Technology hits the road with cars that surf the Net and give directions.
Now the rest of the world is catching up. Such heady predictions, however, depend on whether consumers will bite outside of Japan, where unmarked roads and unnumbered buildings can turn any trip into a bad one. To gauge whether satellite navigation is a toy or a necessity, I hitched a ride around Sydney with Brian Bean, a sales manager for VDO Dayton. The company is planning inroads into Asia via Singapore later this year. Climbing into the car, Bean promises that VDO's MS5000 system can get me to within a block of any address in town.