# Fascinating article about ETAK the pre-GPS Automobile navigation system **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 28, 2015, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fascinating-article-about-etak-the-pre-gps-automobile-navigation-system/723713 "2015-06-28T17:13:22Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2015, 5:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fascinating-article-about-etak-the-pre-gps-automobile-navigation-system/723713/1 "2015-06-28T17:13:22Z")
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. Worth a read! [Who Needs GPS? The Forgotten Story of Etak’s Amazing 1985 Car Navigation System](http://www.fastcompany.com/3047828/who-needs-gps-the-forgotten-story-of-etaks-amazing-1985-car-navigation-system?partner=themost&utm_source=themost&utm_medium=link) With backing from Atari’s cofounder, an engineer-navigator brought high-tech driving directions to cars—during the Reagan Administration. > [@](#): > > Thirty years ago, a company called Etak released the first commercially available computerized navigation system for automobiles. Spearheaded by an engineer named Stan Honey and bankrolled by Nolan Bushnell, the cofounder of Atari, the company’s Navigator was so far ahead of its time that the phrase “ahead of its time” seems like an understatement ---
**Author:** ![troubledwater](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f4b2a3/32.png) [@troubledwater](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/troubledwater)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2015, 1:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fascinating-article-about-etak-the-pre-gps-automobile-navigation-system/723713/2 "2015-06-29T01:22:41Z")
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. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![friedo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8edcca/32.png) [@friedo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/friedo)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2015, 4:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fascinating-article-about-etak-the-pre-gps-automobile-navigation-system/723713/3 "2015-06-29T04:06:39Z")
Fantastic read, thanks for sharing. (Am I lame because I also really want to check out that cover story on [14 ingenious fasteners that I didn’t know I needed?](http://e.fastcompany.net/multisite_files/fastcompany/imagecache/inline-small/inline/2015/06/3047828-inline-etak-popsci.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![usedtobe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ec9cab/32.png) [@usedtobe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/usedtobe)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2015, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fascinating-article-about-etak-the-pre-gps-automobile-navigation-system/723713/4 "2015-06-29T05:25:37Z")
I do hope they used the [LORAN-C](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/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. ---
**Author:** ![Darryl\_Lict](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7cd45c/32.png) [@Darryl\_Lict](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darryl_Lict)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2015, 7:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fascinating-article-about-etak-the-pre-gps-automobile-navigation-system/723713/5 "2015-07-03T07:16:33Z")
> [@friedo](#): > > Fantastic read, thanks for sharing. (Am I lame because I also really want to check out that cover story on [14 ingenious fasteners that I didn’t know I needed?](http://e.fastcompany.net/multisite_files/fastcompany/imagecache/inline-small/inline/2015/06/3047828-inline-etak-popsci.jpg) By the miracle of Popular Science archives, here you go: [http://www.popsci.com/archive-viewer?id=kAAAAAAAMBAJ&pg=80&query=etak](http://www.popsci.com/archive-viewer?id=kAAAAAAAMBAJ&pg=80&query=etak) ---
**Author:** ![ralph124c](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/8797f3/32.png) [@ralph124c](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ralph124c)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2015, 11:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fascinating-article-about-etak-the-pre-gps-automobile-navigation-system/723713/6 "2015-07-03T11:51:29Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![snowthx](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/snowthx/32/10660_2.png) [@snowthx](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snowthx)\ **Post date:** [July 3, 2015, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fascinating-article-about-etak-the-pre-gps-automobile-navigation-system/723713/7 "2015-07-03T12:46:17Z")
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.