Tag archive: GPS

Tom Tom has decided to get into the insurance game, but not by offering policies. The GPS company has partnered with insurance broker Motaquote for a new venture called Fair Pay Insurance. Tom Tom will be providing the technology behind the new product, which will base its insurance premiums on how well you drive instead of typical baselines like age, gender, and profession.  Those who sign up for the plan will be issued a Tom Tom PRO 3100… Read More

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? Nope, it's an unmanned drone! Congress today approved a bill that allows unmanned aircraft to fly in the same airspace as commercial airliners, private planes, and cargo jets. The legislation allocates $63.4 billion over the next three and a half years to the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), $11 billion of which will be used to update air traffic control systems at 35 US airports to handle the… Read More

Would-be LTE network operator LightSquared is claiming tests that found its satellite-based LTE network interfered with GPS signals were rigged, with GPS “industry insiders” colluding with government officials to craft tests that LightSquared was guaranteed to fail, then conducting those tests behind closed doors. Last month, tests conducted by the National Space-Based Positioning, Navigation, and Timing Systems Engineers Forum… Read More

Dutch GPS maker TomTom says it has been cleared any wrongdoing in an official government investigation looking into whether it passed its customers' location and traffic information to third parties in violation of Dutch data protection laws. The controversy arose last April amid reports the company had been selling information gathered from customers' GPS navigation devices without their consent—including offering that… Read More

While some GPS-makers might see the staggering prevalence of smartphones as a bad thing, Garmin is harnessing their ubiquity to make their own products better. Yesterday, Garmin announced the release of Smartphone Link, a companion app for Android devices that allows its Bluetooth-enabled personal navigation devices (PNGs) to gather live traffic and weather data over users' wireless network. Smartphone Link also includes some nifty… Read More

Despite a downturn in the GPS market over the last two year, TomTom is driving forward. At the 2012 Consumer Electronics Show, the company announced that it plans to release a new version of its app for iPhone and iPad that includes full Facebook and Twitter integration. The company also unveiled plans to streamline its product lineup. Like the currently-available version of TomTom's iOS app, the new version doesn't require a mobile… Read More

Consumers' embrace of smartphones is taking a bite out of many electronics categories—like point-and-shoot cameras, MP3 players, and GPS units. However, GPS maker Garmin is convinced there's still a market for dedicated navigation systems, today announcing its new flagship nüvi 3500 GPS series. The units sport a large 5-inch touchscreen display, a super-slim design, and are packed with premium features like Digital 3D… Read More

Earlier this week, up-and-coming wireless service operator LightSquared was rocked by reports that government testing found that its proposed LTE service caused significant interference with three-quarters of general-purpose GPS receivers; today, the report from the National Executive Committee for Space-Based Positioning, Navigation, and Timing has been officially released, and finds LightSquared's service interferes with something more… Read More

Earlier this week, Google successfully acquired a patent that enables self-driving automobiles to find an available parking space and automatically park the car after arriving at the destination. Otherwise known as the “landing strip”, the patent diagram shows a sensor embedded in the ground at the parking location as well as a QR code to scan. The self-driving car is able to communicate with the sensor and come to a complete stop… Read More

Based out of Sunnyvale, California, location-based services company Telenav announced the development of software that allows the use of turn-by-turn driving directions within any HTML5 browser on a mobile device like a smartphone or a tablet. The browser-based, full color map service can be embedded on a Web page and will include features like voice prompts at turns as well as rerouting automatically when a turn on the map is missed. The… Read More

Good, rational decisions are rarely born out of fear. Yesterday, the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) met to discuss a massive collision involving “two school buses, a bobtail, and a passenger vehicle” back on Aug. 5, 2010 in Missouri. This collision was caused by a truck driver who was texting while driving. While there is no doubt that texting or reading anything on your phone is a bad idea and a ban on it is probably a… Read More

These days, GPS positioning is a fact of life for many people. GPS receivers are built into everything from phones to tablets to cameras, and standalone GPS devices loaded with maps continue to be popular with travelers (as well as hikers, pilots, and boaters). These days most vehicles come with at least an option for built-in satellite navigation. The idea of going somewhere without satellite positioning and maps at your fingertips — or… Read More

Aspiring LTE provider LightSquared may have hoped to put GPS interference problems behind it by switching to a spectrum block controlled by Inmarsat, but Bloomberg reports that it's not quite out of the woods yet. Tests by the U.S. government conducted in at the beginning of November found that LightSquared's proposed mobile broadband service caused harmful interference with three quarters of GPS units it tested. The report will… Read More

Google Maps has been helping us navigate unfamiliar terrain for ages now. It’s been integrated into various applications we use daily, and for many of us it is our de facto smartphone GPS system. And now it’s taking us inside. Or at least it will for Android users. Google Maps 6.0 for Android launched today with functionality to help you tour the indoors. “Detailed floor plans automatically appear when you’re viewing the map and zoomed in on a… Read More

A year after MyFord Touch launched last fall, Ford has announced that it is rolling out a major upgrade to the in-vehicle information system. MyFord Touch is a touchscreen system that debuted on the Ford Edge, and quickly appeared as a standard feature on other higher-end models (like the Explorer and Focus) as well as select Lincoln models under the name MyLincoln Touch. Built on the Microsoft Sync technology Ford has been offering for four… Read More