AVIC-Z1 Car Navigation System Does Lots
November 02, 2005 | by Nino Marchetti
New in-car navigation system from Pioneer Electronics has a 30GB hard drive, offers voice based navigation and control and plenty of entertainment options.
Pioneer Electronics yesterday said they were planning to show off a new state of the art in-car navigation system at the 2006 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January. Called the AVIC-Z1, this system will be available in early spring 2006. The AVIC-Z1 is what Pioneer is calling the most advanced in-car navigation system ever. Its on board, 30GB hard drive is capable of holding a large amount of information and stores the entire TeleAtlas database, including around 11 million points of interest. Other navigation and safety features of the AVIC-Z1 will include an ability to learn frequently traveled roads so it can calculate suggested routes, a routing algorithm which takes into account actual road data such as posted speed limits when suggesting routes, optional real time traffic information through XM, brand icons on screen for companies like Chili's and Albertsons, voice recognition to tell the device to perform navigation, audio video and attachment functions, integration with Bluetooth so that when paired with compatible cell phones audio is muted when calls are made or received and a 7" color touch screen. As for entertainment, the AVIC-Z1 can playback digital music files stores on its hard drive, displaying information on the music collected from the online Gracenote CDDB Music Recognition Service. Other features in this vein include DVD video playback when fed to a separate monitor, CD-MP3 playback capability, AM/FM/XM (optional)/Sirius (optional) and complete control of an attached iPod when an optional adapter is used. "The AVIC-Z1 builds on Pioneer's success and more than 10 years of experience in navigation from Japan," said Michael Townsen, director of marketing for mobile entertainment at Pioneer Electronics (USA) Inc, in a statement. "It is clearly the most advanced navigation system we've ever developed for the U.S. market to make the driving experience easier, safer and less stressful."
Post Your Comment...Comments
Robert on May 15th, 2006 at 6:51 AM:
I can get great pricing from a reliable web site. I could never see installing this nav system myself. Local installers are saying that unless you purchase from them, product will not be covered under warranty. If the product breaks within warranty, wouldn't pioneer cover any repair costs with the local installer I used? Can anyone help me? I can save roughly $600 from purchasing on the web but install and warranty is a big concern. Any suggestions??? robb
Dino on Jun 7th, 2006 at 12:36 PM:
wondering wear you can save 600.00 I am interested in buying one myself
Josh Hopkins on Jun 7th, 2006 at 1:41 PM:
Chris: If they made it so you couldnt update the maps, the product would be utterly useless.
Robert: I can understand local shops wouldnt warranty the product themselves. I bet they would guarantee their installation work, and if the product becomes defective you'd have to do the warranty send yourself.
dldever01@comcast.net on Jul 22nd, 2006 at 2:02 PM:
You can install the unit yourself, and Pioneer will still warranty the product. Call Pioneer if you doubt me.
However, if you fry the unit during install, Pioneer will send it back. Use it for six months, and suddenly it goes bad, Pioneer will fix or replace.
Local installers will tell you anything to get your business, including outright lying to you.
MAP DVDs are updated every year, but you have to purchase the new updated DVDs.
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Chris on Jan 10th, 2006 at 10:28 AM:
Does anyone know if there are map upgrades/updates available? Will it come with enough detailed map information to make it usefull in small cities?