Navteq aims to make navigation more human

Navteq is a household name when it comes to GPS technology, and the company aims to make their service a whole lot more human thanks to the introduction of Natural Guidance. This service will drop traditional GPS navigation instructions and will instead provide users with directions which they would have received from friends or family anyways. For example, the system won’t spew “turn right in 150 feet” but will instead include “turn right after the yellow shop,” or “turn right at the traffic signal,” in order to make it a whole lot more intuitive and practical when it comes to giving directions. Of course, the implementation of Natural Guidance won’t be easy at all, since current GPS services will still go by street names and distance. Currently, Navteq’s Natural Guidance can be used in Chicago, London, Los Angeles, Paris, Berlin, and New York, with plans to roll out support for additional cities around the world before 2011 is over. Unfortunately, this won’t prevent people from driving into a ditch as they blindly follow wrong instructions on a GPS unit (this happens sometimes). [Press Release]