Via Hacker News, I found:
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electro_Gyrocator
Quote:
The Electro Gyro-Cator was claimed to be the world's first automated commercially available automotive navigation system.[1][2] It was co-developed by Honda, Alpine,[3][4] and Stanley Electric Co..
Unlike most navigation systems of today, it did not use GPS satellites to maintain its position and discern movement of the vehicle. Rather, it was an inertial navigation system, because it contained a helium gas gyroscope that could detect both rotation and movement. A special servo gear was also attached to the transmission housing to feed information to the Gyro-Cator to help maintain position, map speed and distance traveled.[5]
Transparent maps were placed inside the unit and it would scroll them past a 6 inch monochrome CRT illuminated screen as the car traveled along..... In its only year of production in 1981, it was announced as an option on that year's Honda Accord and Honda Vigor, but at ¥300,000 ($2,746 USD) , it was almost a quarter of the value of the car.
|
In 1981, instead of voice turn-by-turn instructions, you got a tiny monochrome screen to distract you.