Anyone who’s road-tripped knows: A good navigator is hard to find. And a bad navigator—well, he’ll flat ruin your drive. I should know. I myself am a poor navigator.

Don’t get me wrong. I can read a map and plot a route. I have a reasonably good sense of direction and keen eyesight for reading highway signs at long distances. I know how early to tell the driver what the next turn’s going to be.

My problem—and maybe you know someone who shares it—is that once I get involved in the driving process, it’s hard for me not to get fully involved. I keep an eye on the speedometer. I check the blind spot when the driver’s changing lanes. I perform a series of brief public service announcements about turn signals. I’ve yet to share the front seat with a driver who has appreciated any of this.

It’s a character flaw, I guess.

This past weekend, I went on a long passenger-seat-drive across a scenic, snowy swath of the northeast. I was a gushing fountain of unsolicited advice! My helpful suggestions flowed like mead in the Geatish feast-hall of Heorot! At the end of the trip—immediately after I made my usual parking-brake recommendation—my travel companion suggested (with some exasperation in her voice) that before our next weekend getaway, maybe I ought to get my driver’s license.

Well, screw that! I don’t want my biometrics on file with the DMV! (Do driver’s licenses have RFID yet? They will.)

Instead I’m picking up the Amcor 3900 portable GPS unit. While I doze on my buckwheat travel pillow, it’ll call out clear directions in any of 21 languages—and it doesn’t know how to critique your driving in any of them.

Its three-and-a-half-inch full-color touchscreen offers smooth panning and a quick, responsive zoom. If you miss a turn or ignore its advice, it won’t sigh pointedly; it just gets to work on the new route. It even plays mp3s—and lets the driver pick what to listen to! (In this respect, too, it’s much more gracious than I. I make special road-trip mixes to play when I’m navigating. But you’d like them; they’re themed.)

Obviously, the Amcor 3900 is a much better navigator than I am. But I’m not worried it’ll completely replace me. After all, it can’t split the cost of gas! Or dig around the front seat for correct change at toll booths!

Yet.

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