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The next time your car’s navigation system takes you right to the front door of a perfect little barbecue on the road, thank the US military.
The Global Positioning System – a network of satellites that helps pinpoint the location – exists thanks to the Department of Defense. The Space Force and the Coast Guard are now responsible for its operation.
But motorists didn’t have to wait for the military to develop GPS to help them get to where they were going. As early as the 1930s, the Iter Avto, a replacement device, offered navigation advice. With scrolling paper maps and a speedometer cable connection, the dash-mounted device could follow an approximate route, as long as the driver stayed in the straight, narrow line. Going off the road even momentarily would throw a wrench into the works.
Such mapping technology has evolved over the years, sometimes intermittently. But GPS is now an essential driving companion. Smartphones use its satellite signals for navigation and other purposes.
There are downsides to using a phone for navigation, especially if it doesn’t tap into a car’s infotainment system. Positioning a phone can be tricky, and because smartphones depend on a cellular signal for map data, coverage can be lost in areas like mountains where reception is poor.
But smartphones are handy, and almost everyone has one. Both Apple and Google maps are updated automatically when needed. Most newer vehicles allow Apple CarPlay or Android Auto to appear on a large in-dash monitor.
The new aftermarket navigation systems, mounted on top of the dashboard or installed in the dashboard, are a step up from a smartphone – and that Inter Avto. For example, the Garmin DriveSmart 61 LMT-S navigation system can be ordered with a 6.95 inch screen for good visibility. Garmin provides turn-by-turn voice instructions using street names and landmarks. Points of interest and visitor facilities are called, traffic jam warnings are issued, speed limits displayed and driver alerts are provided. Other high-end models, such as TomTom and Magellan, also come with full feature sets.
All aftermarket navigation systems come with localized maps and wireless updates are usually provided. There are many “best of” lists available on the web.
But better than smartphones and in-dash devices are the navigation systems that automakers connect to their cars. These factory installed systems offer better accuracy, more functionality and better integration. The screen is generally beefier and a built-in system won’t attract thieves like a unit sucked into the dashboard. Integrated systems typically have more powerful chips than aftermarket models, and their antennas can be larger and better placed.
The 2021 Cadillac Escalade’s navigation system is a good example of how far technology has come. If you select audio driving directions from the system menu, the voice emphasizes the required action. When approaching a right turn, the voice comes from the right side of the vehicle. As you approach the intersection, the volume increases.
If you prefer to listen to the vehicle’s 36-speaker surround sound system, you can turn off the voice and instead rely on the large, high-resolution display of the vehicle’s 16.9-inch infotainment screen. A head-up display of route directions completes it in the windshield. You get a well-defined map, of course, but the system also provides images of traffic signs at key intersections, showing, for example, which direction you need to go at a crossroads. Turn on augmented reality and the vehicle’s cameras provide an image of the road in front of you with an overlaid map.
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.
These images are provided courtesy of Google Street View, which includes millions of panoramic images from Google’s own work and contributions from ordinary people with cameras. Most vehicle navigation systems take advantage of Google’s mapping and photography. Tesla’s navigation system can even provide aerial views from Google Earth on its 17-inch screen.
Luxury brands like Tesla, Mercedes-Benz, and Cadillac all offer feature-rich navigation systems, but you don’t have to spend six digits to get GPS guidance. Chrysler’s Uconnect navigation systems are well received by car owners, according to Consumer Reports,
In a Jeep Cherokee, Uconnect can be easily set in motion by saying an address. The system uses sensors to help the GPS in places like 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 display in models priced at around $ 40,000 and up. This GPS guided navigation system can help riders find their way in the wilderness and offers camera views to help those who want to climb a rock or two.
While the navigation systems installed by car manufacturers have become more complex in recent years, the first ones 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 an illuminated display to illustrate a route. Sold only in Japan, the system added the equivalent of $ 2,750 to the price of a car and performed very little. He demonstrated that given the starting point, speed and heading, a location could be calculated. This is what engineers call a dead reckoning system.
Other dead reckoning systems would follow, including some using digital cards stored on tapes or other media. But esteem can never be absolutely precise and the chances of deviating from its path are considerable.
Then came GPS and navigation grew. The first GPS navigation device offered by an automobile manufacturer arrived in the 1990 Mazda Eunos Cosmo, which was 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 first marketed with only California and Las Vegas mapping, but other cartridges followed. .
As automakers have gradually added GPS navigation systems to luxury models, the aftermarket has taken hold of the concept. Alpine proposed a system using compact disc maps in 1997, and Garmin followed suit in 1998.
The roots of GPS technology go back to 1842 when Austrian physicist Christian Andreas Doppler described how movement 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 pace decreases.
In the late 1950s – those exciting days of Sputnik – scientists demonstrated that a satellite orbiting Earth could be tracked by bouncing a microwave signal and observing how its movement altered the frequency of the signal from return.
In the mid-1960s, the Navy had to track submarines carrying nuclear weapons. Using six orbiting satellites, Navy scientists found they could observe changes in Doppler as radio waves from submarines bounced off the satellites, calculating the location of the submarines.
The Department of Defense developed the concept and in the early 1970s began the development of an accurate satellite navigation system. The first navigation system with timing and telemetry satellite was launched in 1978. A full complement of 24 Navstar satellites became operational in 1993.
GPS technology once made it possible to track submarines, and today a much more powerful system can help you track a Swiss submarine.
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