Article here - I had no idea (or I had utterly forgotten) this system existed. Very Interesting article. How a group of engineers and entrepreneurs made a Pre-GPS system that worked and how a lot of the mathematics and engineering used in that system were used in the subsequent GPS systems.
Huh. I worked for Etak around 1995-1996, but with no knowledge of the history of the company. It was just one of a string of “GIS technician” jobs I had that decade. I input the data that was sent in by the “field capture” team - the people who drove around different cities and made notes on a map saying that in Dallas at such-and-such an intersection, there was no left turn allowed between 9am and 3 pm.
I don’t believe I ever saw the product. I didn’t even have a drivers license when I was hired there.
I do hope they used the LORAN-C beacons - the units to interpret the signals didn’t become affordable for civilians until the 1970’s, and by 1996 or so, additional stations had been added so that it became functional for aircraft.
Of course, by the time the Fed’s decided who owned the system and whose budget would pay, etc., GPS was out. It was the aviation people who came up with WAAS as a means to improve the (then only) non-precise GPS signal to get a fix on runways.
Around the same time frame, Philips developed the CARIN vehicle navigation system (it was a dead reckoning system that used local maps on CD ROM discs). as far as i know, it was never marketed to consumers.
Thanks for sharing that article! During the '90s I worked at both Etak and their map-making competitor down the road Navigation Technologies (AKA Navtech, and now Navteq). Altho years after the initial development of the Navigator, there was still a great sense of entrepreneurship at these small companies. I worked in digital map maintenance, as well as the field data capture unit. It’s possible troubledwater used some of my field maps!
Later in the 90s, Etak had also developed technology that allowed for capturing accurate location of streets just by driving them, with cameras that snapped photos of traffic signs along the way - precursor for the Google cars you may see today.
The digital map-making industry at that time was so small that there seemed to always be people around like me who had worked for both companies, and there was a friendly competition - as I recall the annual “Tech-Tak” touch football game.
