Patent ID: 8483955

Claim:
A navigation system for a vehicle, comprising: a current location detector for detecting a current location of the vehicle; a data storage section for storing map data for use in searching for a route and coverage data for a radio station along a route for which data is included in the stored map data; a communication section for receiving traffic information which is broadcast from the radio station and current traffic information which is provided from a road traffic information center; an audio output determining section for determining whether an audio output condition is met; a coverage determining section for determining whether the current location of the vehicle is within an area of coverage of the radio station which is stored in the data storage section, in accordance with a detection signal from the current location detector; a display device for displaying a message on a screen to let a driver know that the traffic information which is received from the radio station by the communication section is ready for output as audio guidance responsive to a request from the driver, provided that the audio output determining section has determined that the audio output condition is met; a storage device for storing traffic information which is received from the radio station by the communication section, provided that the audio output determining section has determined that the current traffic information is not to be output because the audio output condition is not met; a display section for displaying a message on the screen of the display device to let the driver know that traffic information received from the radio station by the communication section is ready for output as audio guidance responsive to a request from the driver, provided that the coverage determining section has determined that the vehicle is not located within the area of coverage of the radio station; and an audio output section for outputting traffic information which is received from the radio station as audio guidance when the driver touches an operating area on the screen of the display device and switching between output of the traffic information as received and output of the stored traffic information, dependent on the determination by the coverage determining section.