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
"One of the great tragedies of mankind is that morality has been hijacked by religion. So now people assume that religion and morality have a necessary connection."
- Arthur C. Clarke
 |
| 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 ( 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
| Cruise Automation's 'Highway Autopilot' For $10K |
| myCopter Personal Aerial Vehicle (PAV) |
| Spam Autonomous Cars And Philip K. Dick |
| Toyota's Camatte Has William Gibson's Digital Hood |
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> |
|
|
|
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.
|
'I had a small can of powdered alcohol disguised as tooth powder...'
'The jeweled hands clutching drinks (and the unobtrusive inspections with tiny remote-cast snoopers)...'
'It cut her out of the stream of vehicles and reduced the speed of her car...'
'A planet-wide chain of hotels that specialized in non-human service.'
