NY TIMES NEWS: "Oldsmobile to offer in-car navigation system this year"

[Michael Rose]

Info-junkies worldwide,

I saw this newspaper article in the New York 
Times.  I am providing it for your information.
It will surely provoke some email conversations
and discussions on the net.  (note: I do not
have affliation with any of these companies,
nor do I endorse any particular products.)

Read on.  It was definitely written for the
general public's reading consumption. :)

Mike

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{reprinted from the New York Times, 1/5/94}

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Oldsmobile to offer in-car 
navigation system this year
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DETROIT - Where is the nearest hospital?  
What is the best way to get from here to 
West Bloomsfield?  How far is Tiger Stadium?

Today, a driver would have to roll down the 
window and ask.  But later this year the car 
itself will be able to answer, complete with 
maps and step-by-step directions -- at least
if the car is an Oldsmobile Eighty-Eight LSS, 
with a US $2,000.00 option called the 
Navigation/Information System.

A small antenna in the car picks up signals 
from satellites launched years ago by the 
Pentagon.  A small computer in the trunck, 
making calculations like a surveyor, triangulates
between the signals to find the car's location.

A gyroscope and the odometer also feed info-
rmation to the computer, allowing dead-reckoning.

The computer knows the names of most streets, 
which streets are one way, where left turns are 
legal, and when a turn is a 90-degree angle or 
when it is sharper or more gentle.

But, driver be warned:  It knows very little 
about U-turns.  Last year, it told a test driver 
in Chicago to make one, and he did, and got a 
ticket, B.L. Porterfield, an Oldsmobile engineer, 
recalled.

The system was designed and first tested in 
California, Porterfield said, and "U-turns are 
popular there, apparently, and legal."

The system is not completely new; some Japanese 
automakers offer similar ones for use in Japan, 
and some after-market systems are available in 
this country.

But the Olds system is the first to be offered 
by a U.S. carmaker.  It combines the features 
of an atlas, a computer, and the yellow pages 
phone book. 

The information appears on a liquid-crystal-
display screen that measures 4 inches diagonally, 
attached to the center of the dashboard on an arm 
like the one that supports a rear-view mirror.

About two-tenths of a mile in advance of each turn, 
a voice that sounds like it was borrowed from a 
child's video game says, "turn left" or "turn right."

Software engineers are still developing a database 
to cover the whole country, but is will soon know 
the way almost everywhere, including all the streets 
in major cities, and thoroughfares down to the county
road in less populous areas.

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