I live in Los Angeles, and the best ways to get to work is often a hot topic of discussion ("forget the 10, take the 110 to the 105!"). So are complaints about the traffic out here. For those of you living in cities that experience the same type of traffic agonies, here is a roundup of tech that can help you get through a painful commute.
ExoMount: For those of you who don't mind using your smartphone to navigate, you're going to need a good smartphone mount so you aren't staring down into your cup holder trying to read the screen. Not many smartphone mounts look nice, but the ExoMount is a well-designed one. It isn't bulky and allows you to mount the phone in a number of different angles. It comes in black, gray or white.
Garmin Nuvi: Not everyone's car comes with a navigation system, and to spare a couple hundred dollars most people either use a portable navigation or their smartphones. I'm not a huge fan of using my smartphone for my main tool to navigate the road because I don't want to be constantly charging my phone and it sucks out a lot of battery. Garmin's newest portable GPS, the Nuvi, is a lot thinner and sleeker than the previous models. They've added active live guidance on a split screen to help you better understand when you are exiting the freeway. One of my favorite features is the Lifetime Maps that ensure that your maps are constantly updated even if buildings change or roads close.
SuperTooth HD: The SuperTooth HD gives you the luxury of having your car equipped with Bluetooth connectivity. It connects wirelessly to your smartphone and streams your music or phone calls handsfree. Just clip it onto your sun visor and it's ready to go. It also adapts automatically with ambient light so it's easy on your eyes while driving.
Griffin iTrip: Remember when we used to stick a cassette tape-like device into the car's tape deck in order to play music from our iPods? We've come a long way since then. Griffin's iTrip is a wonderful FM transmitter that lets you play songs on your iPhone or iPod on any FM radio. The interface is easy to use with intuitive buttons that allow you to skip, pause and play.
Automatica: The Automatica lets you carry all your digital valuables that are in the cloud. It can carry 24 hours of audio and plugs into the USB port of your car. Unfortunately this means your car will need to have a USB port and an audio system interface so that you can select songs without being distracted while you're driving.
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Price points$- even ballpark, would have really helped this post.
Another great addition to this list would be the Wilson Sleek 4G mobile cell phone signal booster. It's amazing if you have dead zones or reception problems on your daily commute.
Check it out if you're interested: http://www.ubersignal.com/wilson-sleek-4g-five-band-cradle-signal-booster-for-2g-3g-4g-813426.html
The Waze app is better than my GPS.
Or if you have the funds, upgrade your car stereo to a newer head unit with bluetooth connectivity. I bought a non fancy, but well equipped JVC double din head unit with BT, USB and aux jacks for around $250 for my Mazda Protoge5 last spring. Single din units can go for even less with the same features, and CD too on most models as mine has as well.
This is especially true on older cars that didn't come with BT, or USB for that matter and most of them, these features are integrated into the control panel so it's a clean design, unlike many older models, such as my older Alpine where the optional BT adapter wasn't integrated into the faceplate, and it wasn't purchased. The overall design wasn't as intuitive as it could've been, but had no USB, or Aux jack, but did control an iPod though hence the replacement (bought the car used a year ago January).
The Alpine was a replacement for the factory unit back in 2006-07 as far as I could make out online through Alpine.
As for traffic, I just take the most common (and non tolled route) home, I-90, or go around Lake Washington and up I-5, but the problem is, Puget Sound has this habit of if an accident on I-5, it affects every other major highway near it in the vicinity of the accident so it's a crapshoot trying to get home quicker most days.
That said, I don't rely on a sat nav to get around, but will listen to the traffic reports when I can though via the radio and just listen to music and just grin and bear it as best I can.
If you want a nice, minimal car mount I would recommend the Steelie:
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1747436902/steelie-mobile-device-holder
My husband has one and he loves it. It's the sleekest mount he could find and he researches the heck out of his tech purchases.
The itrip is a bit expensive. You can get similar ones online, I got mine for about £2.50