The system, expected to debut in as-yet-undisclosed cars in 2008, includes an onboard camera that reads speed limit signs. After it spots a sign, the system uses the car's navigation system to check whether the number it detected is plausible: Should the speed limit really be 55 in this urban zone?

Once the limit is established, the system can alert drivers in a display beamed onto the windshield that they're going too fast. Motorists also can let the system tap into the car's cruise control and automatically reduce the speed to the posted limit.

The system won't, however, automatically raise a car's speed to match a suddenly higher limit.

Vehicle alert
This system alerts drivers to the presence of vehicles moving too fast at blind intersections. For example, if the system determines that a car is approaching a driver too fast from the left, a buzzer will sound and a voice recording will call out: "Car approaching from left." At the same time, an image of an approaching vehicle will appear on the driver's CARWINGS navigation screen.

The system will also alert a driver when is detects that he or she approaching a stop sign or red traffic light too fast.

Speed alert
This system warns drivers when they are speeding in a school zone. As soon as a driver passes the speed limit in the area, a buzzer will sound and a voice recording will warn: "School ahead. Watch your speed." An image of a school zone sign will also appear on the driver's navigation screen.

Dynamic route finder
This system informs drivers of the quickest route to their destination using probe data collected from mobile phones of CARWINGS subscribers, including taxi owners, as well as vehicle data collected by mobile phone operator NTT DoCoMo.

Traffic.com's Jam Factor combines real-time speed and travel time measurements calculated from digital traffic sensors combined with information from state-of-the-art operations centers to provide a user-friendly, yet comprehensive, measure of the traffic intensity on a roadway. This color-coded, numerical system clearly and consistently identifies traffic conditions and delays on a scale from 0-10 with 10 representing the worst traffic conditions along the driver's route.

Google Inc. said on Tuesday that the company has begun offering mobile phone users in more than 30 major U.S. cities the capacity to view highway maps with "live" traffic data.

The Mountain View, California-based company said that Google Maps for Mobile would allow mobile phone users to chose a destination within Google Maps and select "show traffic," said Gummi Hafsteinsson, product manager of Google Maps for Mobile. Google Maps calculates the route to the location.

Highway traffic information is sent to the phone, with road conditions highlighted in three colors: -- red for congested, yellow or orange for slowdowns, and green for smooth sailing.

Volkswagen AG's American unit on Friday said it is working on a prototype vehicle which features Google Inc.'s satellite mapping software to give drivers a bird's eye view of the road ahead.

The two companies are working with the graphics chipmaker Nvidia Corp. to build an in-car navigation map system and a three-dimensional display so passengers can recognize where they are in relation to the surrounding topography.

Volkswagen of America Inc., working through its Electronics Research Laboratory in Palo Alto, California, in Silicon Valley, is working on other advancements, including automatic personalized information updates for the navigation systems.

Yahoo's directions were a bit pokey, but they got me to my destination. ....

Following MapQuest directions the trip took 16 minutes out and 25 minutes back, for a total of 41 minutes, compared with the Web site's estimated 29 minutes. ....

Using the MSN directions took 24 minutes out and 21 minutes back, for a total of 45 minutes, compared with the estimated 24 minutes total travel time. Google's directions took 16 minutes to get to Lopez and 26 minutes to get back to the office, for a total of 42 minutes, compared with 24 minutes estimated.

Gates and Bill Ford Jr., Ford's chairman and chief executive, said high-definition screens, speech recognition technology, cameras, digital calendars and navigation equipment with directions and road conditions will set car companies apart from their competitors.

Eventually, Gates said, there could be a car that wouldn't let itself crash.

"That absolutely should be the goal,'' Gates told several hundred participants of the Microsoft Global Automotive Summit at the automaker's suburban Detroit campus. "The embrace of technology will be the key for the leaders of the industry.''

A $1.3 million study by New York’s Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (funded by federal and state highway officials) links GPS data from participating vehicles into a central database and spits back data on traffic patterns. A driver with the right equipment gets realtime warnings if he's about to enter a congested zone, and can then route around it. Sounds great, but we can’t help but wonder: if everyone's connected, and they all follow the same prompts to avoid congestion, won't the traffic just hit them all when they adjust their route -- and again, when they swerve to avoid the jam they've just created?