A feature I like while travelling with the current Garmin Automotive Nuvi, is called Where AM I. I was travelling with my father-in-law he I was concerned that some of his medical problems would popup. At the time I had City Navigator along with Topo installed on my Garmin 76Cx but advantage of an automotive gps were still lacking.
The feature I am talking about is wherever I happen to be I can touch the image of my vehicle on the screen and I will get a popup with the touch, the nearest hospital, Law Enforcement, Fuel and other options, no real searching of a menu required. The popup also included the Lat/Long for the unit. Having worked as an emergency dispatcher in my retirement this is key information if you need 911 help out on a farm or forest road. Emergency ground and helicopter’s can plug the Lat/Long in their units and find you quickly. Helicopters are very fast when they can home in on your location with a Lat/Long rather than spend critical time conducting a search. Think about the couple in a white car in a snow covered area, a tough find.
Last spring a friend and I were on a return trip home and he wanted to stop at Carl’s for a milk shake. I did a search on my automotive gps and found the nearest Carl’s along our route. He was happy and so was I because he bought lunch. A few months before that there was a gathering of the women folks in the extended family and I was nominated as the driver. The group included my Mother-in-Law, daughter, a couple granddaughters’, and the wife. We went from the country to the busy city traffic, which included toll bridges. I plugged in the address and we started out on our journey. About mid route everybody was ready for breakfast and a pit stop. My wife did a search for a restaurant in route and found what was suitable for our group. Without a gps the search would have been tough. They agreed and she selected the restaurant and the gps navigated us to in.
