Crossword Genius

Monitor what initially Stroud Vehicles takes north (6,7,4)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

visual display unit

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'monitor what initially stroud vehicles' is the definition.
I know nothing about this answer so I cannot tell whether it can be defined by this definition.

'takes north' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'takes' could be 'is' (being is a kind of taking) and 'is' is found in the answer.
'north' could be 'n' (abbreviation) and 'n' is present in the answer.
This explanation may well be incorrect...

Can you help me to learn more?

(Another definition for visual display unit that I've seen is " VDU in full".)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
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