OEM radios and navigation systems are partitioned in many different ways.

The Nav Radio the Camelot nabbed the shell from, is a single box which contains the radio and the Nav running from a CD-ROM. It connects directly to power and speakers - the only extra inputs are a GPS antenna, and a speed signal. This is fitted to some current Fords in Europe and US. A changer or other source is needed to play CDs while navigating.

Other OEM systems are split up into various boxes behind the dash in many ways. They tend to try and have one central screen, both to minimise costs and make use of the expensive colour screen, and also to present one consistent interface to the customer. Every OEM seems to split it up slightly differently and consider different things important. The screen is often fitted to the radio unit, but acts as a channel for lots of other units to put info up on the screen.

The Camelot has the grunt to run our Nav software - it is more a case of the expense of the maps and developing the nav software in the first place - then adding gyros and GPS antennas and so on!

Personally, I don't think you need to go to that level of complexity to start getting empeg functionality in-car. Camelot ripped CDs in-situ, which comes with a lot of issues. Without that, things get easier.

As for expense, the screen is a big chunk, but may already be in the car (or something usable may be). An auto-spec HDD is a good chunk of cash as well.

But, having said all that, getting OEMs to go for this sort of thing is not easy. The aftermarket is a better bet first - although our aftermarket is more of a route to OEM than the likes of Pioneer and Alpine...

Nick