Acura Will Debut XM NavWeather

by Amy Gilroy -- TWICE, 2/7/2008

Chicago — In a string of announcements from the Chicago Auto Show, XM said the 2009 Acura RL will be the first car to offer XM’s NavWeather service, and it also said the first Chevrolet vehicle to offer XM NavTraffic will be the new 2009 Traverse.

NavWeather, first unveiled at International CES, delivers real-time weather tracking for a particular driving route. It offers immediate alerts on developing weather threats such as hail, floods, tornado and storm warnings. The warnings will be displayed as icons on the map screen on the Acura.

The service also offers multi-day forecasts.

The Chevrolet Traverse will include XM’s real-time NavTraffic that delivers traffic updates tailored to the user’s route path in 80 major U.S. markets. NavTraffic is also offered on certain Acura, Cadillac, Infiniti, Lexus, Nissan and Hyundai models, as well as aftermarket GPS system from Alpine, Garmin, Kenwood and Pioneer.

In addition, at the Chicago Auto Show, XM said Hyundai will provide an advanced user interface for XM Radio via its new touchscreen navigation display on the 2009 Sonata. The display uses advanced graphics to let users search through XM channels, song titles, artist names and categories.