Changing technologies - the CD in the car is turning 30 and probably not much older ...
The CD slots in the dashboard and the changers in the boot or glove compartment will soon have disappeared from the car world. Yet the technology in cars is not even quite 30 years old.
In fact, the compact disc was introduced for home use in 1982, and initially the repertoire consisted of just under 100 tracks. The devices were comparatively expensive and offered little convenience. Manufacturers soon began to work on portable devices and the use in cars was also an interesting area of business.
In 1984, the first prototypes for vehicle installation were shown around. Panasonic (picture of the prototype above), for example, invited journalists to demonstrations at the 1984 Geneva Motor Show . The Automobil Revue wrote at the time in No. 12/1984:
"Still in the prototype stage was the compact-disc player for the car that Panasonic presented in its demonstration room. It is not yet known when and at what price the "Car Audio Compact Disc Player" will be available on the market; however, it is known from other manufacturers who are also working on this development that the problems associated with a compact disc player in the car (vibrations, temperature differences, low supply voltage, interference from other electrical devices) are quite considerable."
In the same year, however, the first commercial installation solutions were available for purchase and the triumphal march of the CD player in the car began, while at the same time the compact cassette was displaced . The astronomical prices and technical problems were also overcome and by the 1990s at the latest, CD slots were standard equipment in many cars. To this day, however, the better (?) is the enemy of the good, MP3, SD cards and streaming will put an end to the CD in the car, because in the end a rotating disk and a scanning laser is certainly not an optimal solution, especially in a moving and shaking car. But we will still miss them one day.
