Etak

Etak, Inc. was an independent US-based vendor of automotive navigation system equipment, digital maps, and mapping software. It was founded in 1983.[1] Competitor Navteq was founded in 1985.[2]

Its original headquarters were in Sunnyvale, but the company later moved to 1430 O'Brien Drive (View on OpenStreetMap) in Menlo Park, California. The company finally ceased to exist under the name "Etak" shortly after its acquisition by Tele Atlas in 2000. In its time, it was a pioneer in commercializing automotive navigation systems and digital mapping, technologies that have since entered the mainstream.[3]

Founding of the company

Etak's initial start-up funding came from Nolan Bushnell, famous for starting Atari and Chuck E. Cheese's Pizza Time Theater.[4] [Co-founder Stan Honey] was doing military-related research at SRI International in 1983 when he sailed with Pong inventor and Atari founder Nolan Bushnell to victory in a Transpac race. Bushnell was impressed with Honey's navigational electronics and asked whether he had any other ideas. Honey suggested a car navigation system. Bushnell gave him $500,000 in seed money, and digital-mapping firm Etak (named after a Polynesian term for navigation) was born.[5]

Etak's Navigator was the first commercially available automotive navigation system of any practical significance.

Etak Navigator

Etak's initial product, the Navigator, was introduced in 1985. This system was the precursor to today's GPS-based automotive navigation systems, many of which trace a direct line of descent to Etak's technology.

The original Etak Navigator was a specially-packaged Intel 8088-based system with 256K RAM, 32K EPROM, 2K SRAM, and a cassette tape drive on which digital maps and some of the operating system were stored. The tapes could not hold much information, so for the Los Angeles area, for example, three to four tapes were required. When an edge of the map was reached, the driver needed to change cassette tapes to continue benefitting from the accuracy of map-matching. The system had a tape drive that was designed to be installed within easy reach of the driver, so this could be done while driving. The map moved on the screen as the car was driven, but instead of the color raster graphics display of today's systems it had a green vector display.

The Navigator featured address geocoding. It worked by using a digital compass mounted somewhere in the car (typically inside the headliner) and two wheel sensors mounted on the non-driven wheels (with magnetic strips installed on the wheel rims themselves). The system used map-matching augmented dead reckoning.[10] The user entered the location of the car where it was first installed, and took it on a short calibration drive. From then on, the system self-corrected: error accumulated through dead reckoning could usually be reduced by checking to see whether the current location and direction of movement corresponded to a street in the map data.

The move to digital mapping

The Navigator enjoyed a brief vogue, selling a few thousand units in a few years, and even finding its way to the dashboard of pop star Michael Jackson.[11] It also appeared in a 1991 feature film "Nothing But Trouble", shown being used in a BMW by Chevy Chase and Demi Moore (albeit with a color display).

However, Etak did not have the financial resources for mass production of improved models of the Navigator. In 1985, Etak had entered into an exclusive agreement with General Motors, under which they would have to continue paying Etak a certain minimum amount regardless of whether GM's Delco Electronics division fielded a car navigation product.

Etak stopped making its own hardware and focused more on digital mapping technology with its Etak Maps and EtakGuide products. The transition away from automotive navigation engineering activities was gradual. Etak licensed its car navigation technology to other companies, notably Clarion in Japan, Bosch (Blaupunkt) in Germany (as the TravelPilot), as with Delco earlier.[12] Etak continued to provide engineering support for the productization efforts of its licensees (except in the case of Delco, from which no product was forthcoming), and continued to develop and support vertical market fleet vehicle applications that used both the original Navigator and the TravelPilot as in-vehicle platforms.

Expansion and consolidation

In 1995, News Corp expanded Etak's field operations unit to more quickly create accurate maps of major US cities. The majority of a second building at 1605 Adams Drive in Menlo Park (around the corner from the first building) was leased by Etak to house a map library, Sun SPARC digitizing stations, and field operations in early 1995. Prior to this, all national field operations were out of the Menlo Park office. Field offices, staffed by between 6 and 16 personnel, were opened in (in order of opening): Detroit, New York, Los Angeles, Seattle, Washington, D.C., Miami, Chicago, Houston, Atlanta and Orlando.

Starting in 1996, a highways project was started to capture geometry, geo-location, services, and navigation attributes along the interstate and federal and state highway systems. Under Sony's ownership, urban core projects were started in 1997 in Portland, Sacramento, Boston, New York, Las Vegas, San Diego, Dallas, San Antonio, Kansas City, Milwaukee, Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Philadelphia, Indianapolis, and Kokomo, Indiana, due to the agreement with GM's Delphi (formerly Delco) unit.

As the Etak map database was built (on old TIGER files) and updated, the field operations unit reassigned personnel to smaller satellite offices. The Miami field office, blocked by the Orlando office, was shuttered, and its personnel moved to Minneapolis, St. Louis, and Phoenix. In March 1998, the Chicago, Atlanta, Seattle, and Washington D.C. offices were closed, and headcount at remaining offices was reduced. On June 4, 1998, all remaining field offices were closed, marking the end of independent mapping efforts under the Etak banner.

Acquisitions

Etak went through a number of acquisitions. Etak was acquired in 1989 by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. It was during this time that Fox Sports' FoxTrax hockey puck was introduced for use in NHL telecasts, using Etak GPS technology (there is a display in the Etak lobby). News Corporation then sold Etak to Sony Corporation in May 1996.[17] In May 2000, Etak, Inc. was acquired from Sony Corporation by Tele Atlas and became Tele Atlas North America. Etak, Inc. ceased to exist as a separate company soon after.[18]

External links

• "History of Navigation Research" – UC Berkeley
• Car Navigation Systems AUTO-SCOUT, TravelPilot based on ETAK system
• "Unix Benefits Digital Mapping" – UniNews Online Article, undated, describing a presentation on Etak and the GIS market
• Patent References – Previous Art Reference in Patent by Trimble Inc of ETAK Navigator
• "Etak Enhances Its Digital Map Databases Nationwide to Extend Functionality" (Tele Atlas press release), June 7, 1999
• "Article from Royal Institute of Navigation conference in 1985"