Garmin says free traffic updates, doesn’t say there’s ads

Garmin recently announced a few new GPS series, the Nuvi 7×5 series and the Nuvi 2×5 series. The interesting thing about these GPS’ is that they come with lifetime free traffic updates. This service is similar to Navigon’s, however, unlike the new service from Garmin, the Navigon service does not come with ads.

Recently, PC Mag got one of Garmins Nuvi 755T, which comes with free traffic updates, yet they were surprised to find that there were ads. The ads are from the companies such as BP, Walgreens and Wells Fargo. When accessing the traffic data, the ad will appear on the bottom. If you click it on purpose or by accident, it will perform a POI search of nearby stores. These ads can also pop up from time to time. Even if it is a very good GPS, this must get annoying sometimes and there is no way to disable the ads.

If they wish to compete with Navigon by providing free traffic updates, they should make the ads less intrusive or get rid of them altogether.

Via [GPS Tracklog]