Garmin Chooses Navteq Traffic's RDS Service

Seeking a foothold in the ever competitive PND market, Garmin has called on Navteq to deploy its Traffic's RDS service, which delivers traffic data via FM radio, to provide what the company called a lifetime traffic service for its Nüvi 2x5 and Nüvi 7x5 families of portable navigation devices (PNDs).

This would be the company's first advertising-supported, real-time traffic service in North America market. The company had earlier announced that it would offer lifetime traffic service for its selected series of PND.

According to Navteq, a standard with a traffic receiver that will provide alerts in covered areas with no subscription fee required will be incorporated into all the Garmin Nüvi 755T, 765T, 775T, and Nüvi 2x5 family. The company said the system will deliver what it describes as contextually relevant advertising along with traffic content over its RDS network. For example, a driver can click on an ad to view specific restaurant information and route to the restaurant's location.

The company also expressed confidence about the acceptability of this essential feature because the research earlier conducted by the company to such effect reveals that consumers accept and even expect advertising if there is a clear value exchange and if the advertising is relevant and unobtrusive.