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The GPS Navigation navigation unit offers a number of compelling safety advantages to travelers venturing into unfamiliar territory, including keeping us from getting lost, guiding us to the nearest service station, rest area or hospital, and enabling us to report our precise location to emergency responders. Though the presence of another electronic device in the car or truck can be a distraction, those of us who remember wrestling with big, unwieldy paper maps while attempting to keep our eyes on the street see the in-vehicle GPS Navigation revolution as a net benefit, particularly with the inclusion of voice-guided, turn-by-turn directions.

Now there's a new revolution afoot, specifically the growing availability and sophistication of Gps navigation functions on cell phones, including the iPhone, Android and Google Nexus One. However, from a safety viewpoint, there are strong arguments as to why the GPS on your mobile phone is best used when you are stopped or seated in the passenger seat and a dedicated in-vehicle GPS Navigation device remains a better choice:

1. Eyes Forward - Read With Your Ears: One of the main risks of digital devices in the car or truck is the fact that they draw your eyes away from the street ahead. Practically all dedicated in-car GPS systems include spoken turn-by-turn directions ("in one mile, turn left"). The best models also provide text-to-speech capacity, i.e., they read the street names aloud ("in one mile, turn left on Main Street"). Mobile phone apps do not consistently include these capabilities and the speaker volume and sound quality is typically much better on devoted GPS Navigation models, which have larger speakers.

2. Screen Size: Even with spoken directions, there can be occasions when the driver must refer to the GPS unit's visual map display. Although the quality of cell phone displays continue to improve, their size remains smaller, significantly smaller than that of a dedicated GPS unit. This makes it more difficult to discern detail and has the potential to keep your eyes off the street for a longer time.

3. Size of Controls: Touch screens can be difficult to operate even when you are not driving. Since mobile phones are smaller than dedicated GPS Navigation units, the soft buttons you push to control the unit are also smaller, requiring more effort, finesse, and time to operate. Once more, this has the potential of keeping your eyes off the road.

4. Heads Up: Dedicated GPS Navigation systems can be affixed to the windshield or dashboard such that they don't require the driver to move their head to see the screen; merely shifting the eyes can offer a satisfactory view. Unless a cell phone is secured in a comparable way, and not put on the passenger seat, in the drink holder or ash tray as is often true, the driver must not only avert eyes and head to view the screen, but also may need to remove a hand from the wheel in order to support the phone so it can be more conveniently seen, another distraction.

5. Power: While dedicated GPS models typically plug into the auto's power, we are accustomed to the convenience of utilizing our mobile phones without plugging them in. While operating on battery power, the cell phone's screen saver may activate, requiring you to reactivate it (by touching the screen, for example), one more distraction and requirement to remove a hand from the steering wheel.

6. It's For You: It's easy to forget that a smartphone is, well, a phone. An ill-timed cell phone call could hinder the ability to navigate.

7. Precision: Acquiring a GPS Navigation signal from space demands an antenna and sensitive GPS chip. A dedicated GPS Navigation system features a superior antenna and typically an extremely sensitive GPS Navigation chipset which makes sure you can acquire GPS Navigation signals even among tall structures and beneath a forest canopy. The cell phone handset cannot provide a similar degree of sensitivity and therefore will not have the ability to estimate your location as precisely. Why is this a safety problem? Without a good fix on your location, the GPS Navigation may route you incorrectly or furnish directions too late for you to complete a turn safely.

There's no doubt that mobile phone technology will continue to improve and address a number of these safety issues, but in the meantime there continue to be strong safety benefits for utilizing a dedicated in-vehicle GPS system when using your mobile phone solely as a backup or while riding shotgun. Today's dedicated GPS Navigation devices, such as Garmin's nuvi line, are portable and light, conveniently carried inside your purse or briefcase. If you must use your cell phone to navigate while driving, take the following actions to maximize safety:

• Make sure your mobile phone is mounted to your windshield or dashboard in a "heads-up" location.
• Plug your cell phone into your auto's power outlet.
• Make certain the speaker volume of your phone is satisfactory; use your car's speakers by plugging your vehicle's speaker jack (if available) into your mobile phone; alternatively, use the mobile phone's wired or wireless earpiece to make sure that you are able to hear spoken directions clearly.
• Prepare and review your route before you head out and while stopped.
• Stay off the phone until you're stopped or traveling in an area where you don't need immediate GPS support

Leslie G. Williams has authored hundreds of articles about the latest consumer electronics in our lives. She is a frequent contributor to Rated4Stars.com, providing consumer GPS reviews, ratings and advice about GPS navigation systems, including a comprehensive GPS Buying Guide. Rated4Stars features only the best GPS systems, rated 4 stars or higher.

Porsche to Increase Stakes in Volkswagen

Porsche AG, maker of the famous 911 Carerra sports car, said that its first-half profit increased because of a revaluation and hedges on its stake in Volkswagen AG maker of world’s safest vehicles and top-of-the-line Volkswagen antenna. Stuttgart, Germany-based Porsche said in a statement on the DGAP newswire that its net income for six months until January rose to 1.05 billion euros from 169.8 million euros a year earlier. They also added that sales fell by 2.9% or 3.2 billion euros.

According to Chief Executive Officer Wendelin Wiedeking, they are expecting for a lower production costs by 2008. This will provide an operating profit of 5.1 billion euros for Volkswagen and in turn boost Porsche’s earnings from its 27.4 percent stake. Contributions from Volkswagen will offset the stagnating sales for the next two years for Porsche as it develops a four-door car and as demand for the Cayenne sport-utility vehicle falls.

``Financially, they were right with their Volkswagen investment,'' said Philippe Barrier, an analyst at Societe Generale in Paris who has a ``buy'' recommendation on Porsche. ``On a fundamental basis you can wonder about it, though for them they say it gives them a stable long-term partnership, but on a financial basis they've shown they were right.''

Shares of Porsche in Frankfurt fell by 1.8% or 18.41 euros to a three-week low of 991.50 euros. For the past twelve months Porsche’s stocks has gained 58% valuing the automaker at 14.4 billion euros compared to the 29.9 billion euros it has been able to gain from Volkswagen.

Porsche: Biggest Shareholder of Volkswagen

It was Wendelin Wiedeking, Chief Executive Officer of Porsche who bought shares in Volkswagen in September 2005 and from then on Porsche has become one of the biggest shareholders of Volkswagen.

Porsche has earned so much from its investment at Volkswagen a ``substantial figure in the three-digit million-euro range'' as well as a one-time gain of 520 million euros for the revaluation of its stock at the German automaker. Volkswagen’s shares which rose from 0.1% to 84.60 euros have almost risen to 80% for the past twelve months.

In a speech made by Wiedeking at the recent annual shareholders meeting, he criticized those investors who were skeptical of Porsche’s purchase of Volkswagen he goes as far as calling them ``Anglo- Saxon investors'' with ``dishonorable manner''. ``Basically, those accusations claimed that we were destroying the money we had worked for so hard,'' Wiedeking said. ``The entire project was presented quite literally as an act of madness.''

Profit Beating Estimates

According to the survey conducted by the six analysts from Bloomberg News, the net income gained by Porsche beat their estimated 178 million-euro median and that didn’t include earnings from the Volkswagen holdings. Sales missed the 3.2 billion-euro median estimate. The pretax profit increased to 1.45 billion euros from 277.8 million euros basing on the provisional figures for the fiscal first half.

``In light of the sharp decline in Cayenne sales, it is especially remarkable that they managed to increase operating profit this much,'' said Georg Stuerzer, an analyst at HVB Group in Munich. ``The numbers are super, even if you take out the one- time effects.''

The automaker also reported that the first-half deliveries of Porsche cars and SUVs also fell by 5.9% or 39,750 units. The Cayenne sales fell by more than a third to 10,225 vehicles while the 911 model sales gained 16% or 17,340 units. Deliveries of some of its vehicles particularly the Boxster and Cayman cars also rose to 22% or 12,170 units of vehicles.

Porsche has also experienced revenue decline when it sold the CTS Fahrzeug-Dachsysteme GmbH automotive-roof division in December 2005 to Magna International Inc. ``Analysts didn't adjust their revenue forecast for the disposal of CTS,'' Stuerzer said. ``If you do that, there's hardly any decline in revenue.''

Porsche’s Full-Year Target

Porsche for the fiscal year ending July 31 is expecting to beat last year’s pretax profit figure of 2.1 billion euros that is of course ``if there are no surprises at the end of the day with Volkswagen,'' stated Wiedeking. He further say that the company is ``moderately confident'' about its sales and revenue for this year.

Juergen Pieper, an analysts at Bankhaus Metzler which oversees about thirty billion euros in assets, including carmakers’s shares has also given his view on the financial standing of Porsche and this is what he said, ``The second half will look fairly good'' because of the Cayenne order intake in the first half. As soon as it's on sale -- the sale starts in March -- I think then we'll see some strong months even going into the 2008 fiscal year.''

A Victory for Porsche

Volkswagen’s annual shareholders’ meeting has turned out in favor of Porsche especially when 3,800 shareholders have agreed on the automaker’s suggestion of a possible 50% increase in the number of shares to provide capital for potential acquisitions.

The supervisory board of Volkswagen has authorized increasing the stake to 29.9%. Porsche’s Chairman Wiedeking have also stressed that they have no plans of taking over Volkswagen completely but they are not ruling out an eventual offer.

The automaker has spent more than 4 billion euros in purchasing Volkswagen stocks. And currently, Chairman Wiedeking is also looking for an additional seat on Volkswagen’s supervisory board to increase the number of Porsche representatives as well as ensure their investment in the largest German automaker.

A great part of Porsche’s earnings came from its sales of some of its expensive versions like the 911 sports car as well as the Cayman which is based on the Boxster roadster. The 911 Turbo is Porsche’s highest priced 911 models and has a price of $122,900 USD. The Boxter is the least expensive sports car and cost only $45,000. The Cayman cost a little higher than the Boxster and has a starting price of $58,900. The Cayenne is offered in a price range starting from $42,000 to $111,600.

Porsche has the highest percentage (19%) in the industry in terms of its net income as proportion to sales as of the fiscal year ended July 31, 2006.---- Comparing that to the 7.5% that Toyota Motor Corp. (world’s second-biggest carmaker) obtained for the year ended March 31, Porsche is definitely doing pretty good job. The figures by the way were based on the data compiled by Bloomberg.

About the Author

Growing up with three brothers, Natalie Anderson became exposed early to the world of automobiles. This 29-year-old account manager now dreams of having her very own top-of-the-line vintage car.

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