Toyota Australia has launched an accessory that lets you have your cake and eat it, too. Or rather that lets you have your satellite navigation whether you are in the car, or on foot.

Called ‘Follow Me’, Toyota's new system is in essence an integrated audio and navigation system, which is fully-featured, and portable too.

The unit is what is called a ‘Double DIN’ size, which means that it’s the same height as a car radio stacked on top of a CD player. The Toyota unit has been developed together with one of the market leaders in satellite navigation, TomTom; and Toyota’s audio supplier, Fujitsu Ten.

The fascia on the ‘Follow Me’ unit has a small screen on the left which provides audio information like the radio station ID, or track information from a CD; below this is a circular scroll wheel and a series of function buttons. On the right side is the TomTom navigation screen.

The neat thing about this setup is that it’s possible to remove the navigation screen from the in-dash unit and use it either to navigate a walking route; or to fit into another vehicle for use as a satellite navigation system. This also helps protect the owner from theft of the screen.

The navigation screen is a standard size 3.5-inch TFT touch-screen type, and the ‘Follow Me’ system features an iPod connector; Bluetooth Hands-Free option, and is also USB compatible. The front of the unit also drops down, to expose the slot to play CDs.

While most fully-integrated navigation systems provided from the car manufacturers’ options list can cost anywhere from $3000 to $5000, the Toyota ‘Follow Me’ system is priced at $1496 and can be fitted by Toyota dealers. The unit will fit most post-2003 Toyota cars and trucks.

This industry-leading accessory is made possible because of the uniformity of the audio systems which Toyota fits to all its models, and the fact that it is co-developed with its major audio system supplier, Fujitsu Ten.

A major benefit of teaming up with TomTom is that the owner can download software and map updates, or even maps of other countries so the unit could be used (portably) when driving overseas. Plus, TomTom offers a huge variety of different voice downloads as an extra-cost option.