Automotive Navigation System - History

History

Automotive navigation systems were the subject of extensive experimentation, including some efforts to reach mass markets, prior to the availability of commercial GPS.

Most major technologies required for modern automobile navigation were already established when the microprocessor emerged in the 1970s to support their integration and enhancement by computer software. These technologies subsequently underwent extensive refinement, and a variety of system architectures had been explored by the time practical systems reached the market in the late 1980s. Among the other enhancements of the 1980s was the development of color displays for digital maps and of CD-ROMs for digital map storage.

However, there is some question about who made the first commercially available automotive navigation system. There seems to be little room for doubt that Etak was first to make available a digital system that used map-matching to improve on dead reckoning instrumentation. Etak's systems, which accessed digital map information stored on standard cassette tapes, arguably made car navigation systems practical for the first time. However, Japanese efforts on both digital and analog systems predate Etak's founding.

Steven Lobbezoo developed the first commercially available satellite navigation system for cars. It was produced in Berlin from start 1984 to January 1986. Publicly presented first at the Hannover fair in 1985 in Germany, the system was shown in operation on the evening news (item in the Hannover fair) from the first German television channel in that year. It used a modified IBM PC, a large disc for map data and a flat screen, built into the glove compartment. It was called Homer (after the device from a James Bond movie).

Alpine claims to have created the first automotive navigation system in 1981. However, according to the company's own historical timeline, the company claims to have co-developed an analog automotive navigation product called the Electro Gyrocator, working with Honda. This engineering effort was abandoned in 1985. Although there are reports of the Electro Gyrocator being offered as a dealer option on the Honda Accord in 1981, it's not clear whether an actual product was released, whether any customers took delivery of an Electro Gyrocator-equipped Accord, or even whether the unit appeared in any dealer showrooms; Honda's own official history appears to pronounce the Electro Gyrocator as not practical. See below for Honda's history of the project.

Honda claims to have created the first navigation system starting in 1983, and culminating with general availability in the 1990 Acura Legend. The original analog Electro Gyrocator system used an accelerometer to navigate using inertial navigation, as the GPS system was not yet generally available. However, it appears from Honda's concessions in their own account of the Electro Gyrocator project that Etak actually trumped Honda's analog effort with a truly practical digital system, albeit one whose effective range of operation was limited by the availability of appropriately digitized street map data.

progress in digital technology would not stop simply because Honda had turned its attention to analog. In 1985, for example, the U.S. company ETAK introduced its own digital map navigation system. Although the system's effective range-the area of geographical coverage-was limited, the announcement was a dour one for Nakamura and his staff. Therefore, ultimately the development of a practical analog system was shelved. The staff experienced indescribable feelings of disappointment. The development of digital map navigation system resumed in 1987, following a three-year hiatus.

Both Mitsubishi Electric and Pioneer claim to be the first with a GPS-based auto navigation system, in 1990. Also in 1990, a draft patent application was filed within Digital Equipment Co. Ltd. for a multi-function device called PageLink that had real-time maps for use in a car listed as one of its functions.

Magellan, a GPS navigation system manufacturer, claims to have created the first GPS-based vehicle navigation system in the U.S. in 1995.

In 1995, Oldsmobile introduced the first GPS navigation system available in a production car, called GuideStar. There also was an Oldsmobile navigation system available as an option as early as 1994 called the Oldsmobile Navigation/Information System. It was an option on the Oldsmobile Eighty Eight.

However it was not until 2000 that the United States made a more accurate GPS signal available for civilian use.