February 15, 2026, 3:13 pm | Read time: 7 minutes
People will remember Otmar Pilsak even 100 years from now, specifically for his invention: the Electronic Traffic Pilot for Drivers, or EVA for short. Little did the trained communications technician know that he would lay the foundation for all future navigation systems. TECHBOOK spoke with Otmar Pilsak about how he and his team developed a functioning navigation system without GPS, mass storage, or mobile communications.
Long before smartphones, GPS, and digital maps became commonplace, an electronic voice guided drivers through German cities. Behind this early vision was an engineer who reimagined navigation with the technical means of his time. A conversation about pioneering spirit, improvisation, and the creation of a system that laid the groundwork for modern navigation.
TECHBOOK: How did the idea to create a navigation system for drivers come about?
Otmar Pilsak: “Drivers back then already faced the problem of getting from A to B as time-efficiently as possible. Of course, there were road maps. However, for longer routes, multiple maps were needed to find the best way to the destination. That was impractical and cumbersome. That’s why I had the idea for a navigation system that would guide drivers through traffic via voice output on the fastest route.”
Blaupunkt Made It Possible
You studied communications engineering. Why did you focus on navigation in road traffic?
“I studied at the Technical University in Aachen at the time. There was a working group called ‘Traffic Control Technology.’ I worked there as a research assistant. The group leader had read a brief note back in 1969 about how a guidance system could theoretically work through information exchange between electronics in the car and on the roadside. Our group leader considered this a promising approach. With a concept for a guidance system based on this idea, we approached Bosch. Through the Bosch brand ‘Blaupunkt,’ the company was already researching in this area. Then the story took its course.”
How did things proceed from there?
“Originally, Bosch and Blaupunkt planned to implement such a guidance system for the West German highway network. However, during a large-scale trial in the eastern Ruhr area, the decision-makers realized that significant time and administrative effort would be required in each federal state. Each state was responsible for installing and covering the costs of the numerous control devices, induction loops, traffic control centers, and power and data lines in its jurisdiction.
Therefore, I was tasked with considering whether a guidance system could be realized without extensive infrastructure. This led to the concept for the EVA system, which Blaupunkt filed for a patent at the German Patent Office in 1979 under the name ‘Vehicle Device for Guidance.’ EVA was initially to be tested only in West Berlin due to its insular location at the time. However, due to the high effort, it was decided to test the EVA system in Hildesheim, Blaupunkt’s headquarters, to demonstrate the feasibility of the concept.”
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Costs and Challenges
A quick question: How do you invent something that doesn’t yet exist? You had no reference points to build on.
“I always compare it to the work of an architect. They keep building new houses that didn’t exist in that form before. However, they know building materials, windows, heating systems, outlets, and doors. It was similar for us back then. There were small storage elements, microprocessors, as well as positioning systems and methods for determining positions, such as dead reckoning from maritime navigation. From this, the idea emerged in the late 1970s to develop a vehicle-autonomous guidance system with a digital map of Hildesheim.”
How did you manage without a scanner?
“Well, first of all, we formed a team. At its peak, we were 13 or 14 people. I took on the team leadership. Therefore, I also handled funding applications. I calculated the total project costs to be 6.1 million Deutsche Marks, which almost exactly matched the actual costs in the end. We financed nearly half of the costs through grants from the Ministry of Research. For digitizing the maps, we obtained all available road maps from the Hildesheim Surveying Office. Then we digitized each map with a digitizer. Back then, it was a pen connected to a computer. Our work involved tracing all the roads on the paper map with the pen. From this, we developed a series of coordinate values that depicted the course of all the roads in Hildesheim. This is how a digital map of Hildesheim was created.”
Why EVA Has a Male Voice
How did you deal with the memory limitations of the time?
“The digital map of Hildesheim required 128 kilobytes. The usual chip memory size back then was two kilobytes. So they were about two million times smaller than today’s standard memory chips. I also estimated the memory needed for West Germany. About 500 megabytes would have been necessary. Because new, more powerful storage media were introduced parallel to our development, such as the audio CD at the 1983 Berlin Radio Exhibition, the idea arose to store a digital map of Germany on a CD. This storage medium would have sufficed. We also faced another storage problem. The voice output required memory as well. In the original considerations, we thought of a female voice. That made sense with the name EVA. Unfortunately, the memory requirement for high-pitched female voices is greater than for deep male voices. Due to storage restrictions, EVA sounds male.”
Around the same time, in 1983, you and your team presented the first EVA prototype. What feelings do you recall from that time?
“The whole media frenzy was quite exciting. Blaupunkt had invited all sorts of press representatives to the EVA presentation. The news magazine ‘Stern’ published the first article titled: ‘EVA tells you where to go.’ Later, more reports followed on TV and radio.”
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Between Pressure and Belief in Success
During which phases of EVA’s development did you and your team feel like giving up?
“For my team and me, I can say that we were convinced of our project’s success from the start. Blaupunkt got nervous at times. I could understand that because, parallel to our development work, other companies in Europe, Japan, and the U.S. were also working on a functioning navigation system. This added some pressure. But we didn’t let it affect us too much because we were confident in our system.”
Mr. Pilsak, how do you feel knowing that EVA has secured you a permanent place in the history books? Your name will forever be associated with the invention of the first navigation system.
“Oh, honestly, I’ve never really thought about it. Of course, it makes me proud. However, I’m also aware that such a development requires a lot of luck. I always quote the saying ‘dwarfs standing on the shoulders of giants.’ It dates back to the 12th century and is attributed to the philosopher Bernard of Chartres. This metaphorical comparison applies to all inventions because new things always build on the insights of others. That’s how I see it. Without the many contributions of previous generations of inventors, we wouldn’t have been able to build EVA.”
Further Information on EVA
For those interested in learning more about how EVA works, the Bosch website offers a background story on the first navigation system’s functionality. By the way, EVA was filed for a patent by Otmar Pilsak in 1979. However, the patent was not granted until 1987.