Driving directions from mobiles

May 14 2004 - 04:51 PM ET | Staff Picks
Avis Rent A Car and Motorola today announced recompletion of a plan to provide Avis customers with Motorola gear to give driving directions on the go--from mobile phones. Avis Assist is now available in 57 US cities. The description given sounds useful: bq. To map out a route, travelers simply contact the call center for a live Avis Advisor or input their destination through the phone keypad... As soon as the car begins moving, street-specific directions are communicated through the handset's speakerphone. If the traveler takes a wrong turn, the system knows it and will recalculate the route -- helping to ensure no more wrong turns! Meanwhile, if you aren't using an Avis rental car but still want mobile powered directions, Ben Stanfield gives praise to Telenav. An interesting feature of the Telenav system is that you input your destination through the web or a 800 number (voice recognition). The catch is that you need to have a Nextel phone.