Honda's 1981 Electro Gyrocator: vintage navigation at its finest

If you've balked at the prices automakers are charging for integrated navigation systems, you should really take a look at what ¥300,000 ($2,746) would buy you in 1981. That atrocity you see above was an actual option in Honda's Accord during Ronald Reagan's presidency, and while it didn't sync up with any satellites, it did help to guide you along in some form or another. The Electro Gyrocator, as it was so eloquently named, accepted transparencies of maps and utilized a gas gyroscope that allowed the map to move with the motion of the car and plot your progress. Once a certain map ran out of road, you just popped the next one in and kept on cruisin'. And here we are kvetching about whether our portable navigator has 10 or 11 million POIs...

[Via Autoblog]

[Addy Osmani @ Dec 1st 2007 12:06AM]

Kvetching? Hoi vey.

[I LOVE THE CAPS LOCK KEY @ Dec 1st 2007 12:11AM]

Here it is on Honda's Website:

http://world.honda.com/history/challenge/1981navigationsystem/text/01.html

[I LOVE THE CAPS LOCK KEY @ Dec 1st 2007 12:21AM]

I forgot to mention that Alpine electronics co-developed the Electro Gyrocator

http://www.alpine.com/e/corporate/museum/78.html

[BatteryAcid @ Dec 1st 2007 12:35AM]

Someone should mod this with a modern gps. Sweet tho.

[js @ Dec 1st 2007 12:37AM]

If you think the price is ridiculous, you should see how much Audi charges for their nav system as an additional option...

[Zach @ Dec 1st 2007 1:33AM]

I checked for you. The price is about $2100 for either NAV option.

[kojo87 @ Dec 1st 2007 12:38AM]

looks like something Jackie Chan had in is Subaru from "Cannonball Run"

[Wuju @ Dec 1st 2007 1:02AM]

Wow.. The Cannonball Run... I used to love that movie! Some of the crash scenes in that movie are the best!

[Blake Bowen @ Dec 1st 2007 12:45AM]

I wonder if we could integrate a gyroscope with a GPS to improve the precision.

[Shaun @ Dec 1st 2007 1:59AM]

You can't just put 2 words together and... like... wow. I honestly have no idea how to respond to what you just said.

Maybe if we added spoons and foil to it, it would work better too?

[nimbus3jv @ Dec 1st 2007 7:20AM]

http://www.gpsworld.com/gpsworld/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=154870&sk=&date=&pageID=5

[Mark @ Dec 1st 2007 2:48PM]

"wow. I honestly have no idea how to respond to what you just said."

is that because you're an idiot? he made a perfectly valid point.

[tekdemon @ Dec 1st 2007 6:58PM]

They did that quite a few years ago, with the added benefit of allowing the GPS to estimate where you are even if it loses satellite connectivity.
Dunno if it actually improves accuracy though since GPSes are already very accurate. But it does help if you lose the satellite signals.

P.S. Shaun is an idiot.

[Ian @ Dec 1st 2007 7:44PM]

What you're looking for is "inertial guidance" to supplement the GPS. While they don't use a gyro, most NAV systems already do this with a compass and the speed of the vehicle to make do when the GPS signal is lost. Aircraft used inertial guidance before GPS. The German V2 rocket used a primitive gyro based inertial guidance solution.

And it is a valid idea. So the tool above can just stuff it.

[kastonie @ Dec 1st 2007 12:53AM]

HOLY SHIV!!!

[Sauerkraut @ Dec 1st 2007 12:57AM]

that is so cool!
this is why I love engadget lol

[Charles @ Dec 1st 2007 1:06AM]

Monstrocity maybe, but atrocity? Hardly. Why the hating on what must have seemed totally beyond cool at the time? True home computing, as we know it today, was just barely on the horizon then and the latest in home gadgets were VCR's the size of small suitcases. Having something like this in your Accord would have passed for truly "cutting edge" and would have seemed like something from the space program to your neighbors wallowing in their Caprice Classic and Coupe DeVille tuna boats...

[alf @ Dec 1st 2007 1:14AM]

We laugh, but the physics behind this thing is used by pilots every day to navigate multi-million dollar aircraft.

[aeo @ Dec 1st 2007 1:35AM]

Haha, yeah that's really lame. I'd never be caught dead... um... do you suppose that would still work with printed-out Google Earth maps?

[Andrew @ Dec 1st 2007 10:27AM]

1981 called. They want their Electro Gyrocator back.

And seriously, why does nobody give shit cool names any more? "Electro Gyrocator" sounds >>> than "GPS".

[dudeInAmerica @ Dec 1st 2007 10:33AM]

..and a few years from now, entire windshields would be navigation aids.

[Scooter @ Dec 1st 2007 8:08PM]

something like, transparent glass that allows you to see where you are going?

[Sam @ Dec 1st 2007 2:14PM]

I highly recommend going through the link that I LOVE THE CAPS KEY has posted above. Some really fascinating articles about Honda's development of various technologies.

This one:

http://world.honda.com/history/challenge/1981navigationsystem/text/01.html

[jason @ Dec 1st 2007 3:56PM]

You kids and your auto-gyros and your microwave ovens!
What will you think of next?!

[Karim @ Dec 1st 2007 8:53PM]

I read the headline as "Electro Gynocator" and though it was a Japanese invention for finding women.

[death @ Dec 9th 2007 12:05PM]

where can i get one?