Honda Motor Co. and other Japanese automakers are touting their cyber cars as the wave of the future. Honda's Internavi -- offered as a free service -- already has 40,000 customers in Japan. But in practice, the technology underpinning these futuristic automobiles is still a little clunky.

Honda's Internavi builds off a computer satellite mapping system found in some 5 million cars in Japan, adding a modem, Internet browser capability and a mobile phone to the dashboard-mounted paperback-sized screen.

The navigation machine costs about $1,800, and the extra parts for Internavi cost about $640, including installation fees. Honda has no plans yet to introduce Internavi in the United States, although General Motors Corp.'s OnStar has developed a similar vehicle communication system.

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