Latest By
Category:


Armor
Artificial Intelligence
Biology
Clothing
Communication
Computers
Culture
Data Storage
Displays
Engineering
Entertainment
Food
Input Devices
Lifestyle
Living Space
Manufacturing
Material
Media
Medical
Miscellaneous
Robotics
Security
Space Tech
Spacecraft
Surveillance
Transportation
Travel
Vehicle
Virtual Person
Warfare
Weapon
Work

"As opposed to illiteracy, where you can't read, aliteracy means that you can but you just can't be bothered. They say aliteracy is on the rise these days."
- Peter Watts

Auto-Navigation  
  Automatic car navigation, provided on a video console in the dashboard.  

This is a very early instance of the idea of having a navigation screen in the middle of your dashboard that shows your current location, and which allows you to enter the coordinates of your desired destination.

…he lighted his destination screen and turned the knob that shifted the broadcast map. Left to right, top to bottom, section to section he shifted it, until he located the portion of Carnegi Avenue he desired. He punched out its coordinates and lowered the wheel.
From The Dream Master, by Roger Zelazny.
Published by Ace Books in 1966
Additional resources -

Compare this idea with the Camden Speedster from Methuselah's Children, a 1941 novel by Robert Heinlein. The Speedster can drive itself, but you can't actually set a destination.

Here's a picture of my very own auto-navigation system, on my Toyota Camry hybrid:

Now, if somebody would just come out with a system that lets the car drive itself to the destination, that would be great.

Hey, what do you know, there's the Google's autonomous self-driving car.

Comment/Join this discussion (BACK ON!) ( 0 ) | RSS/XML | Blog This |

Additional resources:
  More Ideas and Technology from The Dream Master
  More Ideas and Technology by Roger Zelazny
  Tech news articles related to The Dream Master
  Tech news articles related to works by Roger Zelazny

Articles related to Vehicle
BMW Plans Fully Autonomous Cars By 2025
EU Parliament Requires Electric Cars To Make Noise
Pepper The Parrot's Bird Buggy
Tesla Model S Declared Car Of The Year By Motor Trend

Want to Contribute an Item? It's easy:
Get the name of the item, a quote, the book's name and the author's name, and Add it here.

<Previous
Next>

Google
  Web TechNovelgy.com   

 

 

Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Invention Timeline, or see what's New.

 

 

 

 

More News

MIT Robot Cheetah Video Shows Gait Transition
'The legs are long, curled way up to deliver power, like a cheetah's.'

TrackingPoint Smart Rifle
Not your typical 'smart bullet' approach.

Sky City's 220 Stories Are Go
'It rested among green parklands and... stood in total isolation, a glittering block of whites and flashing windows dotted with colors.'

CARMAT Bioprosthetic Total Human Heart Replacement
'George Walt's corporate existence proved the workability of wholly mechanical organs...'

Personal Sniffer Robots
'...The ticking combinations of the olfactory system of the hound.'

Physical Exam? We've Got Apps
See the future of handheld, personal medical devices.

The Interplanetary Internet, Vint Cerf Speaking
'This was the center of Interplanetary Communications.'

Drosophila Robotica, The Mechanical Fly
'... the Scarab [flying robot] buzzed into the great workroom as any intruding insect might...'

Robo-Raven Flapping Wing Robot Bird
'When he had first built them, they had been crude indeed, flying mechanisms with little more than a reflex-response unit.'

More SF in the News

More Beyond Technovelgy

Home | Glossary | Invention Timeline | Category | New | Contact Us | FAQ | Advertise |
Technovelgy.com - where science meets fiction™

Copyright© Technovelgy LLC; all rights reserved.