Drivers can check on their pets, turn their home lights off and on and lock the front door — all from inside their cars — with a new car-navigation system from Panasonic.

The ¥354,900 Strada F-Class guides drivers with maps to destinations like regular car navigation.

The gadget also links to a user's home via an Internet-linking mobile phone. It is set to go on sale June 13 and was shown to reporters Wednesday. No overseas sales plans are set so far.

Touch icons on the touch-screen panel of the car-navigation system include "turn off the light" or "lock the door."

The catch is the user needs a special Internet-linking home with its own server that hooks up gadgets and lighting to work with mobile phones and products like the Strada F-Class.

Only about 2,000 homes in Japan have such Net-linking systems so far, Panasonic official Naohisa Morimoto said.

To see an image of a pet or other still shots inside a home, the user needs a special camera with Net-linking features. Special door locks are also needed to use the locking feature.

The systems aren't cheap, costing about ¥200,000, although cheaper ones are available. They even require additional construction costs.

Panasonic, a brand of Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., has its own businesses of setting up Internet servers in homes, as well as a home-building unit.

The Strada F-Class can't do much more than turn lights and air conditioning off and on. But Morimoto said consumers may seek to ward off burglars while they're away by making it appear they are at home by turning lights off and on.

Panasonic is aiming to sell about 8,000 of the Strada F-Class sets a month.