Patent ID: 7133753

Claim:
An information providing system for vehicles comprising: a first information center that operates with a human operator; a second information center that operates without a human operator and is connected to the first information center via a network; and an on-vehicle apparatus, wherein: the first information center comprises a voice line to be used by the operator, an information search device that executes a search for facility information from a telephone directory data recording device, and a data transmission device that transmits the facility information obtained through the search executed by the information search device via the network; the second information center comprises a position search device that executes a search for position data corresponding to the facility information transmitted from the first information center via the network, from a position data recording device, and a data line to be used to transmit the position data out of the second information center to the on-vehicle apparatus; and the on-vehicle apparatus comprises a communication device that obtains the facility information provided as a voice message from the first information center via the voice line and obtains the position data, which is not a voice message, from the second information center via the data line; the position search device does not execute the search for position data corresponding to the facility information transmitted from the first information center via the network when a received call is directed to a telephone number assigned to a telephone number directory service; and the position search device executes the search for position data corresponding to the facility information transmitted from the first information center via the network when a received call is directed to a telephone number assigned to an information providing service.