MICHAEL McALEER, who is forever lost, tests the Irish navigation system in the Lexus LS430
Dublin is a tale of two cities. Those of us living to the north of the great Liffey divide find the south a veritable maze of one-way streets, while the southern folk rarely stray from the airport route.
Finding your way around Dublin these days can be an ordeal - but perhaps less so if you nestled in a Lexus SC430 or LS430. So it was that we took to the streets of Donnybrook to put Lexus latest touch-screen GPS satellite navigation system to the test. Though the in-built system details nearly 8,000 streets, they are confined to the Dublin area within the M50, inner-city Cork, Belfast, Limerick, and, strangely, certain parts of Co Kerry. Three main roads, the M1/N1, the N7 and the N8 are also featured. New maps will be introduiced every six months.
Along with touch-screen controls, the system offers voice guidance, the soft female tones of a would-be BBC World Service presenter keeping you up to date with progress and giving advance notice of turns and potential hazards. Any moment you expect her to give you the shipping forecast for Anglesey.
Thankfully, there is the option of switching her off. In case you miss your turn without the advanced words of advice, the system automatically redirects you to your destination.
The system also has the ability to seek out pre-determined "points of interest" ranging from restaurants, theatres, shops, hotels and, God forbid, hospitals.
We asked for a Dublin city centre Italian restaurant and, from the list offered, we clicked on our favoured eatery and were given the address and phone number. Eventually, says Lexus, these addresses and numbers will be connected to the phone so you can simply hit call and make a reservation.
This form of service is already operational on some systems in Britain, where you can even order flowers or champagne. Indeed, in the US some systems come with human secretaries on call at the other end of the line 24 hours a day to make your bookings and appointments.
For the moment, however, you have to go through all that hard work of dialling in the number. It's tough at the top!
The maps are being updated, so early adopters will undoubtedly dash into the Dublin maps and upgrade later. Others may wish to sit it out and wait for the entire State to be mapped. Lexus managing director Mark Teevan suggests likely future additions include constantly updated information on traffic flows using bluetooth technology. However, it's still unclear who will provide that information, given that even the experts in Dublin's Transportation Office can't tell you how things are progressing on their "orbital routes".
The system is optional on the entire Lexus range, but standard on the LS430 and SC430. With both priced at around €110,000, it's hardly surprising.