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Source: The New Straits Times (page 28) Picture this. You have spent more than an hour driving around the maze of roads in Pandan Indah, Kuala Lumpur, trying to find a particular house to deliver some extremely urgent documents.
As a result of the great rush to get out of your house this morning, you left your road guide on the dining table. You are truly lost.
At last, you make some sense of the road numbering system and find the house. But imagine your condition then, feeling extremely frustrated and angry, your petrol tank having a few litres less fuel, and not to mention the amount of precious time lost.
This kind of unnecessary stress should be a thing of the past when a device which combines global positioning systems (GPS) and wireless data technology to not only help drivers find their way around but also connect them to a whole array of services comes into the market.
Called GlobalWatch, the device is the result of two years of research and development work by Malaysian-owned Global Enabling Technologies (M) Sdn. Bhd.
The company, which specialises in telemetics (the use of in-vehicle information processing) and navigational tools, has another similar product called FleetWatch meant for fleet management.
 While real time route guidance will come later, GlobalWatch will nevertheless allow the user at the onset to access various services such as roadside assistance, urgent message relaying, traffic and travel information, and even things such as stock market prices.
"The device acts is like a portal, an electronic gateway which allows the user to access various types of information which can be made to suit him," says Chan Tien Soon, GET group general manager.
The ability to access such services is extremely useful. Take roadside assistance service for example.
At present, any service such as those provided by the Automobile Association of Malaysia or Road Assist can only be accessed by phone.
While handphones have made calling these services less of a hassle, there is still the problem of the driver not knowing where he is when his car breaks down.
"While a touch of a button, a driver can immediately summon the AAM or any other service provider. Even if the driver does not know where he is, the call centre where the call is routed to will know its exact location," says GET general manager Philip Ow.
He points to several recent cases where lone vehicle drivers were assaulted after their vehicles had been hijacked. In such a situation, a driver can quickly press a red button dedicated for emergencies and the call centre will immediately know it is a distress call.
"At the very least, the call centre can track the car, and if there is an arrangement with the police, they can be out there to check out the situation immediately," he adds.
Similarly, if a car is stolen, the location of the car can be immediately established. What is even better is that the call centre can remotely lock the car, trigger the alarm system off or even immobilise the car completely.
With such abilities, Chan says the level and quality of service provided can be set at a very high standard.
"As your details are stored in a database, the call centre operator will know you by name and even ask you how your golf game was when you call in," he says.
And for fleet operators, where the present method of monitoring in mostly done through black boxes, such as real time positioning information is invaluable.
The basic feature of GlobalWatch and FleetWatch is the use of GPS to establish real time location by receiving signals from three or more satellites.
But, as Chan says, just by having information about one's location is not going to be of much use unless it can be communicated and used in a desired manner.
Thus comes the GSM line - no different from your mobile phone line - which sends the location information or any other messages, including voice messages, to a particular call centre or any other number dialed from the device.
In the other direction, the SM line allows transmission of message and advertisement to the device in the car. Depending on what the driver wants, he can also subscribe to stock market information, traffic condition or any other sort of information desired.
Call centres, which will attached to roadside service provider, will use a software called the Universal Client Interface which will display a map with the location of a particular car being tracked.  It will also have a window for instructions, such as unlocking car doors, a speedometer showing the speed of a car being monitored, and a voltmeter showing the voltage of the car's battery.
"Roadside service providers said battery levels were one of the most needed information. The device allows the service provider to immediately know whether the battery is the cause of the problem when a call comes in," says Chan.
Ow says such devices are very common in developed countries.
"You can buy a car from oversea now with such devices, but it will be useless here as there is no hook-up for vehicle information systems yet," he says.
Local vehicle manufacturers, he adds, should seriously consider incorporating these features into their products if they want to compete globally.
Although similar products are available overseas, the two products show that Malaysians are capable of designing and manufacturing their own product which meet international standards and can compete globally.
"Our main selling point will be the fact that our product will be cheaper than those from overseas," says Chan.
This is possible through the setting up of alliances with manufacturers, telecommunication companies and well as information service providers.
GlobalWatch and FleetWatch are going to be made by Unico Technologies Bhd in Penang in tie-up with GET.
The correct proce is a very important advantage because in the past, the barriers to widespread usage of intelligent transport systems, of which GPS is one, were mostly due to costs.
With an application for Multimedia Supercorridor status pending, both Chan and Ow hope they will be able access funding for future development.
"For now, I don't think there are any more excuses why vehicle information systems cannot take off in a big way in Malaysia now that a local company is capable of producing such products," Chan says.
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