From Chinese Chariots to Smart Cars: 2000 Years of Vehicular Navigation

Robert French

Abstract:	The odometer and differential odometer date back approximately 2,000 years, perhaps 1,000 years before the magnetic compass appeared. Gyroscopic devices were first described in the mid-1800s. Automatic me- chanical route guides, which began appearing around 1910, introduced the concept of real-time turn-by-turn route guidance to early automobile drivers. The first vehicular navigation system to incorporate electronics was developed during World War II. A research proj- ect of the late 1960s established concepts for dynamic route guidance based on real-time traffic conditions. Satellite positioning and digitized road maps also origi- nated in the 1960s. Map matching software for recon- ciling measured vehicle paths with digitized road maps to remove position errors was invented in 1970. Thus the basic technologies were already in place when the microprocessor emerged in the 1970s to facilitate their integration in the sophisticated automobile navigation and route guidance systems that finaly reached the mar- ket in the late 1980s. This paper reviews the historical background and then focuses on the last 25 years during which automobile navigation and route guidance systems achieved a de- gree of technological maturity and blossomed into the centerpiece of the worldwide ITS, known ntil recently as intelligent chicle highway systems (IVHS).
Published in:	Proceedings of the 51st Annual Meeting of The Institute of Navigation (1995) June 5 - 7, 1995 Antlers Doubletree Hotel Colorado Springs, CO
Pages:	137 - 137
Cite this article:	French, Robert, "From Chinese Chariots to Smart Cars: 2000 Years of Vehicular Navigation," Proceedings of the 51st Annual Meeting of The Institute of Navigation (1995), Colorado Springs, CO, June 1995, pp. 137-137.
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