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Personal Devices · Recorded milestone

Portable sat-nav

Recorded year1998

A dashboard gadget with a map screen and a calm voice gives turn-by-turn directions anywhere, so drivers no longer need a road atlas.

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Built on

Shortest-path algorithmRecorded · 1959enables
TouchscreenRecorded · 1965enables
Flash memoryRecorded · 1984enables
Handheld GPS receiverRecorded · 1989enables
Digital street map of a nationRecorded · 1990enables
GPSRecorded · 1995enables

Led to

Free turn-by-turn on phonesRecorded · 2009enables

Sources & evidence

Additional source

Dataset updated 2026-10-18. This individual record has not been separately re-reviewed.