute also gives you real-time feedback on the efficiency of your driving.

Select Fuel-Efficient Routes

With ecoRoute, users will have a “less fuel” option as a routing preference. When selected, nüvi will determine if more fuel-efficient routes exist based on road speed data and vehicle acceleration data for a given route. You’ll also get information on the time, distance and total fuel cost of your planned route. And it’s all on one easy-to-read screen so you’ll know before you go.

The Fuel Report feature automatically calculates details about your travel and fuel usage. You’ll see time and distance traveled as well as the cost of fuel used and average fuel economy. Perfect for keeping tabs on your travels and expenses, it’s virtually everything you need to track your ongoing fuel consumption.

Driving Challenge

See just how efficient you drive with ecoRoute’s Driving Challenge. This fun-yet-effective challenge makes a game out of saving gas with your nüvi by keeping a running score that reflects your current driving habits. You’ll get real-time feedback based on your performance and you’ll quickly see the results of your actions. Like to accelerate quickly and jam on the brakes at the last moment? Then prepare yourself for a lower score and higher fuel bill. The better you drive, the higher your score.

The ecoRoute feature is included with selected nüvi models and can also be purchased as an upgrade for other models here. Additionally, we also offer an even more advanced option to analyze your driving behavior and fuel economy with ecoRoutes HD: The ecoRoute HD module transforms your Bluetooth® compatible nüvi or Android™ smartphone into a real-time diagnostic computer. By connecting to your vehicle’s diagnostic system, ecoRoute HD monitors vehicle performance and provides detailed system data, including engine monitoring, sensor and gauge data, fuel efficiency, engine diagnostics and more.