SAGEM SA has marketed with Renault the first European RDS-TMC receiver used in a commercial frame. The option called CARMINAT C2, available on the Megane Scenic since 1997, displays traffic information on a 5 inch colour display. The use of displays in vehicles is a major matter of the Ministers of Transport European Conference, which in 1994 drew up a set of recommendations relating to the features such systems should comply with. ISO/TC22/SC13/WG8 was issued in 1996, laying down a Human Machine Interface safety checklist for in-vehicle information systems. After reviewing reports and recommendations on the subject, the author interprets the results of the CITIES project and explains the advantages and drawbacks of display based RDS-TMC receivers and speech synthesiser based RDS-TMC receivers. Finally, it is proven why, and on what conditions, for safety, cost and efficiency concerns, the display of traffic information messages should be preferred to the use of audible messages.
Samenvatting