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GPS Navigation Systems and Data Problems
We have a serious problem brewing with GPS navigation systems for
automobiles and even motorcycles. There are however problems with this
devise as a high tech toy are more serious than you might think. Ask
anyone in a metro area who has bought a new car with one of those cool
GPS upgrades for their SUV or new sports car. We have had our customers
complain (customers of the carwash business, which is my profession). Oh
they love the gadget, but they are under whelmed by the lack of data and
streets, which are not listed. You see we have been seeing incredible
suburban growth in many cities. Places near large DMA metros are a
problem out in the middle class suburbs. In many areas such as outside
Chicago, Los Angeles, San Diego, Phoenix, Las Vegas, Seattle, Portland,
Denver, Dallas, Houston, Austin, San Antonio, Nashville, Kansas City,
Minneapolis, Columbus, Cleveland, Baltimore, Jacksonville, Tampa Bay,
Miami, Orlando, Atlanta, DC Subs, etc. And in NJ, NC, NV, OH lots of
other fast growing growth pockets.
When GPS devises for cars first hit the scenes at the CES and SEMA shows
in 1996, they became increasingly more popular, powerful and better data.
But like VHS and Beta, Apple and IBM, competition became increasingly
greater causing much consolidation in the industry along with patent
fights. Much of the technology was former Defense Contractors peddling
their wares through subsidiary consumer level companies. But the tight
market remained due to the costs. Meanwhile companies like DeLorme and
others tried to flood the market with low priced GPS units, which made
things even more competitive. And the bugs were not fully out of the
system yet. Someday all cars will drive themselves and people can watch
TV, do video conferencing and use their transportation as a portable
office or entertainment system while they are being driven to the
location they have punched into their computer. Some things will have to
occur before this is a reality of course. But eventually your dexterity
skills to actually pilot a car will be worthless and un-needed.
First the satellites will need to be laser aligned and use multiple
satellites to get absolute locations of ground items and vehicles. The
cars will need to have additional anti collision devises made up of
networked sonar and optic flow sensors. All of which are now available
and the technology is getting better and better. Many military
applications today will be civilian tomorrow. Just like Radar, Microwave
ovens, Nuclear Energy, Cellular Phones, Satellite Communication and Jet
Aircraft in Commercial Aviation. The flow of transportation will be
brought to the next generation to serve man better.
For the time being the incremental changes in these technologies has hit
a slight road block even though Honda, GM, Ford, Mercedes, Daimler
Chrysler and Toyota have invested billions in anti-collision and safety
devices which they will add comfort and desirable options which they can
sell to customers as upgrades. Smart Car Technologies can add Thousands
of Dollars to the price of a car and consumers are glad to pay for them.
A factory GPS system with display can cost up to $6,000.00 and they sell
a lot of them on the higher end cars. It is a high profit item upgrade,
although there are some, which only cost $1000. And if you wish to
compare these, some are very incredible with many features;
There are many companies, which sell after market computer assist items.
These companies are doing quite well and the systems work great. The big
issue is just because you have a super duper incredible GPS system, does
not mean the street you are looking for is even on the map yet. In other
words it is like using an old map. If you are a studier of maps like I
happen to be, you will see the problem with older maps. Even some
companies keep printing old map data year after year without adding in
new on ramps, city streets, infrastructure freeway improvements and
ring-roads, it is aggravating for those from out of town. Even more
aggravating looking for an address or street in a new housing tract,
which you can see but the devise insists, does not exist? Then there are
problems in areas like Cape Coral, FL and Tehachapi, CA or El Paso, TX
and Knoxville, TN where the roads have been scraped and ready to put in
or put in but do not connect or have nothing there yet. Of course it is
very aggravating to see a road and try to go down it and find it is a
dirt road that connects to nothing yet or an entire sub-division that
does not exist? Is it a Mirage? If so where is the white Tiger Show?
Jack Dangermond of ESRI had set up entire networks of software makers who
developed data for their awesome software products for GPS and GIS needs.
Used by government, military, utility companies, transportation
companies, private companies with GPS units to sell to the public, First
Responders and school districts for buses. After the Dot Com crash those
software companies were among some of the survivors, but had
significantly cut costs. Thus without the proper data the GPS systems
bought by the upper, upper-middle and middle class for their cars were
not always good enough to support the price point for the newest
technology. This is especially upsetting since the upper, upper-middle
and middle class citizens who pay the most taxes live in the suburbs for
the most part. The chances of a middle class American; who bought a home
during the 3 years last housing boom; not being able to find their house
or street on their new GPS devise is a higher probability then them
actually finding it. We interviewed one man who bought a new Nissan
Sports car.
Who lives in a newer developed area in the higher end Las Vegas, Clark
County Suburbs, which only had the main streets on his GPS and had huge
blank spots on his device? Some GPS devices allow the user to choose a
satellite vendor and data vendor and software, but many of the Factory
units do not. People think they are getting something really good and
then find they cannot use it to navigate, which would really piss you off
considering you may have paid as much as $6,000 for the unit. Even more
dangerous is the information we learned from an EMT ambulance driver in
Dallas area who told us of looking for streets for 15-20 minutes after
battling through suburban gridlock to get to where they thought it might
be. 3G cell phone technology may assist for those using cell phones to
call in data to the dispatches. For all the training we are doing across
this nation for first responders and on-going education of police, fire,
Hazmat, etc. it appears that we have forgotten the problems of the
system. Any time you build a system to serve humankind you must make it
simple and make it work, that should be the first, the very first
priority, then you can fix all the other issues.
With that said we interviewed a lady recently one evening who had a hell
of a long day working for the Metro Police Departments Central Nervous
System. The communications center and dispatch is to what we are
referring. Although she was unaware of the problem at the center for bad
data or missing data in the system, she could not say how they were able
to get the information. Luckily serving a metro area they are probably
connected to the planning departments computer, which they should be. And
if the police department has the new data and no problem in this case,
why have the software vendors not been able to access the data? It is a
safety issue if someone with a GPS system pulls out a map and tries to
read it while driving in an area they are not familiar with. It is
guaranteed that in the history of the automobile in this country more
people have been in serious traffic accidents from trying to read maps,
than talking on cell phones, although cell phones no doubt a contributing
factor in many lesser accidents will eventually pass this figure. Where
the streets are, well frankly I cannot understand the need to keep this a
secret unless it is the layout of Area 51, Prison, Power plant, Pentagon
grounds, Military Bases, etc. If the emergency first responders divisions
and contractors would share the data, there might be less accidents and
they maybe able to get some assistance from the public being the eyes and
ears
and also perhaps they could in fact use the idea of Smart Virtual Mobile
Communities or FlashMob scenarios since budgets are strapped as the
National Security "Red-Orange-Yellow-High-Risk-Danger-Days" come with
high frequency, more police and first responders are on duty and that
costs money. Without significant inflows the coverage of the Grid of a
city is in jeopardy of slower response times. Fast response times are the
easiest way to keep the peace, everyone, which gets away can cause
problems another day and of course in case of International Terrorist
Attacks.
It is essential to have the data for these devises and everyone is better
served when communication flows. GPS units provide that and the data
should be readily available and probably it is best to have the cities
using the same formats as first responders and the same data can be used
for utilities, consumers, military and even census data or academia
studying urban sprawl and growth rates to have infrastructures ready
during expansion. Things like water and energy, which has obviously been
a major focus here.
There needs to be a nationwide coordinated effort to see that such data
is filtered into the private sector, because as it stand the companies
have been hammered in the industry and cannot perform the services to
bring this stuff to market. Communication is important for government and
citizen a like, increased efficiencies in business will save the
government money and provide additional tax base and funds on the income
of such businesses utilizing such data, as well as save money and time
for all the government services discussed above. If we want a screaming
economy we ought to be thinking how we can streamline and accelerate the
flow of information to increase efficiencies and allow a small portion of
the gain from the expanded pie to continue the growth. In other words, we
make it easier for the Florist to deliver, the school buses to pick up
more kids per hour and the soccer mom to take more kids to practice and
still have time left to shop all of which serves man. The digital GIS
divide is as important for our economy as the Digital Internet Divide.
Kids in sports do less drugs, become more competitive, have higher work
ethics and soccer moms can help keep the retail economy going. Every time
you ease the flow, more things are possible. The exponential increase in
American productivity is needed to offset the time lost in traffic and
congestion. GIS-GPS systems can help in any emergency or simply driving
around town getting things done to check off one's list for the day.
Billy Bert writes for http://www.surevehicletracking.info where you can
find out more about cheap hotels and other topics.
About the Author
Billy Bert writes for http://www.surevehicletracking.info where you can
find out more about cheap hotels and other topics.
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