Thank the U.S. Army the next time your car’s navigation system brings you right to the front door of a perfect barbecue spot.
The Global Positioning System – a network of satellites that enable location tracking – exists thanks to the Department of Defense. The Space Force and Coast Guard are now responsible for its operation.
But motorists do not have to wait for the military to develop GPS for help to reach where they are going. As early as the 1930s, the Iter Avto, an after-sales device, offered navigation guidance. With sliding paper cards and a speedometer cable connection, the device on the dashboard can follow an estimated route, as long as the driver stays straight and narrow. To even briefly deviate from the route will throw a key in the works.
Such mapping technology has evolved over the years, sometimes fittingly. But GPS is now a major driver. Smartphones use the satellite signals for navigation and other purposes.
There are disadvantages to using a phone for navigation, especially if it is not used in the car’s information system. It can be tricky to position a phone like this, and because smartphones rely on a cellular signal for map data, coverage can be lost in areas such as mountains with poor reception.
But smartphones are convenient, and almost everyone has one. Apple and Google maps are both automatically updated as needed. Most newer vehicles allow Apple CarPlay or Android Auto to appear on a large in-dash monitor.
New navigation systems afterward, installed on top of the dashboard or installed in the dash, are a step up from a smartphone – and that 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. Attractions and hospitality facilities are called out, traffic jams are issued, speed limits are displayed and driver warnings are provided. Other top models, such as TomTom and Magellan, also offer full features.
All navigation systems to the market are loaded with localized maps, and wireless updates are usually offered. Many “best of” lists are available on the internet.
But better than smartphones and on-dash devices are the navigation systems that connect car manufacturers in their cars. These factory installed systems offer better accuracy, more features and better integration. The screen is usually spotty, and a built-in system does not attract thieves like a sucker at the tip. 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 2021 Cadillac Escalade is a great example of how far technology has come. If you select the audio directions in the system, the voice underlines the required action. When you turn right, the voice comes from the right side of the vehicle. As you approach the intersection, the volume increases.
If you’d rather listen to the vehicle’s 36-speaker surround sound system, you can mute the voice and instead rely on the large, high-resolution screen on the vehicle’s 16.9-inch infotainment screen. A preview of route directions complements it in the windshield. Of course, you get a well-defined map, but the system also provides photos of road signs at key intersections, indicating, for example, which side you should go on a fork in the road. Turn on the augmented reality and the cameras of the vehicle give a picture of the road ahead with a map on top of each other.
When you select a destination and on arrival, the system provides photos so you know what to look for. It can also show you the environment.
These photos are provided with permission from Google Street View, which contains millions of panoramic images obtained through 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 offer aerial views from Google Earth on its 17-inch screen.
Luxury brands like Tesla, Mercedes-Benz and Cadillac all offer functional navigation systems, but you do not have to spend six digits to get GPS guidance. According to Consumer Reports, Chrysler’s Uconnect navigation systems are favorably viewed by car owners.
In a Jeep Cherokee, Uconnect can easily get started by speaking an address. The system uses sensors to help GPS in places like tunnels or parking garages where it can lose contact with the satellites.
The 2021 Ford Bronco, a vehicle explored at the end of the road, offers SYNC 4 navigation on a 12-inch screen in models worth about $ 40,000 and up. This GPS-guided navigation system can help drivers find their way in the wilderness and offers camera views to help those who want to scale down a rock or two.
While navigation systems installed by the car manufacturer have become complicated over the past few years, the first ones that appeared in cars were modest. In 1981, Honda, Stanley Electric and Alpine developed the Electro Gyro-Cator, which used a gyroscope to determine inertia and translucent maps on a backlit screen to illustrate a route. The system was sold in Japan only and added the amount of $ 2,750 to the price of a car and worked very well. It showed that given the starting point, speed and rate a place can be calculated. This is what engineers call a death bill system.
Other dead billing systems will follow, including the use of digital cards stored on tapes or other media. But death toll can never be absolutely accurate, and the chances of going off course are high.
Then came GPS, and navigation became great. The first GPS navigation device offered by a carmaker arrived in the 1990 Mazda Eunos Cosmo, offered only in Japan. General Motors followed in 1992 with a system installed in rental cars. In 1995, it was offered as an option on the Oldsmobile 88. Using maps stored on cartridges, the system was initially marketed with only California and Las Vegas mapping, but other cartridges followed.
While automakers were gradually adding GPS navigation systems to luxury models, the aftermarket used the concept. Alpine offers a system that uses compact disc cards in 1997, and Garmin follows in 1998.
The roots of GPS technology date back to 1842 when the Austrian physicist Christian Andreas Doppler described how motion affects the frequency of sound waves. This Doppler effect is illustrated by the whistle of an approaching train. As it gets closer, more sound waves reach your ear and the pitch increases. As the train moves away, the pitch decreases.
In the late 1950s – those exciting days of Sputnik – scientists have shown that a satellite orbiting the earth can be detected by reflecting a microwave signal from it and seeing how the motion changes the frequency of the returning signal.
In the mid-60s, the navy had to locate submarines carrying nuclear weapons. Using six orbiting satellites, Navy scientists found that they could detect changes in Doppler when radio waves from the satellites jumped off the satellites, thus calculating the locations of the subs.
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 satellite was launched in 1978. A complete addition of 24 Navstar satellites went live in 1993.
GPS technology once tracked submarines, and today a much more powerful system can help you hunt a ham and Swiss sub.