Hackable In-Car GPS Unit?

gigne writes "I'm in the market for a new, in-car GPS/sat nav. I am preferably looking for one that has live, up-to-date traffic information and route planning that doesn't make you want to cry. I'm not quite dumb enough to drive off a cliff, but something that doesn't even try and lead me to watery doom is preferable. The only thing I absolutely must have is the ability to hack it. It would be preferable if it ran GNU/Linux, but given a convincing argument, I would be swayed to another OS. Without wanting the Moon on a stick, what is the best device that would offer a decent modding community and a good feature set?"

Comments

Proprietary Issues

[juanergie]

Companies comercializing GPS devices are in the business of making money. I am inclined to believe you would run into proprietary and legal stuff should you plan to hack or reverse-engineer the device. Maybe some provide an API?

Re:Proprietary Issues

[Anonymous Coward]

It is perfectly legal to do whatever you fucking want with an electronic device you own, at least in most countries.

Excellent. I shall now go around bludgeoning people with my keyboard.

Re:Proprietary Issues

[Anonymous Coward]

Unfortunately that is only true if it does not involve software or data.

You're the guy who wants to go bludgeoning people with his keyboard, aren't you?

Re:Proprietary Issues

[Anonymous Coward]

I hope that is an IBM Model M keyboard, otherwise you will just end up breaking your keyboard.

Re:Proprietary Issues

[westlake]

It is perfectly legal to do whatever you fucking want with an electronic device you own, at least in most countries.

Never without qualifications. For example:

Microwave radiation.
Basic electrical safety.
Eavesdropping on protected frequencies. {Cell phones][Radar]
RFI

There is surely the potential for civil liability:

Your device catches fire and incinerates your cousin's $56,000 daysailer.
You taser-shock your girl friend.
Your faulty navigational display sends your mother-in-law off a cliff.

   

g1

[blackomegax]

what about the android platform. telenav, and soon garmin will be on it.

Uh, it's called Windows Mobile

[Saint Stephen]

When I drove from California to NC, I wrote a custom app that read the GPS lat/long coordinates, searched a database of 5000 fast food places, gas stations, and hotels within 1 mile of I-40, so I could find where I wanted to go even if it was 70 miles up the road, and hit a great big button to search for it so I wouldn't wreck my car, and then enter the coordinates in the navsat program to start driving me there.

Does that count as hacking it?

I did it on my PocketPC. Does that mean Windows Mobile still sucks and is useless for hackers?

not exactly "hackable", but...

[v1]

the new garmin units plug in like a usb thumb drive and you have direct access to their .GPX data files. The files are in flat XML, heavily documented, and very flexible. (apparently garmin has gone away from NMEA/serial, good riddance)

They come with two pieces of software, one that runs locally on your computer and the other is a browser plugin that I assume gives java control over the same things. I was very impressed with the software, but it does have its limits. (such as building routes) But since the files are xml you can use any off the shelf standard .GPX editing program (there are several, and I recently wrote my own too) to edit things how you need to. Some are free, most are pay. But the software for the garmin is free with it.

You can't ssh into the thing, but as far as file/format goes, this is about as "open" as it gets. FYI I have an Edge 605, use it on my bike. It's got a really small screen unfortunately but those are the breaks for small and long battery life.