Cassette tape-based navigation system from 1971 | Hacker News Reader

Cassette tape-based navigation system from 1971

jalopnik.com

95 pointsgalfarragem21 comments

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The technical details from the YouTube video [1]:

- one cassette tape per route

- distance to next milestone encoded in the bleep length on the tape

- controller unit interprets the bleep length

- controller unit reads RPMs from the spinning cable that normally drives the odometer

- controller unit has a pluggable circuit board that contains the wheel specific odometer RPM to distance conversion

- controller unit starts/stops the cassette player at each milestone

[1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KliWHCzE16c

So if I want to go from A to B, how do I get the tape for that? And if I make the wrong turn, am I screwed?

Granted, it is impressive for it's time.

You'd have to put in a new tape for every A to B scenario or even a return trip of B to A.

And again for every human language, and again for every temporary road closure.

If jalopnik maintainers see this, please disable the sticky video overlay that presents the latest video from the site, at least for the mobile version of the site. It uses almost 50% of the screen real estate on my smartphone, seriously degrading the experience on moble devices. Sometimes I can barely read an entire frase without having to scroll.

It’s part of the eventual fallout of Gawker Media getting whacked by Peter Thiel/Hulk Hogan. The group of blogs that Jalopnik is part of is now owned by a private equity group that only cares about wringing out every possible penny. The site has gotten increasingly unreadable, especially on mobile. (also, RIP Deadspin).

I am 100% on Thiel's side for destroying Gawker. It was and is trash, and Thiel performed a public service.

I'm not. Thiel is a terrible person who uses his capital in ways that simply buy the kind of justice he wants for himself, he just just used Hogan and the justice system as private tools to serve his goals.

Why do you think he's a terrible person? Gawker didn't exactly come out of that whole thing smelling like roses.

That is sad. That also highlights the dangers of tying your site/blog to an specific, private vendor.

This is why Firefox's reader view is so vital nowadays. There are very few websites for which reader view doesn't improve readability, and quite a few that are completely unusable without it. At least on my phone.

very well pointed out, I was forgetting about reader mode. In this case, however, it would remove the video that was part of the article too.

That’s a very annoying trend nowadays.

Turn by Turntable https://arstechnica.com/cars/2020/01/turn-by-turntables-how-...

Another cassette tape navigation system, this one from 1985, the Etak Navigator:

https://www.fastcompany.com/3047828/who-needs-gps-the-forgot...

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13744825

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etak

(The Fast Company article is quite good, with interesting photos.)

This reminds me of the bike routes in Flanders and the Netherlands. There is a dense network of cycle routes, with every intersection being numbered (these are called "knoppunten"). At each numbered intersection, there is a signpost, with directions to the neighboring knoppunt. As a result, you could plan a route based on a list of knoppunten and just write down the numbers. I've heard tell of small scroll wheels that you'd attach to your bike that these lists of points could clip into, with a small window to tell you where you are, but I've never actually seen one.

This is pretty much how one navigates complex mountain bike trail systems. Each intersection is numbered, has arrows pointing the way to the connected intersections, and usually shows a map showing the whole system. One can stop, look at where they want to go, memorize the next few numbers, then ride just making the correct turns, glancing at the signs.

Analog GPS: Scrolling Wrist & Car-Mounted Maps - https://99percentinvisible.org/article/analog-gps-scrolling-...

Loving the simplicity of these

not really navigation, but fairly prescient 1947 prediction of In-Car Entertainment: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKfOcR7Qbu4&t=67

Definitely watch the video till the end.

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