CES 2009: Dual Shows First PND With HD Radio

By Amy Gilroy -- TWICE, January 9, 2009

LAS VEGAS — Dual Electronics announced at International CES it will ship the first navigation device to receive HD Radio audio as well as traffic updates over HD Radio.

The advantage of traffic delivered over HD Radio is that it is refreshed more frequently and includes more information than standard RDS-based traffic reports, said Dual. For instance, the broader HD Radio pipe can deliver 500 incident reports to the device per minute vs. RDS, which can deliver only about 50 incidents per minute, said iBiquity, the developer of HD Radio.

The Dual model XNAV43HD personal navigation device includes maps of North America, and it offers text-to-speech pronunciation of street names. It is expected to ship this spring at a suggested retail of $279. Also on display at the HD Radio booth is a Dual prototype in-dash navigation/radio capable of receiving HD Radio traffic reports. It was also shown at the 2008 CES.