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How Etak Built a Car Navigation System In 1985
harrymcc writes: Thirty years ago, a startup called Etak released the Navigator, an in-car navigation system. It provided turn-by-turn driving directions despite the fact that GPS did not exist, and stored its maps--which Etak had to create itself--on cassette tapes. And some of its data and technologies are still in use in today's navigation apps. Over at Fast Company, Benj Edwards tells this amazing story. I remember reading about (and lusting over) this system back then, in the much-missed DAK catalog.
Looking at the cover of that Popular Science magazine, I see that they too were far ahead of their time, inventing clickbait before there even was such a thing as a "click" (on the web, at least).
If construction was anything like programming, an incorrectly fitted lock would bring down the entire building...
I was in a car about 5 years later that could keep in its lane along the US highway along the Appalachian Mountain Highway for nearly 100 miles to Washington DC. That car just happened to have a $300,000+ laser ring gyro and more electronics than the car cost but it did manage to keep the car in the lane all the way.
The folks who did the Etak stuff ended up doing the First Down line, amongst other things.
I had the pleasure of working with them. First rate people!
Bowditch Navigation Systems had a similar video navigation system, but for ships at sea. It included an integrated navigation system (LORAN, OMEGA and dead reckoning), and displayed the user's location by projecting microfiche cards of the usual navigation charts. Unlike the car system, this was a practical product with a number of customers. GPS integration was planned but never implemented; the company was caught up in a lawsuit against one of its main investors and collapsed in the 1986 time frame due to a lack of cash.
I'm old enough to tell you that I had one such system! It used "dead recognition" and hooked into the odometer to do it's calculations. Worked pretty durn good!
we used our Plus Four Wristlet Route Indicator: http://gizmodo.com/388005/wristlet-route-indicator-1927s-answer-to-gps and liked it that way.
"Because customers would be switching map cassettes as they drove, we knew cassettes would wind up sitting on top of the dash, baking in the summer sun."
Sadly most engineers today are far too stupid to think of such things. Having a care at all towards longevity and reliability is a thing of the distant past.
Do not look at laser with remaining good eye.
... for the glowing hockey puck.... and the glowing golf ball (US Open).... Both of which are/were stupid ideas.... No... not hockey and golf.... the glowy part...
At least the technology went on to good use in the NFL. I do like the digital first down line. It makes the other sports look like cheap video games and obstructs the view. However, the first down line was done well and is non-intrusive for the viewer.
My God, I had forgotten about DAK. I loved those catalogs!
In-car phones were invented in the 1920s but used the ground as a conductor so they didn't work in built-up areas, which is where they were most desired.
And now we come full circle, back to dead-reckoning systems, the future of navigation, which works in buildings, underwater, and underground as well as under a clear sky. The big difference is we now have (or almost have) highly precise inertial sensors that someone other than the military can afford.