Filed under: Aftermarket, Gadgets, Trends, Tech
New Garmin StreetPilot geared toward North American Asians
Garmin, the
well-known maker of portable GPS systems and other devices, has announced it will start offering a version of its
popular StreetPilot c330 (pictured) that will provide directions in five different Asian languages. The 'StreetPilot
c330 Asian Americas', which goes on sale in May, is the first in the North American market to offer such capability.
Garmin had developed it in response to census data showing that over six million Asians live in Canada and the U.S.Languages offered include Japanese, Korean, Mandarin Chinese, Taiwanese and Thai. Garmin will use NBA star Yao Ming of the Houston Rockets as the c330's spokesperson.
[Source: Kansas City Star]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Azn_Pryde 4:22PM (4/14/2006)
Now if only it would drive for them.
I keed, keed...my mom is one of those horrible old asian woman drivers.
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Charles S 4:39PM (4/14/2006)
I'm so sick of Asian/Woman Driver jokes.
We are all horrible drivers at some point, and I can guarentee it has nothing to do with RACE. Distraction and exhaustion would more likely be the cause of poor driving.
It may be funny to some people to make fun of others based on race, but I know that such stereotypes does nothing to but hurt relations in the long run. Just wait til someone spotted an Asian/Woman driver driving poorly, suddenly that joke gain some credibility.
Concerning this article, it is simply a marketing ploy, nothing more. Any international company that markets products world wide alredy has multiple language built into their software. Now that GPS market is getting crowded, Garmin is simply trying to target specific audience, to ensure its market share.
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Asian 4:57PM (4/14/2006)
I am asian, and asian women are some of the worst drivers out there. There are plenty of them in LA clogging up fast lanes not even knowing what they're doing. It takes twice as long to drive through an Asian supermarket parking lot as it does a Home Depot parking lot.
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jef 5:17PM (4/14/2006)
wow, taiwanese too?? it won't be long until china comes down hard on these guys for making something for the taiwanese folks..
"no taiwanese, or no yao ming for you!" damn commies..
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Azn_Pryde 5:49PM (4/14/2006)
#2: It's no joke here in the Bay Area. 90% of the road incidents I have are because of asian women drivers. Hey man, I'm asian and so is my mom, and it sucks there's that stereotype. But every single asian woman, at my mom's age, is a crappy driver. That's a fact, not a joke or a stereotype. They stop in the middle of the road to let traffic pass, then turn. They cut across several lanes when making a turn from a signal. They don't bother using the turn signal. Drive around the bay area for a week and try to not come up to the same conclusion everybody else has. If if you don't notice it...I'd be scared to drive around you! :)
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Joel A 5:53PM (4/14/2006)
Hey, folks, let's keep on the posted topic here.
Personally, I'm surprised Garmin is only offering Mandarin Chinese. I know many Chinese folks only familiar with Cantonese Chinese.
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AVStar 5:59PM (4/14/2006)
Anyone who said anything bad about Asian drivers should actually try to drive in an Asian city, especially large ones like Taipei or Dehli. I doubt any one used to American pussy-ass traffic can survive even for a few minutes. Everyone there has to drive superbly while dealing with millions of taxi cabs and billions of bikes, day in and day out, without hitting anyone. Gosh the frigging American ignoramus.
Even you AA's beating up on other Asian drivers: have YOU guys drove in whatever country your parent's from? Back home your mom will always take public transportation, but in the US she's forced to drive, especially in places like LA. Only the best drivers survive in the streets of Asia. Others takes the bus or the MTR.
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RayRay 6:27PM (4/14/2006)
For those that see a lot of bad Asian drivers is probably because you folks live in a more densely Asian populated city. Any old lady in the world would drive rediculously slow.
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Charles S 6:41PM (4/14/2006)
"Personally, I'm surprised Garmin is only offering Mandarin Chinese. I know many Chinese folks only familiar with Cantonese Chinese."
More people speak/understand Mandarin, and even Cantonese powerhouse such as Hong Kong now have to integrate Mandarin into its culture. Mandarin is probably a much easier dialect to teach/learn anyways.
I can't believe that in this day and age, we are still so hung up about stereotypes. I'm sorry to say, but EVERYONE is a bad driver, at some point. You can be checking out a road sign and nearly hit a pedestrian. Even changing the radio station can be the only reason needed to cause an accident. Yes, even inexperience and fear are factors, but that is not exclusive to any race or sex. Personally, I agree with AVStar, if we had better public transportation, we would have outlets for people who do not like to drive, or unable to drive.
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anahit 7:16PM (4/14/2006)
Some of my best friends are Asian.
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Azn_Pryde 8:13PM (4/14/2006)
They drive like that in Shanghai, Ho Chi Minh City, Bangkok and such because they follow no laws. I mean signs and traffic signals are posted, but no one gives a crap. And they have the same attitudes over here in regards to driving. Just because they can navigate their crazy cities by ignoring the law doesn't make them better drivers over here...it makes them quite a bit worse actually. And yes, I have driven in asian cities, and you're right...it sucks. I'd only feel comfortable in Japanese cities and Hong Kong. Nevertheless, we're in the United States, and they should drive like the rest of us....because it's the LAW!
The thing here is I have no hatred or opinions on the matter. It's pretty much a fact and I deal with it. It's better to recognize it and be aware of it rather than deny it and be offended because of "Asian pride".
And yes, if you live in a higher Asian density city you would see more bad asian drivers...but it's only supposed to be linearly proportional to the Asian population, not exponentially proportional.
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taipeileviathan 1:51AM (4/15/2006)
@ #11: firstly, i can only speak of taipei cuz it's where i live now, and it's true that ppl break the law, but how many times have you or someone you know cruised past a stop sign w/o coming to a full stop? most of the offenses are minor and harmless and only occur because ppl are so flexible and smart about it: noone cares if you break a law/rule given that it's safe to do so. if the light turns green and for some reason you don't go, ppl will just signal and drive around you, as opposed to in the states where assholes will honk the shit out of you, and even if you get passed, you inevitably get the finger. once you get used to it, everything just *flows*... it's only when someone does something stupid/dangerous that you'd get honked, but even then, it's just cautionary. you'd also be surprised at how law-abiding drivers have become in the past 10 years... there's been a vast improvement, mostly due to higher fines and better enforcement.
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taipeileviathan 2:24AM (4/15/2006)
@ #11: firstly, i can only speak of taipei cuz it's where i live now, and it's true that ppl break the law, but how many times have you or someone you know cruised past a stop sign w/o coming to a full stop? most of the offenses are minor and harmless and only occur because ppl are so flexible and smart about it: noone cares if you break a law/rule given that it's safe to do so. if the light turns green and for some reason you don't go, ppl will just signal and drive around you, as opposed to in the states where assholes will honk the shit out of you, and even if you get passed, you inevitably get the finger. once you get used to it, everything just *flows*... it's only when someone does something stupid/dangerous that you'd get honked, but even then, it's just cautionary. you'd also be surprised at how law-abiding drivers have become in the past 10 years... there's been a vast improvement, mostly due to higher fines and better enforcement. even cops here realize that most laws are just "suggestions", and they let things slide unless you really were being stupid/rude. it's almost like an honor system: you can bend/break rules if you want as long as you're *aware*... which is something you can say only for a tiny fraction of american drivers.
as for driving skill... well now there's *no* comparison there. you take any driver off the street in taiwan, and they'll be able to parallel park into a spot where there's less than a foot of space in front/behind the car. alleys are so narrow (especially with parked cars and scooters jutting out every which way) that often times you'll have mere inches between your mirror and solid objects on either side but almost all drivers can casually thread their way through just fine. it's really amazing, how everyone kinda is in touch with each other... noone has tunnel vision, and few ppl are a**holes (compare that with the road rage in LA or any other large city on the coasts... midwestern cities are much more relaxed and friendly to drive in, regardless of skill level).
in india and china, however, pretty much ppl are just reckless... this i can also say from experience. you just gotta look at the number of accidents that happen...
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