I love thst their casual example is just a simple 3-4 day drive that's easily done if you know interstates
this post was submitted on 07 Oct 2025
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Tbf, in 1969 I-80 (which would be the majority of the interstate route between Chicago and LA) wasnt remotely finished yet. It wasnt completed until 1986, with the last stretch being finished west of SLC. So in 1969 if you wanted to drive between Chicago and LA, at multiple points you would have not been on an interstate. And most of those points would have been in major urban centers that would have been fairly complicated to navigate if you didnt know them. This hypothetical nav system would have been much easier than whipping out a national road map to figure out how to get from one finished part of the interstate to another when passing through SLC
In this thread: People who don't know what "radio" is.
I'd buy an analog display like that. Badass retro aesthetic!
Back when computers were so big and expensive, it made more sense to essentially use cloud computing rather than try to cram a nav system inside the car.
Is GPS not radio based?
It’s satellite based. Loran-C was an old radio navigation based system
I think the point they're making is that the satellites send radio signals.
Definitely "radio frequency" in the electromagnetic sense but not in the common "radio station you can tune to in a car" sense
Same as in this image. It even says that the signal would be automatically processed by a computer.
All I wanted was a HUD for GPS. I'm sure they have it, but when I drove truck i couldn't find it.
I stand by, give me Bluetooth from my phone to glasses with the ability to stream hud for GPS and translation/captions and this would be moderately popular. Treat it like the visual version of Bluetooth headphones rather than something special.
I want to move from the phone as it is to it as the personal mobile computation hub it's clearly headed towards. Give me computation square that's normally kept in mobile screen but can be put in car or in motorcycle helmet or in desktop computer
An antenna embedded in the road? For every intersection in the country? I can’t fathom how much that would have cost.
Most intersections already have powerlines to them, and a large number also have stop lights. The cost would be a very large number, but compared to the costs we have already spent on the intersection and getting power to it the costs is trivial.
For this system to be practical at all, the antennas would need to be placed well ahead of the intersection or exit/entrance ramp, in order to allow drivers time to get the message and safely prepare to turn. So not at every intersection, for every intersection. Multiple times for all the directions of traffic that would need to use it.
Most rural intersection have zero power, and if they do its solar.
Where are you that rural intersections have power? Because it can’t be NA.
You wouldn't need to install an antenna at every single intersection. A town with zero stoplights is going to be tiny as fuck and everyone will know how to get to the closest highway. From there the route can be established using a roadside antenna.
Power lines run along most rural roads. At least where I have seen rural roads. A few don't have them but in my experience most do. Of course it is whatever voltage the power lines are at, to use it you need a transformer, meter, circuit breakers and whatever.
They won’t even put up lights to make the intersections safe or traffic lights, even though there is “power” and you think they’ll do this? Do I have a bridge to sell you….
There’s a reason those lines aren’t already tapped dude. As I said, they actually use solar for powered stuff when needed, although those lines are there. Just because there’s lines, does in no way mean the intersection is powered. Where did you get this information from?
I never said this was practical. It was an idea that it appears they never tried to make work in the 1960s (guessing age here). It is questionable if it could have been made to work with the technology of the day.
lack of power is not a reason it couldn't have worked.
however, fuck anyone that needs to make the 4th left. they dont deserve to drive.
/s
Also fuck anyone attempting to drive in seattle, but that's redundant given the city's road design
Does that display show "then second right" but the lit up arrow is 2nd left?
Turn left, then second right.
Or maybe the arrow is the first direction, and the words are the second direction to follow
This type of systems works really well for trains.
Technically if it's by radio then it's not SatNav 🙂
Technically, if its SatNav, it's by radio.
Using lasers for satellite communication is hot new thing right now actually. Although not for navigation, lasers' advantages (bandwidth) are not relevant there.