I was involved with Trafficmaster in the late development, pre-marketing stage. We all had systems fitted into our vehicles FOC with no subscription so that we could understand and user test the system. At that stage there was no screen, just a button discretely placed and an aerial up the inside of the windscreen on the left. Instructions were given by pushing the button a number of times. The system consisted of various modules that incorporated GPS, mobile phone and memory. The heart of the system was a real time digital map at the base constantly being updated on traffic conditions. This used those little loudspeaker type things that you see on poles, bridges and gantries to monitor traffic volume and speed. A push on the button called the control centre, you told them where you wanted to go and then a route was downloaded to the car that was then guided by spoken instructions.
It was an amazing tool at the time, and very useful so much so that we lent the car to Aussie relatives when they were visiting and they covered around 5k miles using it. All worked well except when they wanted to visit another relative, a serving army officer based at a camp in Nottinghamshire. They got within a mile or two of it when the instructions ceased, apparently the camp was blacked out, as it were, on the system.
The big push was to get it fitted as standard on volume cars. Peugeot and one or two others did in fact do that but of course it was overwhelmed by standalone systems. Fascinating to see how the technology evolved so rapidly.
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Early Sat Nav new
Early Sat Nav new
