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I.D. Systems and Garmin Team to Provide New Airport Safety Solution: SafeNav™ Airport Vehicle Navigation System

Hackensack, NJ, May 17, 2010—I.D. Systems, Inc. (Nasdaq: IDSY), a leading provider of wireless asset management technology, and Garmin International, Inc., a global leader in navigation and communication devices, have entered into a distribution agreement to bring an innovative new airport safety product to the aviation industry. The product—SafeNav™ Powered by Garmin™—is an on-vehicle, GPS-based navigation and alert system designed to provide airport vehicle operators with real-time situational awareness, with the goal of avoiding accidental runway incursions. Initial shipments of SafeNav™ are expected to commence in the second half of 2010.  

The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) has placed runway incursions on its “Most Wanted” list of transportation safety improvements every year since the list’s inception in 1990. The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has similarly made “reduction in the number and severity of runway incursions” one of its top priorities. In an Advisory Circular, the FAA states:
- The control of vehicular activity on the airside of an airport is of the highest importance.
- The airport operator is responsible for developing procedures, procuring equipment, and providing training regarding vehicle operations to ensure aircraft and personnel safety.

In the same document, the FAA attributes incidents involving aircraft and ground vehicles, in part, to inadequate visual aids and vehicle operator training, and encourages airport operators to “establish procedures and policies concerning vehicle access and vehicle operation on the airside of the airport”. The FAA emphasizes that special consideration should be given to vehicle operations during low visibility conditions, such as rain, snow and fog, which may obscure airport markings and diminish vehicle operators’ situational awareness.

SafeNav™ Powered by Garmin™ is designed to address precisely these concerns.  The system enhances the situational awareness of airport vehicle operators—regardless of visibility and other external conditions—by providing an on-vehicle “moving map” of the vehicle’s location on the airport.  SafeNav™ incorporates:

• Built-in maps of over 950 U.S. airports, based on the reference airport diagrams used by aircraft equipped with Garmin’s SafeTaxi® system
• Real-time tracking of vehicle location on the airport via a 4.3-inch, wide-format, touchscreen display
• Built-in geo-fencing algorithms to define airport runways
• Risk-weighted color coding on maps to alert vehicle operators visually to potential runway incursions
• Automatic audible alarming to alert vehicle operators aurally to potential runway incursions
  

“SafeNav™ will not only assist experienced vehicle operators at night and during periods of low-visibility, it will serve as an important safety tool for new or transient vehicle operators who are unfamiliar with the airport’s taxiways and runways,” said Gary Kelley, Garmin’s vice president of marketing."

SafeNav™ is available both as a standalone safety device and as a complementary extension of I.D. Systems’ AvRamp® Wireless Vehicle Management System, which provides safety controls, maintenance monitoring, and utilization analysis for fleets of airport vehicles.

SafeNav™ by itself supports several of the FAA’s “Best Practices for Airfield Safety”, including:

• Distributing current airport diagrams for use in airside vehicles
• Training vehicle drivers where to look for airport traffic when pilots and the control tower are silent
• Improving airport safety by stressing and understanding situational awareness

“SafeNav™ essentially brings the safety functions of our successful SafeTaxi® system from the cockpits of aircraft into the cabs of airside airport vehicles,” said Kelley. “We are committed to using our technology to increase situational awareness in the air and on the ground, and we look forward to working with I.D. Systems to bring SafeNav™ to the airport vehicle market.”

Using SafeNav™ in conjunction with I.D. Systems’ AvRamp® system satisfies another FAA best practice: ensuring that personnel with access to vehicles in the airport area of operations (AOA) have appropriate authorization and driver training.

AvRamp®—which was developed in part through Transportation Security Administration funding and is FAA-approved—provides a wide range of vehicle safety, security and operational functions, including: automatic on-vehicle driver authentication and access control; electronic safety inspection checklists; speed monitoring and impact sensing; real-time location tracking; remote vehicle shutdown/lockout; and fleet productivity optimization tools. AvRamp® is currently deployed at two major U.S. airports: Dallas-Fort Worth and Chicago O’Hare.

“The SafeNav™ concept was a natural extension of the comprehensive safety functionality we provide with AvRamp®,” said Peter Fausel, I.D. Systems’ executive vice president of sales. “We are thrilled to collaborate with Garmin, which has become a household name by providing some of the world’s most innovative and successful navigation products. We see SafeNav™ as another great idea for improving airport safety.”

Editorial Notes :
High-resolution product images are available upon request. I.D. Systems and AvRamp are registered trademarks, and SafeNav is a trademark, of I.D. Systems, Inc. Garmin and SafeTaxi are trademarks of Garmin Ltd. or its subsidiaries and are registered in one or more countries, including the U.S.

About I.D. Systems:
Based in Hackensack, New Jersey, with a European subsidiary in Düsseldorf, Germany, I.D. Systems is a leading provider of wireless solutions for managing and securing high-value enterprise assets, including industrial vehicles, such as forklifts and airport ground support equipment, and rental vehicles. The Company’s patented technology, which utilizes radio frequency identification, or RFID, technology, addresses the needs of organizations to control, track, monitor and analyze their assets. For more information, visit www.id-systems.com.

About Garmin:
Garmin International, Inc. is a subsidiary of Garmin Ltd. (Nasdaq: GRMN), the global leader in satellite navigation. Since 1989, this group of companies has designed, manufactured, marketed and sold navigation, communication and information devices and applications—most of which are enabled by GPS technology. Garmin’s products serve automotive, mobile, wireless, outdoor recreation, marine, aviation, and OEM applications. Garmin Ltd. is incorporated in the Cayman Islands, and its principal subsidiaries are located in the United States, Taiwan and the United Kingdom. For more information, visit Garmin's virtual pressroom at www.garmin.com/pressroom or contact the Media Relations department at 913-397-8200.

“Safe Harbor” Statement:
This press release contains forward looking statements that are made pursuant to the safe harbor provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, such as the Company’s prospects for additional customers and revenues. Forward-looking statements include statements with respect to the Company’s beliefs, plans, goals, objectives, expectations, anticipations, assumptions, estimates, intentions, and future performance, and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, which may be beyond the Company’s control, and which may cause its actual results, performance or achievements to be materially different from future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. All statements other than statements of historical fact are statements that could be forwardlooking statements. These forward-looking statements are subject to risk and uncertainties, including, but not limited to, future economic and business conditions, the loss of any of the Company’s key customers or reduction in the purchase of its products by any such customers, the failure of the market for the Company’s products to continue to develop, the inability to protect the Company’s intellectual property, the inability to manage the Company’s growth, the effects of competition from a variety of local, regional, national and other providers of wireless solutions and other risks detailed from time to time in the Company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the Company’s annual report on Form 10-K for the year ended December 31, 2008. These risks could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed in any forward looking statements made by, or on behalf of, the Company. The Company assumes no obligation to update the information contained in this press release.

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