LONDON - Hate retuning your car radios again and again after losing your favourite channel during long journeys? Well, IBM's new software that connects the radio with the vehicle's satnav could be your ultimate saviour.

In a recent patent application, IBM has claimed that merging car radios with satellite navigation systems could solve the above problem, and it could have safety benefits, too.

Since their introduction in the 1920s, car radios have been blamed for causing accidents as they distract drivers who retune them while on the move.

Although station preset buttons have reduced the toll, but there is still more to be done to deal with the issue, said IBM in a US patent application filed on 10 September.

Robert Peterson and colleagues at IBM's lab in Austin, Texas, said that one of the major reasons for motorists retuning while driving, is going out of range of a favoured station.

Thus, in its patent application IBM has suggested a radio with software that communicates with the car's satnav and is pre-programmed with national and local radio stations, their signal strength and their programme genres.

When you punch in a destination, the satnav works out the route as usual.

However, you can also key in your initial radio station and its genre - thrash metal, say, or "shock jock" talk shows.

The software then works out which stations of the same genre will be available along the planned route - and automatically switches to each in turn when the signal begins to deteriorate.

"This reduces the need to search for particular types of broadcast and may improve traffic safety," New Scientist magazine quoted the patent as saying. (ANI)