The Navi Lady

Back in Germany, our car had a Navi which was essential for getting around efficiently, especially in the older areas of cities where the convoluted mess of roads clearly evolved from ancient trails and cowpaths that were established long before cars came on the scene. The confounding interface of the Navi in our Audi included a multifunction control that tilts like a joy stick, turns like a knob and pushes like a button. Once we mastered it (i.e. got some training from the kids), it was actually pretty nice to use. Yeah, sure, it takes some of the fun out of learning your way around by getting lost and unfolding actual printed maps, but we found new ways to entertain ourselves.

The Navi lady spoke excellent German, with a soothing and slightly sultry voice. We could have changed it to English, but the voice wasn't nearly as nice, and besides, it was a good way for the whole family to get some German practice. Initially, various little misunderstandings made driving a bit crazy, especially in city traffic with lots of turns. But the Navi's limited vocabulary allowed us to pick up the basic lingo pretty quickly and soon we all had our Navi speak down. Occasionally she would utter new and unfamiliar phrases, causing brief panic, often followed by the words 'berechnet die Route' (recalculating the route), a nice way of saying that we screwed up. Other times, the road signs, the dashboard map and the Navi lady all seemed to conflict, but for the most part, she was really pretty good at getting us to our destination. The addition of helpful passengers reading the road signs, looking at maps, listening to the Navi lady and coming up with additional helpful advice for the driver usually led to chaos along with admonishments for wrong turns and arguments with the driver who was never forgiven, despite the info overload. Thankfully, the Navi lady doesn't admonish or argue (but something tells me that there's an untapped marketing angle somewhere in that.)


The crazy streets of Madrid were enough to cause the Navi fits and we laughed as it went berserk with impossible directions down streets that ran the wrong way or didn't even exist. Madrid posed another challenge with it's ring highway that tunnels under the city for miles, splitting off here and there with incomprehensible signs to various unfamiliar destinations. In moments the navi lost it's satellite connection and suddenly, we were on our own with no visual landmarks and no clue where we were going. Back to paper maps and dead reckoning and a good dose of yelling. Oy!