Sat Nav CD (1986) [video] | Hacker News Reader

Sat Nav CD (1986) [video]

bbc.co.uk

36 pointsAlfGalf219 comments

Looking at these old prototypes is fun since a lot of technologies simply looked impractical at the time: a computer that is an order of magnitude larger than a stack of maps for an entire continent, a system based upon dead reckoning that needs calibration, on-screen maps that are smaller and less detailed than a map book. Yet we can now do a great deal more with a device that fits in our pocket, calibrates itself based upon GPS, and includes an incredible amount of detail. We don't need to buy or handle media either, since maps can be downloaded on the fly or stored on the device.

In some respects, it makes is difficult to nay say emerging technologies (at least those that don't violate the laws of physics) even though many will end up being dead ends due to a lack of development to overcome the early impracticalities.

I saw and was sharing this privately just a few hours ago. It led me into a bit of a rabbit hole, where I stumbled across Etak: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Etak

The original Etak Navigator was a specially-packaged Intel 8088-based system with 256K RAM, 32K EPROM, 2K SRAM, and a cassette tape drive on which digital maps and some of the operating system were stored. The tapes could not hold much information, so for the Los Angeles area, for example, three to four tapes were required. When an edge of the map was reached, the driver needed to change cassette tapes to continue benefitting from the accuracy of map-matching.

Title is inaccurate, it wasn't sat nav, it used dead reckoning which is relative from where you start.

Correct. Although it is the title from the source, it would have been better put in scare quotes.

Thanks for posting, I really enjoy these "first cracks" at mainstream technology. And to think they had this as a working prototype almost 35 years ago (albeit via dead reckoning and not satellite as ashleyn pointed out).

There is no real disadvantage to dead reckoning as long as the system is always powered up.

The system just needs to know it's start location (the car factory) and can correct any errors in dead reckoning using the compass and maps.

GPS is so cheap now that there is no reason not to use it, but a system built with dead reckoning today would work just fine.

> There is no real disadvantage to dead reckoning as long as the system is always powered up.

With dead reckoning the error accumulates over time. Because GPS provides absolute positioning it does not have that problem.

Not if your system is installed in a car which normally travels on roads...

A simple Particle Filter conditioned on "90% chance the car is on a road or other drivable space" will robustly get rid of any error accumulation, leaving you a position estimate that may even typically be more accurate than GPS.

I'm inclined to agree, but that requires your map to be consistently up-to-date, which may not always be practical.

You should see the MFDs on the original F/A-18. In 1983 they still had a fully digital display, far more data than anything from Star Wars

A quick DDG says the actual first GPS navigation system came in 1990: https://ndrive.com/brief-history-gps-car-navigation/

I remember how in my childhood the grown-up who drove in my family never needed the consult the map, it seemed they always knew how to get somewhere.

Funny how the video said the big TV screen is just for the demo, the finished product would not have that because it's too distracting.

I don't need to consult a map all that often, but I use mapping software on my phone because it's traffic-aware and knows routes that locals might but tourists often don't. Most people know one good way to get to regular destinations, often linked in a chain to other places, but combining the best routes from A to B and from B to C does not necessarily add up to the best way from A to C.

"In the car, for instance, you won't have a TV screen, ... that's too much of a distraction."

In this context, "How to send an 'E mail' - 1984". It's quite funny in a positive way, seeing this now.

https://youtu.be/szdbKz5CyhA

> How to send an e mail 1980's style. Electronic message writing down the phone line. First shown on Thames TV's computer programme 'Database' in 1984

'How To Have Cybersex On The Internet' beats it all https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PBDKEn-TeQg

My friend had something like this - but GPS based - quite late on (2000-2001), in his company car. I seem to remember they sent out updates every 6 months and you had to swap in the new CD. It may even have been that you had to send back the old CD, but I don't recall. The whole thing was obsolete when the first TomTom portable satnavs came out a year or two later.

When I saw the thumbnail with "Eindhovenseweg" I immediately guessed it was a Philips invention.

(Clearly somewhere close to Eindhoven: aka. "Philips City")

https://goo.gl/maps/9roAuJNdu8cEgjtk9 <- windmill at start of video

Thats amazing! And the CRT with full size keyboard made me lol. They quote £1500 which isn't too bad considering.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1051799361167024128

An earlier system with its issues pointed out.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com