Data is out there, but onboard traffic reports remain elusive. (Media & Technology).

No doubt, many a driver sloshing through last week's mud puddles could have used an in-dash traffic map to steer clear of the freeway floods and tie-ups.

But despite the growing popularity of on-board navigation systems, a variety of factors have kept the systems from incorporating live traffic data of the sort that is used routinely by traffic reporters and police.

The technology is available. L.A. is home to some of the major players in car navigation, and it has one of the largest troves of live traffic data available among U.S. cities.

"In most major cities, the traffic information is there, either through government agencies or private industry. The problem is there is no pipe to the car' said Stephen DeWitt, vice president of brand marketing and communication at Alpine Electronics  USA in Torrance, which makes automobile navigation hardware.

But unlike in Japan, where such systems are already common, it's likely to be years before L.A. drivers can switch off the traffic-and-weather-together news radio. The reasons run the gamut, from the lack of unified standards for delivering the information, to the would-be deliverers running out of money.

Ironically, L.A. has been a major test-bed for experiments with traffic data. With its tangle of freeways, and on-the-go population, the city already has the most sophisticated traffic information in the country.

In the 1970s, the city installed car-tracking devices in the concrete of L.A. freeways, and now it has sensors in traffic lights of many city streets. This is far more advanced than other U.S. cities, according to John Cox, president of Travel Advisory News Network, a Diamond Bar-based provider of traffic data to L.A. media outlets.

Right now, Travel Advisory News uses the data to operate a traffic Web site. The goal, Cox said, is to get that information onto in-vehicle displays.

Gaining ground

Today, on-board navigation systems are no longer the luxury gadgets they were when first introduced five years ago. Two of the best-selling popular cars, the Honda Accord and the Toyota Camry, offer such systems, and General Motors Corp. makes them available on six of its cars and trucks. Honda estimates 5 percent to 10 percent of Accord buyers will opt for the systems this year.

Navigation systems are projected to be a feature on 10 to 12 percent of all new car purchases by 2010, up from 1.5 percent in 2002, according to J.D. Power and Associates, an automotive research firm.

The navigation systems in use today display DVD maps on a dashboard monitor, and satellites pinpoint the car's location.

One shortcoming of the systems, however, is the absence of live traffic information -- even though makers of the hardware, including Alpine and Pioneer Electronics USA in Torrance, a unit of Japan's Pioneer Corp., already incorporate the data in systems in use in Japan.

The closest thing available in the U.S. is GM's OnStar, a cellular phone service with 1 million subscribers. It offers voice-based navigation and emergency road service through the driver's cell phone connection. In addition to its own vehicles, GM licenses the service to car navigation companies, for use on other makes.

This approach lags in sophistication to what's being used in Japan. There, cars are fed traffic information through wireless connections, utilizing roadside sensors deployed by the government or by wireless telecommunications carriers.

Attempts have been made to commercialize similar services here, but they haven't been successful to date.

It could take up to five years before live traffic updates are routinely in use, said Cox.

Travel Advisory News was involved in a three-way effort to deliver its data to devices made by Pioneer, using paging and communications services from a company called Cue Corp. But Pioneer never commercialized the project and it ended in June 2002 when Cue Corp. filed for bankruptcy.

"We are examining other technologies to bring this information back into the vehicle. The real time traffic information project is another twelve months out," said Ted Cardenas, brand manager of mobile entertainment products at Pioneer.

The biggest question mark is means of delivery. Wireless transmission, a la Japan, is one possibility, and satellite radio is another.

Announcements for cellular capable car navigation systems are expected in the near term from Sprint PCS and Denso Corp. Alpine and Pioneer also have satellite radio products. They are expected to offer car navigation systems that support satellite communications.