Never Ask for Directions Again

GPS navigation has to be one of my favorite pieces of car tech. There's nothing better than cruising across the country without having to constantly fight with a map or ask for directions. I installed an aftermarket unit in my motor home before my last cross-country road trip, and that little device was the best co-pilot I've ever had.

It's tough to say who invented the first in-vehicle navigation system, but there were a handful of companies messing around with dead reckoning navigation back in the 1980s. A few of them even used cassette-based data storage, if you can believe that.

Honda had a dead reckoning system all worked out, but all the other OEMs jumped on board when GPS became available. Ford, GM, BMW, and most of the other OEMs offer some type of GPS navigation system. These days, chances are you can find an OEM unit for your car even if it didn't ship with that option from the factory.

Photo courtesy of Robert Couse-Baker