Travel guidance system for vehicles

Claim 1

A travel guidance system for vehicles including: a heading sensor (2) for detecting a direction of movement of a vehicle; a distance sensor (3) for detecting a distance travelled by said vehicle; a map data storage medium (4) preliminarily storing map data; a control unit (5) for receiving a heading signal from said heading sensor (2) and a distance signal from said distance sensor (3) and including a computer (51) to successively compute a present position of said vehicle and for generating video signals corresponding to display data including map data from said map data storage medium (4) and data of said present position; and a display (6) responsive to said video signals from said control unit (5) for displaying a map and a present position mark (61), characterized by said map data storage medium (4) comprising means for preliminarily storing name data (41) of geographical areas and landmark data (42); the computer (51) being capable of determining the landmark (63) closest to said present position (62); said control unit (5) comprising display control means for: (a) causing the position of said landmark (63) to be displayed on said map and (b) retrieving a landmark message (64) concerning said landmark (63) from said storage medium (4) to cause said display (6) to display said landmark message (64) on said display (6); the display control means (52) being provided for retrieving the name of a geographical area (62) to which said present position (61) belongs from said storage medium (4) and causing said display (6) to display a name message (62) on said display (6); and selection means (16-19) for selectively actuating the display control means (52) to display at least one of said landmark data and said name data.