The long and winding road

What with one-way systems, congestion charges and endless road works, getting around the UK is no longer the jaunty exercise of old.

With an ever-increasing number of drivers competing for space on the tarmac, it's no wonder that road rage is sweeping the country. Thankfully, a touch of 21st century technology is at hand to help with the driving experience.

With a computer-assisted co-driver in the car, you can avoid traffic jams, find the quickest route to wherever you're going and perhaps, most importantly, never take a wrong turn again.

There's a wide range of in-car route-planning and navigation gadgetry available, as well as software for both normal and handheld computers.

To see whether they are up to scratch, vnunet.com's sister title Computeractive teamed up with easyCar rental and hit the road in a Renault Clio loaded up to the gills with the latest kit.

We also bought a map. Technology isn't always the panacea that it's made out to be and paper maps have been the standard navigation aid for centuries.

For driving purposes, a good road atlas has a number of advantages over a computer-based alternative. An atlas is portable, doesn't need any power and has clear, full-colour high-resolution maps that can be leafed through with ease. It's also cheap, which means that driving off with it still on the car roof isn't so much of a problem.

The downside is that a road atlas isn't that useful for planning a journey unless you know your destination reasonably well or have a street-level map to get you from door to door.

Even then, an atlas can't help you differentiate between the quickest and shortest routes, and map-reading while driving is a dangerous (not to mention illegal) practice.

This means either having someone else in the car with you for map-reading (and we all know where that can lead) or lots of stopping and starting as you figure out where you are on the map and where you're going next.

Maps still have a place in the car, although we would prefer to use one for reference rather than as a manual navigation tool.

GARMIN GPS V
The GPS V is a self-contained GPS-based (see below) navigation device, so you don't need a separate computer to plug it into. This saves money but does mean that you end up with a product that isn't particularly easy to use.

The device looks like a fat, black sausage, with a monochrome screen on one side and a thick fold-out antenna above it. The screen is a lot smaller than that on a handheld computer and is difficult to read, even with the back light on.

Planning a journey is also tricky, as you have to use an on-screen keyboard with the four-way control pad to find a town or city and then scroll around manually to find your exact destination.

This done though, the GPS V springs to life and asks if you want to take the quickest or shortest route.

Although the route is highlighted on the onscreen map, you have to rely on the GPS V beeping at you every time it wants you to make a direction change. At this point the map zooms in to show the road layout more clearly and concise written instructions are displayed.

We found that the screen could be slow to update at times and the maps take a long time to be drawn. This can make it difficult to see where you are going or which direction to take.

The small screen makes it nigh on impossible to get a clear picture of where to turn, especially if you're concentrating on the road at the same time. For this reason, we suggest only using the GPS V if you have a passenger who can read out its instructions.

As well as the map information, the display also shows you the distance to the next turn, distance to the destination and the estimated time of arrival. If this view doesn't suit you then you can switch to a screen page that simply lists all of the directions.

The GPS V is bundled with some software called MapSource. This lets you plan all of your routes using a PC but is quite difficult to use. It does allow you to save commonly-used destinations on the GPS V, but only if you have a serial port on your PC.

Verdict: The GPS V successfully directed us to our location but the small, indistinct screen and complicated interface means that a handheld computer-based option is better.
Price: £580
Contact: Garmin 0870 850 1241
www.garmin.co.uk

MICROSOFT AUTOROUTE 2003
Install AutoRoute 2003 on your PC and you can plan a door-to-door journey in detail before you leave the house. It's simple to use and has detailed street-level maps of the UK and large parts of Europe.

The maps also include places of interest, so you can even plan rest stops in places that are far more interesting than a motorway lay-by.

Planning a journey couldn't be easier. All you need to do is use the Find facility to locate all of the places you want to visit and then click the button to get the directions.

This immediately highlights the route on the map. You can even drag this route around on-screen if you want to avoid driving through certain areas.

AutoRoute has loads of options to customise the route to suit your driving style. These include being able to set your preferred type of road so that you can, for example, avoid motorways.

AutoRoute also has the choice of plotting the quickest route or the shortest distance.

The final result gives you step-by-step instructions on the roads that you should take and an estimated driving time. Using this figure you can even get AutoRoute to schedule stops for you to overcome tiredness.

Most people will use AutoRoute to plan a route and then print it out. A print-out typically includes the list of driving instructions and a copy of the map with the route highlighted. For the more technologically inclined, the maps can be downloaded onto a Pocket PC.

If you have a GPS receiver, you can even get the Pocket PC to show you where you are on the map. However, unlike the true GPS navigation systems, it won't give you verbal warnings or visually show you when to turn.

Verdict: Cheaper than a GPS system and easier to use but, while the maps are customised for your journey, you'll still need someone to look at them while you're driving.
Price: £50
Contact: Microsoft 0845 700 2000
www.microsoft.com/uk/homepc/autoroute

NAVMAN GPS 3400 VOICE
NavMan's GPS 3400 kit is designed for use with HP/Compaq iPaq Pocket PCs only, as the GPS receiver comes as an expansion sleeve that slides over the iPaq.

Versions are available for H3700, H3800 and H3900 models but each is different, so changing your iPaq means changing your NavMan.

Each sleeve also has a CompactFlash slot for storing maps, although a CompactFlash card isn't provided. You also get a cigarette lighter power adapter and a car mount that attaches to the car window via a rubber sucker.

Planning a route is as simple as typing in the destination address and hitting the Go button. You can also add frequently used addresses to a favourites list to save time while you're driving.

Once on the move, the voice instructions are clear and easy to follow with a choice of male and female tones, although we found the female voice easier to understand.

NavMan takes the simple approach to navigation, with voice instructions simply saying 'turn right' or 'take the second exit'.

The only point that needs more clarity is when you take a wrong turn. The NavMan says 'perform a legal u-turn' but it could be mistaken for 'perform illegal u-turn'.

You could safely ignore this and keep driving though, as a new route will soon be plotted. The on-screen display is brilliant and clearly shows the route to take by marking the roads in red.

We found it very easy to drive while using this. On top of the basic navigation are a wealth of options, including changing the route to avoid toll roads and urban areas.

You can even make the map display points of interest including, petrol stations, train stations, shops and amenities.

At £380, this is an expensive product. If you're on a budget then the extra features aren't convincing enough to shell out the extra money. Otherwise this is the best product you can get.

Verdict: Simple to use and extremely capable but it's expensive and only works with iPaq Pocket PCs.
Price: £380
Contact: NavMan 01293 449882
www.navman-mobile.com

PALMTOP SOFTWARE TOMTOM NAVIGATOR
The most difficult thing about using the TomTom Navigator for the Pocket PC is making sure its mass of cabling doesn't interfere with any of the car's controls. This is because the GPS receiver connects via a cable.

It makes the TomTom more flexible though, as you can buy cabling for all major Pocket PCs, not just the iPaq.

Once the cable tidying is out of the way, we found TomTom to be the easiest product to get running, thanks to the large, bright interface.

Setting a route is as simple as tapping the Navigate To button and typing in the address of your destination. You can even add destinations to a favourites list to use time and time again, such as your home address.

Once a destination is selected, the TomTom plots the route and starts dishing out verbal and visual directions.

We found the voice in this product to be the best; it's a very clear female voice that gives simple instructions and is the closest thing to having an actual human in the car with you.

Instructions take the form of such things as 'at the end of the road, turn right' and 'cross roundabout, second exit' and there are even warnings about which lane you should be in. At times we found ourselves driving by just listening to the instructions.

The onscreen map is just as good. It shows your position on the road, the distance to the next turning, which direction you should turn next and the distance to your destination.

The only problem we had was that the road colourings can sometimes be confusing, especially in built-up areas and it's not always obvious which road you should be following.

Fortunately, taking a wrong turn isn't a problem either, as a new route is quickly plotted to correct the mistake.

Verdict: Although the cabling is messy and the maps sometimes confusing, TomTom Navigator gives clear verbal instructions and is easy to use.
Price: £270 + £20 for the data cable.
Contact: Widget UK 0800 138 1639
www.tomtom.com

TRAVROUTE POCKET COPILOT
The Pocket CoPilot kit uses a similar GPS sleeve to the NavMan, which means that you'll need to get the correct model for your particular Pocket PC.

However, the CoPilot has a wider range of support than NavMan and will work with most models of Pocket PC.

The jacket also has a CompactFlash slot and TravRoute is even kind enough to provide a 128Mb card. With this much storage, you don't have to worry about running out of room for maps.

We found the CoPilot was the trickiest Pocket PC navigation device to use. The interface isn't anywhere near as clear and the software has to be switched into a planning mode to define a trip.

A plus point is that the CoPilot is happy to rifle through your contacts book and pull addresses out from there.

Once the route has been planned, the Pocket CoPilot starts giving verbal directions, but we found these confusing as too much information is given.

The software pronounces road names, such as the A3379, as 'A three thousand, three hundred and seventy-nine' not 'A three, three, seven, nine'. This means that you really have to listen in order not to take a wrong turn.

After a bit of time with the system, you do start to get used to the speech pattern but it's nowhere near as easy as using either the TomTom or NavMan devices.

The display is mostly easy to read and visually shows the next turning you have to make and the distance to it. Annoyingly, the CoPilot insists on plotting your course on the on-screen map with purple triangles, which makes the map difficult to follow.

Verdict: Verbose voice instructions and confusing onscreen map make this a difficult product to recommend, despite some neat touches.
Price: £435
Contact: 1-2-1 Euro Technology 01483 595121
www.travroute.co.uk

Conclusion
We weren't sure of the kind of results that we'd get with our navigation devices and were prepared for the handheld computers getting us well and truly lost. So we were pleased when the opposite happened.

Each GPS system managed to get us to our destination a lot easier, not to mention quicker, than following a road atlas or AutoRoute to plan the journey. We were so impressed that we'd seriously consider putting a navigation system in our car.

We felt that the Garmin GPS V was good but too tricky to use on the move, so our choice came down to the three handheld computer systems.

The NavMan GPS 3400 voice was very close to winning but we thought that it was a little expensive to take the award.

Ultimately we decided that the Buy It award should go to the TomTom Navigator, which is cheap and gives brilliant voice instructions.

Computeractive borrowed its test car from easyCar. As with the rest of the Easy company, easyCar is an online budget rental service. You can rent cars online by visiting www.easycar.com or by calling 0906 333 3333.

WHAT IS GPS?

GPS stands for Global Positioning System. Signals from 24 US government-owned satellites are bounced back and forth to receivers on the Earth's surface. With three satellites, GPS can calculate the longitude and latitude of the receiver.

Four satellites can also determine altitude. Put simply, it can tell you where you are anywhere on the planet to within a few feet.

GPS navigation tools are used to guide you from one place to another. This is different to route planning, such as AutoRoute, which will give you a set of pre-defined instructions on how to get to your destination.

With the correct software, GPS navigation will actually speak directions in real time, such as 'turn right' or 'take the third exit on the upcoming roundabout'.

GPS navigation is becoming a popular accessory for car-owners, especially those who travel a lot. It is also used as a handy location tool for mountaineers, hikers and walkers who can pinpoint their exact position at any time.

SAFETY FIRST

Introducing any product into a car has to be done with care, as the driver should not be distracted. Computeractive spoke to the RAC to get the low down on safety.

"The RAC advocates the use of any system that helps motorists avoid congestion and allows them to concentrate on their driving," explained Tamsin Johnston, an RAC representative.

"However, the RAC recommends that motorists park before they activate the equipment and encourages the use of systems that give audible instructions during the journey."

The RAC is also keen to point out that such devices are an aid to drivers and should not replace any local knowledge that motorists have.