For vehicles not equipped with this feature, is it possible to install it yet?
I ask because last night at my hospital we needed an extra ventilator for a patient who had stopped breathing on his own, and the employee of the rental company spent 4 and a half hours getting from downtown Atlanta to my hospital in Dallas(Georgia)usually a 45 minute trip, and guess who had to manually ventilate(bag) the patient until the guy finally got to us?
Right.
In his defense, he hadn’t been in the country long and had trouble understanding the ER nurses as they repeatedly tried to give him directions when he would call on his cell phone from time to time…
Nurse: "You are close! You are so close! PLEASE just go straight and watch for the flashing police lights and they will lead you in! (It’s a good thing the guy wasn’t here illegally, or we would have never gotten our vent!)
So after it was all over and my patient was being mechanically ventilated, we were discussing the fact that a GPS would have helped immeasurably in this instance (barring, of course the complication of the person’s not being able to understand how it functions!)
So can GPS be installed on an older model vehicle?
There are a bunch of hand-held models available, I use one for outdoor use, we utilized them in the Balkans, I keep one in my truck to mark any number of important way-points.
I have a handheld for which I bought an optional antenna. I can put the antenna on the roof, run the wire through the window, and it can see all the satellites that are available no matter where I hold the unit itself to suit my viewing its display.
A friend bought one last year that had built in maps and worked pretty reliably if he placed it on top of the dashboard, as far forward as he could, so it saw satellites through the windshield. He stopped for pizza and made his parking space a landmark - days later we followed the device to that landmark and it was perfectly obvious which parking space he had used.
I think the OP meant GPS systems with mapping/routing capability, which many handheld systems alone will not provide. Some will, but not all.
For vehicle navigation specific, yes there are aftermarket solutions. I think Garmin (StreetPilot series) and Magellan (750NAV) each make one, and Microsoft makes the AutoPC which includes gps functionality.
Or, you can use a computer or laptop running one of several street map programs which interface to a gps. I have such a “home-brew” system that I built and installed into my own 1995 Ford Probe.
Yes garmin street piolet color is great - enter an address and it plots a route - gives visual and audio alearts (turn left ahead). If you go off corse it calculates a new route.
