Patent ID: 7680589

Claim:
A navigation apparatus for a vehicle, the apparatus comprising: a road map data storage unit configured to store road map data; a road regulation data storage unit configured to store master road regulation data table and temporary road regulation data table, the master road regulation data table including master road regulation data to be associated with road segments in the road map data, the temporary road regulation data table being independent from the master road regulation data table and including temporary road regulation data to be associated with a predetermined road segment included in the road segments, the temporary road regulation data being applied in preference to the master road regulation data; the temporary road regulation data table further including reference information in association with the temporary road regulation data for determining which of the master road regulation data and the temporary road regulation data is valid with respect to one of the road segments as a target road segment, the reference information indicating an application period for the temporary road regulation data with respect to the target road segment; a data determination unit configured to determine an application of either the master road regulation data or the temporary road regulation data to the target road segment based on the reference information stored in the temporary road regulation data table; and a road regulation data output unit configured to output either the master road regulation data or the temporary road regulation data of which the application is determined, wherein the data determination unit includes a present date and time acquisition unit to acquire a present date and time; and the data determination unit (i) performs a comparison of the acquired present date and time with the application period included in the reference information for the temporary road regulation data with respect to the target road segment, and (ii) determines an application of either the master road regulation data or the temporary road regulation data to the target road segment based on a result from the comparison.