Car Rental Cos. Expand Use Of Navigation Systems

<FONT SIZE="+3"><B>Car Rental Cos. Expand Use Of Navigation Systems</B>

By Lynn Woods

While travel managers still consider car rental navigation systems a novelty, ongoing efforts by the systems' manufacturers to enhance their capabilities and reduce their cost, along with more availability from the car rental companies, suggest it won't be long before their use by business travelers becomes much more widespread.

Some travel managers said the technology could be useful to their travelers as it improves and becomes more available. "A lot of people are not good at reading maps," said Tom Barrett, travel and fleet manager at National Starch & Chemical, in Bridgewater, N.J. "This is an emerging technology that will probably get better."

Besides convenience, the issues of safety and security also are fueling interest in the systems. A 1995 American Express study found that 33 percent of corporate travel managers surveyed "would likely include navigation system availability as a negotiation point in upcoming corporate rental car contracts," primarily because of safety concerns.

Travelers who use the systems like them. In a report released in November 1995, automotive research firm J.D. Power and Associates found high satisfaction levels among a test group of consumers who drove cars equipped with navigation systems for two days. On a scale of one to 10, with 10 being "extremely satisfied," 80 percent of 170 respondents rated the systems a nine or 10. "Pricing and communicating system advantages will be key factors in how quickly navigation systems are embraced by the marketplace, but consumers are clearly interested in the systems," the report concluded.

Hertz renters now have a greater opportunity to test the systems for themselves. Last month, the company increased the number of cars equipped with its NeverLost units eightfold, from 1,000 vehicles to about 8,000. Renters can now reserve a car with NeverLost, rather than simply request one. The availability of units in vehicles of all sizes and classes also make them more appealing to budget-minded corporate travelers. Currently, the system is offered in 16 cities, including Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Houston, Philadelphia, Seattle, Miami and New York.

Avis, which was the first car rental company to introduce the systems in 1994, plans to expand its fleet of l,000 vehicles with the Guidestar system. It's now available in Cutlass Cieras and Oldsmobile 88s in 16 cities.

While the software of both systems is slightly different, they operate essentially the same way, using both global positioning satellites and an in-vehicle computerized navigation system, which takes over the routing when a tall building or other obstacle blocks the satellite signals. A customer logs in the address of his or her destination on a video screen mounted on the dashboard and chooses from three options-the shortest route, a route using freeways or a route avoiding freeways. The system then provides turn-by-turn directions, displayed on either a map or as directional signals, accompanied by audio instructions. Renters also can be routed to a particular point of interest, such as the closest ATM, police station, shopping mall or parking garage.

National Car Rental has been more hesitant than Hertz and Avis to jump on this new technological bandwagon. Its Navigator units, manufactured by Siemens Automotive (which, like Hertz system developer Rockwell, has a licensing agreement with Zexel USA Corp., the systems developer and software provider), has been installed in about 100 Cadillacs in Atlanta and Detroit. One problem is that drivers have to be "technically apt to use them," said National spokesman David Schoeneck.

National Starch & Chemical recently evaluated navigation systems to see how useful the units would be for salespeople. One stumbling block, Barrett said, was that it took half an hour to figure out the systems-an investment of time his employees can ill afford to spend. "It's a training issue," he said.

As it is, "many customers can't figure out how to use the AM/FM radio, let alone the navigation systems," said Neil Abrams, president of Neil Abrams and Associates, a car rental consultancy in Purchase, N.Y.

But Mike Rice, Zexel's manager of marketing and sales, said the average time it takes to figure out its system is five to seven minutes, he said. And as drivers get used to the system and begin to trust it, they can rely on the audio directions rather than continually glance at the map, he added.

In addition to ease of use, the cost of the systems also is an issue. Rockwell's units cost $2,995 apiece, according to Rockwell spokesman Richard Pacini. Hertz customers pay a $6-a-day fee for the units. Avis charges $1 less, and National is offering its system for free.

Bringing down the price is a key goal of Zexel, based in Farmington Hills, Mich. Rice said the company aims to bring down the cost 40 percent in the next year and a half, a reduction made possible by the replacement of circuit boards with microchips and using CDs instead of hard drives.

Barrett said he also is concerned about road safety because the system requires drivers to periodically take their eyes off the road to look at the screen. But Rice said these difficulties are mainly perceptual.

Budget Rent a Car is attempting to bypass these snags by testing a voice-activated navigation system, introduced last January by Amerigon Inc., based in Monrovia, Calif. The units have been installed in a handful of Crown Victorias in Chicago, Boston and Los Angeles. Budget president William Plamondon said the firm had received positive feedback from customers-primarily business travelers-and plans to expand the test.

Because drivers rely on verbal responses to their spoken commands or questions, they don't have to take their eyes off the road. Directions are printed on a tag hanging from the rear-view mirror and take only a few minutes to read, said Paula Finnegan, marketing manager at Interactive Voice System, a division of Amerigon. The system also is more affordable than Zexel's, costing $700 a unit.

But the Amerigon units lack the sophistication of the GPS navigation systems, which automatically reroute lost drivers. With Budget's system, drivers must first cue it by saying, "I am lost" and recite a cross street or other landmark in order for the machine to reroute the vehicle.

Early next year, Amerigon will unveil a prototype that incorporates GPS technology, enabling the system to automatically reroute lost drivers. The product will cost $400 to $500 more than the current units.

Yet another obstacle has been the systems' geographical limitations. Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Navigational Technologies produces the mapping database for all the systems. Currently, it has mapped 38 metropolitan areas down to the street level. Intertown maps, which show only major roads, fill out the rest of the country. Nine regions are available in Rockwell's car rental units. NavTech spokesman Chris Cavanagh said the company is aiming to provide street-by-street maps for every town with a population of more than 500, but that is a massive task that will take years.

NavTech provides three-month updates of each region. It also is mapping other parts of the world. (Several car rental firms in Europe, including Eurodollar and Kemwel, offer vehicles equipped with navigation systems.) And it's in the process of sorting out which types of businesses might be added to its database of points of interest, which currently includes grocery stores, banks, hospitals and gas stations.

One feature that would greatly enhance the systems' usefulness to business travelers is rerouting around traffic jams and other types of road conditions, using real-time information from traffic reports and other sources. In early 1998, Siemens plans to launch a product with real-time capabilities that will use cellular technologies, said spokesman Dave Ladd.

Zexel tested such a feature in Atlanta during the Olympics, in partnership with the city and two other automotive companies. Traffic reports broadcast on an FM sideband were received by special equipment installed in each of the 100 test cars, which fed the information into the navigation system's computer. Congested roads changed color on the video screen's map. In the test, the system would not reroute the vehicle automatically; it was up to the driver to make the detour.

Rice said it is a simple matter for the system to receive real-time information and instantly reroute the vehicle by blocking out a length of road, forcing the system to route around it. The difficulty lies in getting municipalities to develop the infrastructure to transmit that information. Standards requiring each city to broadcast the information in a consistent format also are needed, he said.

Another feature that might be incorporated into the system's software in the future is government data of crime statistics, Rice said. A high-crime area could be highlighted in a different color on the display screen, or the audio directions could include a warning.

All this and more could become standard equipment in rental cars by the turn of the century, according to Jon LeSage, executive editor of <I>Auto Rental News</I>, based in Redondo Beach, Calif. "Within five years, you'll see rental cars having multifaceted communications capabilities," he said. These could include a single unit equipped with a modem that will contain a navigation system, as well as phone and emergency roadside services.