The long, winding, technological road to GPS in every car
GPS at your fingertips may now be ubiquitous, but it took a convergence of tech over decades. …
reader comments
32 with 21 posters participating
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No, your eyes don’t deceive you, the Model 3’s interior really is that minimalist outside of its prominent screen. The seats are comfortable but lack side support. Quality is improved on the Model S and X, but I can’t get over how cheap and aftermarket the steering wheel feels.
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At night the UI switches to dark mode.Jonathan Gitlin
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The map shows you if there are any Superchargers on or near your route (the red symbols with the white lightning bolt).Jonathan Gitlin
Have you ever gotten lost while driving? Probably not recently thanks to GPS navigation.
The touchscreen navigation/infotainment system in every new car or truck that some colloquially refer to as “the GPS” is technology that we take for granted today. In fact, it’s so ubiquitous, it’s hard to imagine new vehicles without them (though such vehicles did exist—people used maps and turntables). But the road to today’s navigation touchscreens is a winding one marked by a trio of evolving technologies that developed over decades. It took a while before these innovations came together to ultimately doom the humble—not to mention difficult to read and refold—road map.
The next time you don’t know how to get somewhere and have to rely on maps embedded on your car’s display, you can thank the atomic clock, the satellite constellations powering actual global positioning systems, and the humble touchscreen.
