GPS on Your Smartphone? 7 Reasons Why a Dedicated Car GPS System is Safer

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

TomTom's iPhone App

Now there’s a new revolution afoot, namely the growing availability and sophistication of GPS features on smartphones, such as the iPhone, Android and Google Nexus One. However, from a safety perspective, there are strong arguments as to why the GPS on your mobile phone is best used while you’re stopped or sitting in the passenger seat and a dedicated in-vehicle GPS unit remains a better choice:

1. Eyes Forward – Read With Your Ears: One of the principal dangers of electronic devices in the car is the fact that they draw your eyes away from the road ahead. Virtually all dedicated in-car GPS navigation systems include spoken turn-by-turn directions (”in one mile, turn left”). The best units also include text-to-speech capability, i.e., they read the street names aloud (”in one mile, turn left on Main Street”). Mobile phone apps don’t always include these features and the speaker volume and sound quality is usually much better on dedicated GPS units, which have larger speakers. Read more