EllsworthC
3 HN mentions · mentioned in 3 months, 2018–2024
31:35 · 19K views · May 9, 2016
Raw 1991 home footage of a working Etak Navigator, the 1985 in-car navigation system that predated consumer GPS. It shows the system's cassette-based map display and explains its augmented dead reckoning using wheel sensors.
Cited as a rare look at how pre-GPS car navigation worked, especially its dead reckoning with turn-based recalibration.
3 comments from Hacker News
In the late-80's to mid-90's, DeLorme Street Atlas USA was one of the best consumer street map solutions. I remember using the DOS version (3.5" floppies, IIRC) on an amber gas plasma Toshiba T3200SX [1] "laptop" or some similar model with the advantage of being able to print out turn-by-turn directions pre-trip but without a GPS module which came later in the early-mid 90's. Surprisingly, I can't find any images of the old monochrome versions on a quick search but you can imagine the jump to the full color CD-ROM Windows 3.1 versions just a few years later. Mapquest took over in the late 90's. I mention all this just because OP's article mentions the mid-80's Etak system [2] (Nolan Bushnell!) which I'd never heard about and had to look up... and it looked almost like having a Vectrex in your car that ran maps off a standard cassette tape. Pretty wild. [1] [LINK] [2] this video
Here's the system I was talking about. It used dead reckoning and landmarks (turns) to periodically re-calibrate the fix. This was all done with 80s technology. [LINK] Live demo: this video > Cheap dead reckoning sensors have so much error and drift right now as to be mostly useless for driving. I don't think anyone's saying that it would be used for the driving part (i.e. car control), just as an option for orienting the car in the wider world beyond its direct perception.
1991 home video demo of an Etak, in a custom housing: this video (Bet they didn't think at the time that techies of the future would be watching it in 2024 on the ubiquitous global data network.)