Road Mate 012 combines GPS with practical driving info

In-car navigation systems are certainly quite handy, but most of them don't give you the real-world, practical information that's invaluable to the modern lead foot driver: local speed limits, where the cops like to hang out, or that the hairpin turn you're about to hit is a frequent wipeout spot for drunk high school students. Enter the Road Mate 012 from South Korea, a GameBoy Advance-looking gadget that contains over 50,000 useful tidbits of knowledge that are spoken aloud where applicable; now granted, there's no SiRF Star III chipset in here or anything, but the 12-channel receiver should prove plenty accurate for this type of application. Even better, the database is updated on a regular basis -- apparently over a pager network -- so when that bridge you take to work everyday unexpectedly collapses, you'll be able to plan another route instead of driving into the river. Combined with a radar detector and a regular nav unit loaded up with speed camera locations, the 012 should help ensure that the 5-0 will never be using you to meet their monthly ticket quotas.

[Via Navigadget]

[k0llateral @ Nov 10th 2006 8:50PM]

I want that...

[GSchneider @ Nov 11th 2006 12:57PM]

Is it available in U.S. yet?