{"id":1830260,"date":"2024-04-26T09:53:54","date_gmt":"2024-04-26T13:53:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/?p=1830260"},"modified":"2024-07-25T21:21:21","modified_gmt":"2024-07-26T01:21:21","slug":"the-history-of-etak-navigator","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2024\/04\/the-history-of-etak-navigator\/","title":{"rendered":"The History of Etak Navigator"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>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 <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Etak\">Etak<\/a> Navigator, and it launched back in <strong>1985<\/strong>. <a href=\"https:\/\/maphappenings.com\/2024\/04\/11\/story-of-etak\/\">James Killick explores its history<\/a> in the ninth installment of his series, \u201c12 Map Happenings that Rocked our World,\u201d with some surprises in how it influenced later GPS-based navigation systems (among other things, Etak eventually ended up in the hands of Tele Atlas). See also <a href=\"https:\/\/www.fastcompany.com\/3047828\/who-needs-gps-the-forgotten-story-of-etaks-amazing-1985-car-navigation-system\">this 2015 article in <em>Fast Company<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Previously: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2024\/02\/guidestar-and-gms-early-attempts-at-in-car-navigation\/\">Guidestar and GM\u2019s Early Attempts at In-Car Navigation<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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&hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2024\/04\/the-history-of-etak-navigator\/\">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":[121,752],"tags":[1658],"class_list":["post-1830260","post","type-post","status-publish","format-link","hentry","category-industry","category-navigation","tag-etak","post_format-post-format-link"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":1840665,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2025\/05\/exploring-gps-alternatives\/","url_meta":{"origin":1830260,"position":0},"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":4352,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2017\/04\/patents-and-cartographic-inventions\/","url_meta":{"origin":1830260,"position":1},"title":"Patents and Cartographic Inventions","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"25 April 2017","format":"link","excerpt":"Published late last month, Mark Monmonier's new book, Patents and Cartographic Inventions: A New Perspective for Map History (Palgrave Macmillan) is on a somewhat more arcane and non-obvious subject than his usual fare. It's an exploration of the U.S. patent system that focuses on map- and navigation-related inventions. The publisher's\u2026","rel":"","context":"In \"books\"","block_context":{"text":"books","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/tag\/books\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/patents-cartographic-inventions-202x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1827539,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2024\/02\/guidestar-and-gms-early-attempts-at-in-car-navigation\/","url_meta":{"origin":1830260,"position":2},"title":"Guidestar and GM&#8217;s Early Attempts at In-Car Navigation","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"13 February 2024","format":"link","excerpt":"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 road to that release, exploring General Motors\u2019 earlier, experimental attempts at in-car navigation. The series\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":1787422,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2019\/06\/wayfinding-a-new-book-about-the-neuroscience-of-navigation\/","url_meta":{"origin":1830260,"position":3},"title":"Wayfinding: A New Book about the Neuroscience of Navigation","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"10 June 2019","format":"link","excerpt":"M. R. O'Connor's book Wayfinding: The Science and Mystery of How Humans Navigate the World came out in April from St. Martin's Press. Not coincidentally, she's published a couple of pieces on the subject of that book, both of which focus on humans' ability to pay attention to their surroundings,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;GPS&quot;","block_context":{"text":"GPS","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/gps\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/9781250096968-194x300.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1788164,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2020\/01\/beidou-chinas-satellite-navigation-system-to-be-complete-by-june\/","url_meta":{"origin":1830260,"position":4},"title":"Beidou, China\u2019s Satellite Navigation System, to Be Complete by June","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"6 January 2020","format":"link","excerpt":"China\u2019s Beidou satellite navigation system\u2014a competitor to GPS like Russia\u2019s GLONASS and Europe\u2019s Galileo\u2014will be complete by June 2020, when the constellation\u2019s final two satellites are launched, the Associated Press reports. Twenty-four satellites have already been orbited. Whereas the first two iterations of Beidou offered regional coverage, this third iteration\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;GPS&quot;","block_context":{"text":"GPS","link":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/category\/gps\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Beidou logo","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.maproomblog.com\/xq\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/beidou-logo-150x150.png?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1832469,"url":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/2024\/06\/quantum-navigation\/","url_meta":{"origin":1830260,"position":5},"title":"Quantum Navigation","author":"Jonathan Crowe","date":"28 June 2024","format":"link","excerpt":"Quantum navigation systems are being tested in Britain. Last month there was a successful test flight of an aviation system, and a system is being tested on test trains on the London Underground. (It\u2019s not clear to me whether these systems are related, but the U.K. has apparently been making\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\/1830260","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=1830260"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1830260\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1830262,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1830260\/revisions\/1830262"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1830260"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1830260"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.maproomblog.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1830260"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}