{"id":1827539,"date":"2024-02-13T19:34:36","date_gmt":"2024-02-14T00:34:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/?p=1827539"},"modified":"2024-02-13T19:34:36","modified_gmt":"2024-02-14T00:34:36","slug":"guidestar-and-gms-early-attempts-at-in-car-navigation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2024\/02\/guidestar-and-gms-early-attempts-at-in-car-navigation\/","title":{"rendered":"Guidestar and GM&#8217;s Early Attempts at In-Car Navigation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The 1995 Oldsmobile Eighty-Eight was the first production car in North America to be offered with an on-board navigation system, Guidestar. Car enthusiast website <em>The Truth About Cars<\/em> recently ran a six-part series on the road to that release, exploring General Motors\u2019 earlier, experimental attempts at in-car navigation. The series starts with the <em>very<\/em> experimental, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetruthaboutcars.com\/cars\/features\/abandoned-history-oldsmobile-s-guidestar-navigation-system-and-other-cartography-44503162\">1960s-era <abbr title=\"Driver Aid, Information, and Routing\">DAIR<\/abbr><\/a>, which would have relied on in-road magnets; parts <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetruthaboutcars.com\/cars\/features\/abandoned-history-oldsmobile-s-guidestar-navigation-system-and-other-cartography-44503255\">two<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetruthaboutcars.com\/cars\/features\/abandoned-history-oldsmobile-s-guidestar-navigation-system-and-other-cartography-44503711\">three<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetruthaboutcars.com\/cars\/features\/abandoned-history-oldsmobile-s-guidestar-navigation-system-and-other-cartography-44503798\">four<\/a> of the series look at TravTek, a system combining (still-scrambled-for-civilian-use) GPS with road sensors that was tested on Oldsmobile rental cars in the Orlando, Florida area in the early 1990s. The series ends with a look at the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetruthaboutcars.com\/cars\/features\/abandoned-history-oldsmobile-s-guidestar-navigation-system-and-other-cartography-44504179\">background<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thetruthaboutcars.com\/cars\/features\/abandoned-history-oldsmobile-s-guidestar-navigation-system-and-other-cartography-44504248\">development<\/a> of the Guidestar system itself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The 1995 Oldsmobile Eighty-Eight was the first production car in North America to be offered with an on-board navigation system, Guidestar. Car enthusiast website The Truth About Cars recently ran a six-part series on the&hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2024\/02\/guidestar-and-gms-early-attempts-at-in-car-navigation\/\">More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"link","meta":{"autoblue_enabled":true,"autoblue_custom_message":"","autoblue_shares":[],"autoblue_post_url":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[254,752],"tags":[1653,1654,1403],"class_list":["post-1827539","post","type-post","status-publish","format-link","hentry","category-gps","category-navigation","tag-general-motors","tag-oldsmobile","tag-satnav","post_format-post-format-link"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1830260,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2024\/04\/the-history-of-etak-navigator\/","url_meta":{"origin":1827539,"position":0},"title":"The History of Etak Navigator","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"26 April 2024","format":"link","excerpt":"It used a vector display and cassette tapes for data storage. It was too early for GPS; instead it invented a process called \u201caugmented dead reckoning\u201d that snapped the car\u2019s position back to the known road grid whenever you made a turn. It was the Etak Navigator, and it launched\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Industry&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Industry","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/industry\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1425,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2016\/04\/mckinlay-use-or-lose-our-navigation-skills\/","url_meta":{"origin":1827539,"position":1},"title":"McKinlay: &#8216;Use or Lose Our Navigation Skills&#8217;","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"4 April 2016","format":"link","excerpt":"Writing in\u00a0Nature, Roger McKinlay notes the complexity, infrastructure requirements (i.e., cost) and limitations of modern\u00a0navigation technology and argues that people \"should\u00a0make better use of our innate capabilities. Machines know where they are, not the best way to get to a destination; it might be more reliable to employ a human\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;GPS&quot;","block_context":{"text":"GPS","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/gps\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1840665,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2025\/05\/exploring-gps-alternatives\/","url_meta":{"origin":1827539,"position":2},"title":"Exploring GPS Alternatives","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"16 May 2025","format":"link","excerpt":"In March the FCC issued a Notice of Inquiry to explore GPS alternatives, citing increasing threats to the resiliency of the existing GPS network. GPS World worries that the U.S. may limit domestic access to non-U.S. navigation systems (Beidou, Galileo, GLONASS), which many devices support, for security reasons. Breathless coverage\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;GPS&quot;","block_context":{"text":"GPS","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/gps\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1786774,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2018\/11\/popular-mechanics-proselytizes-paper-maps\/","url_meta":{"origin":1827539,"position":3},"title":"Popular Mechanics Proselytizes Paper Maps","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"27 November 2018","format":"link","excerpt":"Popular Mechanics: \"Even in 2019, there are good reasons to own a paper map, whether it's the kind you can grab at the gas station or a sturdy road atlas [...] that lives in your car.\" This is a listicle, so six reasons are given, some of which are absolute\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Navigation&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Navigation","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/navigation\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1523092,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2018\/01\/navigation-a-very-short-introduction\/","url_meta":{"origin":1827539,"position":4},"title":"Navigation: A Very Short Introduction","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"12 January 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"The problem with Jim Bennett's\u00a0Navigation: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press, May 2017) is summed up in its subtitle: it's very short, and it's only an introduction. Part of Oxford University Press's Very Short Introductions series,\u00a0Navigation discusses the tools and methods used by mariners and navigators to find their\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Book Reviews&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Book Reviews","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/book-reviews\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/navigation-bennett-191x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1808285,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2022\/07\/gps-negatively-impacts-spatial-memory\/","url_meta":{"origin":1827539,"position":5},"title":"GPS Negatively Impacts Spatial Memory","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"27 July 2022","format":"link","excerpt":"Rebecca Solnit points to a 2020 study that attempts to measure the impact of using GPS navigation devices on our spatial memory. After assessing 50 drivers, researchers found that drivers with more GPS experience had worse spatial memory when navigating without GPS. But more significantly, it\u2019s a longitudinal study: 13\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;GPS&quot;","block_context":{"text":"GPS","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/gps\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1827539","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1827539"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1827539\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1827543,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1827539\/revisions\/1827543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1827539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1827539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1827539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}