Cassettes weren't just for mix tapes, they're also where in-car sat nav started

Satellites? What satellites? All you need is a tape deck.

As we all know from our experience with mobile phones and multimedia systems, technology has come a long way in the past decade. Particularly with cars.

As you’ve probably guessed, it wasn’t always so simple to find your way back in 'the day' before sat nav. Especially as global positioning satellites weren’t even available to the public.

Back in ’71 people had three choices when driving in unknown territory: multitasking with an enormous map, relying on the knowledge of pedestrians, or blindly winging it. Neither of which were in any way foolproof (or stress-free).

As shown by this awesome clip from the BBC series 'Tomorrow’s World' in 1971, in-car navigation systems were already in their infancy.

The prototype was designed to fit any make or model. It could've even been fitted to buses!

Driven by the car’s odometer, this old-school computer navigation system (mounted under the dash) would trigger a pre-recorded instruction from the selected cassette and direct the driver where to turn. Awesome, right?

If you wanted to travel from Sydney, NSW to Mount 'Pannie' in Bathurst, all you’d have to do is pop in the appropriate tape. It was an ingenious solution, if a bit impractical.

You can either hear where you have to go, or listen to The Beatles. Tough choice.

There were a few limitations, the main one being that each trip would be point-to-point. Meaning that if you wanted navigation from Bathurst to Sydney, you’d need an entire tape. Another for Sydney to Melbourne. And so on, and so forth. Soon enough, you'd have a glovebox full of tapes...

Not only that, but the accuracy of each instruction would be dependant on the previous instruction, meaning any wrong turn would effectively cancel, or ‘misalign’, all of the other following instructions.

Additionally, the starting point would have to be a significant landmark in a town or city centre. After all, they were hardly going to mass-produce bespoke destinations.

Even though it was a cool concept, it’s a shame the prototype never caught on.

Nope. I take that back. Google Maps is a million times better.

What modern in-car tech could you not live without? Tell us in the comments.