The next time your car’s sat nav takes you straight to the front door of a perfect little BBQ point, I’d like to thank the US military.
The Global Positioning System – a network of satellites that can be used to determine locations – has been made available by the Department of Defense. The Space Force and the Coast Guard are now responsible for its operation.
But drivers didn’t have to wait for the military to develop GPS to help them get where they were going. As far back as the 1930s, the Iter Avto, an aftermarket device, offered navigation guidance. With scrolling paper maps and a speedometer cable connection, the dashboard-mounted device was able to follow an estimated route as long as the driver stayed on the straight and narrow. Deviating from the route, even for a moment, would throw a wrench into the work.
Map technology like this has evolved over the years, at times erratic. But GPS is now a crucial travel companion. Smartphones use its satellite signals for navigation and other purposes.
There are drawbacks to using a phone for navigation, especially if it doesn’t connect to a car’s infotainment system. Placing a phone can be tricky, and because smartphones rely on a cellular signal for map data, coverage can be lost in areas such as mountains where reception is poor.
But smartphones are useful, and almost everyone has one. Apple and Google maps are both automatically updated as needed. On most newer vehicles, Apple CarPlay or Android Auto can appear on a large monitor in the dashboard.
New aftermarket navigation systems, mounted on top of the dash or installed in the dash, are a step up from a smartphone – and that’s 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 with street names and landmarks. Special destinations and catering establishments are called up, traffic congestion warnings are issued, speed limits are displayed and driver warnings are given. Other top models, such as TomTom and Magellan, also offer full feature sets.
All aftermarket navigation systems come with localized maps and generally over-the-air updates are provided. Many “best of” lists are available on the Internet.
But better than smartphones and on-dash devices are the navigation systems that car manufacturers connect to their cars. These factory installed systems offer better accuracy, more functions and better integration. The screen is usually sturdier and a built-in system doesn’t attract thieves like a unit that sits on the dashboard with a suction cup. 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 audio directions from the system menu, the voice will underline the required action. As you approach a right turn, the voice will come from the right side of the vehicle. As you approach the intersection, the volume increases.
If you’d rather listen to the car’s 36-speaker surround sound system, you can turn off the voice and instead rely on the large, high-resolution display on the car’s 16.9-inch infotainment screen. A heads-up display of directions complements this in the windshield. You will of course get a well-defined map, but the system also provides images of road signs at important intersections, indicating, for example, which way to turn at a junction in the road. Turn on augmented reality and the vehicle’s cameras will show you the road ahead with a map on it.
When you choose a destination and upon arrival, the system provides images so you know what to look for. It can also show you the surroundings.
Those photos were made available courtesy of Google Street View, which features millions of panoramic images taken from Google’s own work and the contributions of ordinary people with cameras. Most vehicle navigation systems use Google maps and photography. Tesla’s navigation system can even provide aerial photos of Google Earth on the 17-inch screen.
Luxury brands such as Tesla, Mercedes-Benz and Cadillac all offer navigation systems packed with features, but you don’t have to spend six digits to get GPS guidance. According to Consumer Reports, Chrysler’s Uconnect navigation systems are positively rated by car owners.
In a Jeep Cherokee, Uconnect can be set in motion simply by saying an address. The system uses sensors to assist GPS in places such as tunnels or parking garages where it could lose contact with the satellites.
The 2021 Ford Bronco, a vehicle meant to explore beyond the end of the road, offers SYNC 4 navigation on a 12-inch screen in models priced around $ 40,000 and above. This GPS-guided navigation system can help drivers navigate their way around the wilderness and provides camera images to aid those who may want to climb a rock or two.
Although navigation systems installed by the automaker have become complex in recent years, the first to appear in cars were more 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 display to illustrate a route. Sold only in Japan, the system added the equivalent of $ 2,750 to the price of a car and worked marginally well. It showed that given the starting point, speed and direction, a location could be calculated. It’s what engineers call dead reckoning.
Other dead reckoning systems would follow, including some that use digital maps stored on tapes or other media. But deadlines can never be absolutely precise, and the likelihood of going off course is considerable.
Then GPS came along, and navigation grew up. The first GPS navigation system to be offered by an automobile manufacturer arrived in the 1990 Mazda Eunos Cosmo, which was only offered in Japan. General Motors followed suit in 1992 with a system installed in rental cars. In 1995 it was offered as an option on the Oldsmobile 88. Using cards stored on cartridges, the system was first marketed using only California and Las Vegas cards, but other cartridges followed.
While carmakers gradually added GPS navigation systems to luxury models, the aftermarket took hold of the concept. Alpine offered a system that used compact disc maps in 1997, and Garmin followed suit in 1998.
The roots of GPS technology date back to 1842, when Austrian physicist Christian Andreas Doppler described how motion affects the frequency of sound waves. This Doppler effect is illustrated by the whistling of an approaching train. As it gets closer, more sound waves reach your ear and the pitch increases. As the train leaves, the pitch decreases.
In the late 1950s – those tense days of Sputnik – scientists showed that a satellite in orbit could be tracked by reflecting a microwave signal from it and observing how its movement changed the frequency of the returning signal.
In the mid-1960s, the Navy had to track submarines with nuclear weapons. Using six satellites in orbit, marine scientists found that they could observe changes in Doppler when radio waves from submarines reflected off the satellites, calculating the submarines’ locations.
The Ministry of Defense expanded on the concept and began developing an accurate satellite navigation system in the early 1970s. The first timing and remote satellite navigation system was launched in 1978. A full complement of 24 Navstar satellites became operational in 1993.
GPS technology once tracked submarines, and now a much more powerful system can help you track down a ham-and-swiss sub.