1971: GPS-Like Contraption for Cars – IOTW Report

1971: GPS-Like Contraption for Cars

Some people are fascinated with this and actually want one.

Others think it’s an impractical and cumbersome mess.

I just like how the guy says, “a cassette of tape.”

Predating that above machine was this device that was like a player piano rolling map.

Gajitz.com

 

Far from today’s GPS gadgets that track your movements from space, this 1932 invention required the driver to pull over and reload the map if he changed routes or turned. Still, it was a novel invention in a time when a huge map unfolded on the dashboard was the previously highest-tech navigation method available.

7 Comments on 1971: GPS-Like Contraption for Cars

  1. I liked the part about changing a circuit board to correspond to the tire size, but uncoupling the speedometer cable to insert in the back of the unit doesn’t seem like a good idea.
    What happens if you want to listen to your latest Who tape?

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  2. Fitting that it is a photo of a VW Bug. Lotsa screwballs drove them back in the days of my youth. Especially the “Popular Science/Popular Mechanics” types.

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  3. He said mileometor, don’t they say and use kilometers in the UK? And that VW beetle is ass backwards with the steering wheel on the right. Oh that’s right the Brits drive on the wrong side of the road and totally on the opposite side from us. If they had NASCAR in the UK would they all drive to the right? I swear it must be opposite day every day in the UK. Of course they’re already living in Bizarro World because of multiculturalism and political correctness.

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  4. We have built in GPS on our Hondas. If we choose not to take the interstate, they keep trying to make is take U turns until we are well past the interstate on ramps. Eventually, it recalculates to our route.

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