An aviation product designed for the ground. Hmmm. That sort of sounds like an oxymoron, but it's not. The product—SafeNav Powered by Garmin—is an on-vehicle, GPS-based navigation and alert system designed to provide airport vehicle operators with real-time situational awareness, with the goal of avoiding accidental runway incursions. The NTSB and FAA have both published reports where they've indicated a need to improve safety on airports by reducing the number of accidents between ground vehicles and aircraft. We're committed to safety on airports too, so our new product provides airport ground vehicles with some of the same technology that can be found in Garmin-equipped aircraft.

SafeNav Powered by Garmin has the same nuvi-like form-factor as a Garmin aera (our aviation portable GPS) or zūmo (our motorcycle GPS),  and it's loaded with Garmin's SafeTaxi maps so that operators driving on the ground will see where they are in relation to runways, taxiways and buildings at the airport. SafeNav uses color-coding to tell drivers when they're getting close to runways. We're teaming with I.D. Systems, a leader in ground management systems at airports, on SafeNav and it will be available in the second half of 2010.