Systems and Methods for Providing Navigation Data to a Vehicle

A portable device that includes one or more processors, wherein the portable device is configured, when the one or more processors execute (i) a navigation service application configured to receive navigation data from a navigation server and (ii) a companion application that executes on the portable device separately from the navigation service application, to execute a method comprising:

• sending, by the navigation service application, a destination to the navigation server via a long-range communication link;
• receiving, by the navigation service application, first navigation data from the navigation server via the long-range communication link, wherein the first navigation data describes at least one of a plurality of steps for navigating between a source and the destination;
• invoking, by the companion application, a navigation application programming interface (API) of the navigation service application, wherein invoking the navigation API includes using a syntax and a list of parameters specific to the navigation API to obtain, from the navigation service application, the first navigation data;
• and
• sending, by the companion application, the first navigation data to a head unit of a vehicle via a short-range communication link to cause the head unit to display navigation information indicating at least the one of the plurality of steps for navigating between the source and the destination.

A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing thereon a plurality of instructions that implement a navigation service application configured to, when installed on a portable device on which a companion application that executes separately from the navigation service application is also installed, execute a method comprising:

• sending a destination to a navigation server via a long-range communication link;
• receiving first navigation data from the navigation server via the long-range communication link, wherein the first navigation data describes at least one of a plurality of steps for navigating between a source and the destination;
• and
• when the companion application invokes a navigation application programming interface (API) of the navigation service application using a syntax and a list of parameters specific to the navigation API, providing the first navigation data to the companion application,
• wherein the companion application is configured to send the first navigation data to a head unit of a vehicle via a short-range communication link to cause the head unit to display navigation information indicating at least the one of the plurality of steps for navigating between the source and the destination.