Next time, your car’s navigation system will take you right to the front door of a perfect little BBQ area, thank the U.S. military.
The Global Positioning System – a network of satellites that enables the location of locations – was made available by the Department of Defense. The Space Force and the Coast Guard are now responsible for their operations.
However, motorists didn’t have to wait for the military to develop GPS to get to their destination. The Iter Avto, an aftermarket device, offered navigation guidance as early as the 1930s. With scrolling paper maps and a speedometer cable connection, the dashboard-mounted device could follow an approximate route as long as the driver stayed on the straight and narrow. Going astray for even a moment would throw a wrench into the works.
This card technology has sometimes developed restlessly over the years. But GPS is now a crucial driving companion. Smartphones use their satellite signals for navigation and other purposes.
There are drawbacks to using a phone for navigation, especially when it is not accessing a car’s infotainment system. Positioning a phone can be difficult. Since smartphones rely on a cellular signal for map data, coverage can be lost in areas such as mountains with poor reception.
But smartphones are practical and almost everyone has one. Apple and Google Maps are automatically updated as necessary. Most newer vehicles can display Apple CarPlay or Android Auto on a large in-dash monitor.
New aftermarket dashboard-mounted or in-dash navigation systems are a step further than a smartphone – and the Iter Avto. For example, the Garmin DriveSmart 61 LMT-S navigation system can be ordered with a 6.95-inch screen for good visibility. The Garmin provides spoken turn-by-turn directions using street names and landmarks. Points of interest and hospitality facilities are called up, traffic jam warnings are issued, speed limits are displayed and driver warnings are provided. Other top models like TomTom and Magellan also offer all functions.
All aftermarket navigation systems come with localized maps and wireless updates are generally provided. Many best-of lists are available on the Internet.
But better than smartphones and on-dash devices are the navigation systems that automakers plug into their cars. These factory-installed systems offer better accuracy, more features and better integration. The screen is usually more powerful and a built-in system does not attract thieves like a unit sucked into the dashboard. The integrated systems usually have more powerful chips than aftermarket models, and their antennas can be larger and better placed.
The navigation system in the Cadillac Escalade 2021 is a good example of how far the technology has come. When you select Audio Directions in the system menu, the voice underlines the action required. As you approach a right turn, the voice comes from the right side of the vehicle. As you approach the intersection, the volume increases.
If you’d rather hear the vehicle’s 36-speaker surround sound system, you can turn off your voice and instead rely on the large, high-resolution display on the vehicle’s 16.9-inch infotainment screen. They are supplemented by a heads-up display of route instructions in the windshield. You will of course receive a precisely defined map, but the system also provides images of traffic signs at important intersections, which indicate, for example, in which direction you should go at a fork in the road. Turn on Augmented Reality and the vehicle’s cameras provide an image of the road with a map overlaid.
As you choose a destination and upon arrival, the system provides images so you know what to look for. It can also show you around.
These images are courtesy of Google Street View. This includes millions of panoramic images taken from Google’s own work and the contributions of ordinary people with cameras. Most vehicle navigation systems use Google mapping and photography. Tesla’s navigation system can even display aerial images from Google Earth on its 17-inch screen.
Luxury brands like Tesla, Mercedes-Benz, and Cadillac offer multi-feature navigation systems, but you don’t have to spend six digits to get GPS guidance. Chrysler’s Uconnect navigation systems are rated positively by car owners, according to Consumer Reports.
In a Jeep Cherokee, Uconnect can be set in motion simply by speaking an address. The system uses sensors to assist GPS in places like tunnels or parking garages where it may lose contact with the satellites.
The 2021 Ford Bronco, a vehicle to be explored beyond the end of the road, offers SYNC 4 navigation on a 12-inch screen in models starting at around $ 40,000. This GPS-controlled navigation system can help drivers find their way around the wilderness and offers camera views to assist those looking to climb a rock or two.
While navigation systems installed by automakers have become complex in recent years, the first to appear in cars have been more humble. In 1981, Honda, Stanley Electric and Alpine developed the Electro Gyro-Cator, which uses a gyroscope to determine inertia and translucent maps on an illuminated screen to illustrate a route. Sold only in Japan, the system increased the price of a car by the equivalent of $ 2,750 and worked only marginally. It turned out that a location could be calculated based on the starting point, the speed and the course. Engineers call this a dead reckoning system.
Other dead reckoning systems would follow, including some using digital maps stored on tape or other media. But dead reckoning can never be absolutely precise, and the chances of getting off course are considerable.
Then GPS came along and navigation grew up. The first GPS navigator offered by a car manufacturer arrived in the Mazda Eunos Cosmo in 1990, which was only offered in Japan. General Motors followed in 1992 with a system built into rental cars. In 1995 it was offered as an option for the Oldsmobile 88. Using cards stored on cartridges, the system was initially marketed only with cards for California and Las Vegas, but other cartridges followed.
As automakers gradually added GPS navigation systems to luxury models, the aftermarket adopted the concept. Alpine offered a system that used CD cards in 1997, and Garmin followed suit in 1998.
The roots of GPS technology go back to 1842 when the Austrian physicist Christian Andreas Doppler described how movement affects the frequency of sound waves. This Doppler effect is illustrated by the whistle of an approaching train. As it approaches, more sound waves reach your ear and the pitch increases. When the train pulls away, the pitch decreases.
In the late 1950s – those exciting days of Sputnik – scientists showed that an orbiting satellite could be tracked by reflecting a microwave signal from it and watching its movement change the frequency of the returning signal.
In the mid-1960s, the Navy had to track down submarines with nuclear weapons. Using six orbiting satellites, Navy scientists found that they could observe changes in Doppler as radio waves from submarines reflected off the satellites, calculating the submarine’s positions.
The Department of Defense expanded the concept and began developing an accurate satellite navigation system in the early 1970s. The first navigation system with timing and ranging satellites was launched in 1978. In 1993, 24 Navstar satellites were commissioned.
GPS technology once tracked submarines, and today a far more powerful system can help you hunt down a Ham Swiss submarine.
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