Patent ID: 7680594

Claim:
In a navigation system having a user display for assisting a person in a vehicle traveling from a first location to a second location, a method for providing traffic-related information to the person comprising: receiving the first location for the vehicle; receiving the second location for the vehicle; acquiring traffic-related information from an information supplier; using the traffic-related information to determine a travel route for the vehicle from the first location to the second location; displaying the travel route to the person via the user display; acquiring up-dated traffic-related information from the information supplier while the vehicle is traveling on the travel route; and automatically determining, in response to the acquisition of the up-dated traffic-related information, whether the travel route is a preferred route from a current location of the vehicle to the second location, comprising: determining the current location of the vehicle on the travel route; using the updated traffic-related information to determine an alternate travel route for the vehicle from the current location to the second location; determining first and second times, respectively, that it would take the vehicle to travel from the current location to the second location via the travel route and the alternate travel route; comparing the first and second times; displaying at least one feature of the travel route and the alternate travel route if the second time is less than the first time, the at least one feature being selected from a list of features consisting of distance, travel time and estimated time of arrival (ETA); and displaying the alternate travel route to the person via the user display if at least the second time is less than the first time and the person indicates a desire to have the alternate travel route displayed.