When GPS comes in handy

It's nice to have confirmation of where to drive to reach your destination, but it's just as useful to keep track of your estimated arrival time. Time often stretches out better than you think. Then you can take it easy on the road, so that you don't have to wait when you arrive.

 

I think GPS in cars is here to stay. In a few years it will be standard, perhaps even mandatory. Next-generation GPS-based systems can have vital importance for driving, much more than today's systems.

Alarm service

Citroën eTouch connects the GPS with a SIM card. If you need assistance, you do not need to provide any directions. The center knows where your car is. In the event of an accident where the airbags are deployed, the notification occurs automatically. Volvo has a similar system with its OnCall system, and BMW with its ConnectedDrive. Teslas report technical problems to the central office before you discover them yourself.

The problem with these alarm services is that they depend on the car manufacturer's switchboard being manned. And do we really have any guarantee that the emergency centers will give priority to emergency messages conveyed via Citroen and Volvo's SOS center?

Automatic transmission with map reader

BMW is developing a solution to make its 8-speed ZF gearbox read the condition of the road via the car's GPS. With an accuracy of 5 metres, the system can follow the car through bends, up and down hills, through roundabouts, motorway exits and entrances, and so on. The idea behind the project is to get the automatic transmission to set up the gears for active driving, for example downshifting one or two notches before the bend and shifting up in relation to the driver's throttle input, while it follows how the road goes through the bend. Bosch has a project to control the drivetrain of heavy vehicles in relation to the topography to provide optimal fuel economy.

Navigation system controlled by external messages

Today's navigation systems are fairly simple things. The lady on the screen is happy to guide you straight into roadworks, storms or hour-long queues. What we really need the navigation system for is to show where there are problems on the road, and to show alternative road choices. In a few years, the lady on the screen will announce that it is +2 degrees, precipitation in the form of snow and a complete standstill in traffic 25 kilometers further ahead, while you will see an alternative route flashing on the screen.

There are good automatic services to show updated traffic flow where you are. Perhaps most famous is Tomtom's Live Traffic and Google Maps. When I drive in France I use V-Traffic. All show the flow of traffic in real time based on various factors such as road sensors, GPS tracking of cooperating taxis and others who are on the road a lot, and last but not least, tracking signals from users. I have actually checked that the systems are catching the changes as they happen. The problem is that the services are not available where you need them most, on the car's fixed navigation system. In the meantime, you must pick up traffic announcements on the radio or see them in plain text via the car's infotainment system, if there is coverage for it in the country you are driving in. Communicating incidents along the road requires automatic systems. Manual processing takes too long to update. When NRK sends a traffic report about the formation of a queue, the queue has probably already existed for at least half an hour.

From one-way to two-way data traffic

GPS data is one-way traffic. It can only send data to the car. We cannot send anything back to the satellite. If you want to build a smarter navigation system, you need to both send and receive messages to the car. Systems where owners can communicate with their cars, alarm functions and fleet management systems are based on GSM/GPRS, i.e. the mobile phone network. This is best suited for reporting occasional incidents, not for continuous reporting, - partly because of network capacity and partly because of cost. But network capacity is increasing every day while prices are falling.

Do we need continuous transfer of data?

Many envision joint dynamic traffic monitoring sometime in the future, - a service the road authorities facilitate, based on fees paid by car owners. Real-time monitoring systems will force their way along with increasingly self-driving cars. One imagines that the cars send some form of positioning data to a central office, in the same way as in air traffic where all planes are equipped with a transponder that continuously sends radio signals with ID and position. It is not inconceivable that it will be mandated that all cars must have GPS and notify their position on an ongoing basis to a communications centre. Your navigation system will then be able to show what the other cars are doing further down the road, for example that the two cars you meet on the other side of the bend are currently in the middle of an overtaking.

We're not there yet. The biggest obstacle is that no one knows which network will be used to handle the relatively large data traffic that the system will require.

Who supplies the GPS of the future?

Both Google and Apple have stated that they will help deliver new technology in the cars. I assume mobile manufacturers such as Samsung and Nokia will also be involved. At the same time, there is a technology collaboration between several car manufacturers, where one of the purposes is to get car buyers to choose their overpriced fixed navigation solutions. The price means that many car buyers prefer to drive around with a portable Tomtom attached to the windscreen - a solution that costs a fraction of the cost. For some years, Renault has supplied plug-in solutions for Tomtom for its most affordable models. Emphasis has been placed on external navigation devices blending in naturally with the rest of the cabin, which I think Renault has succeeded in doing well.

I don't think Tomtom can be alone in delivering such solutions. It is perhaps primarily Tomtom's customers that Google and Apple will be fighting for, while buyers of more expensive cars will still prefer fixed solutions.

I would not hand over the control of my thinking automaton to Tomtom.

 

Tomtom Live Traffic - shows updated traffic flow where you are

V-Traffic – French system that shows traffic flow in real time

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