Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) is a global positioning system used for terrestrial, airborne and waterborne navigation on Earth, broadcasting signals with accurate location and time data. The positing system is composed of four systems GPS (USA), GLONASS, (Russian Federation), Galileo (EU) and BeiDou (PRC). Right now, the technology is widely applied for vehicle location and in-vehicle navigation.
Ensuring the network’s reliability can be a challenge, particularly in rural or remote areas that still experience no or poor band coverage. Non-terrestrial networks can have a crucial role in deploying hybrid connectivity solutions for the car of the future. In the Connectivity for the Car of the Future Symposium, hosted 5G Automotive Association (5GAA), Elodie Viau, Director, Telecommunications and Integrated Applications Directorate, ESA indicated that satellites and space-based technologies are key assets to complete terrestrial networks, build smart and hybrid systems and offer ubiquitous, secure, and sustainable connectivity.¹
Rise in demand for vehicles with advanced safety and navigation features, increase in demand for reliable real-time traffic information, rapid development of connected cars, and increase in adoption of car sharing & ride hailing services are factors driving the growth of the car GPS navigation system market. Car sharing and ride hailing service are on the rise due to environmental concerns associated with vehicle emissions, reduced costs, and increase in savings, thereby increasing the demand for advanced car GPS navigation system.
According to EUSPA EO and GNSS Market Report², the global installed base of GNSS devices is expected to reach over 10 billion units by 2031. Road and Consumer solutions dominate all other market segments in terms of cumulative revenue with a combined total of 90% for the forecasting period 2021 to 2031. In the road sector, most revenues are generated by devices used for navigation (IVS), emergency assistance, ADAS as well as fleet management applications (including insurance telematics). The growing adoption and integration of In-vehicle Systems amongst new car shipments pushes the share of the Road and Automotive segment amongst the global installed base of GNSS devices from 9% in 2021 to 12% in 2031.
Enhanced fleet management efficiency
GPS is one of the most popular navigation system, and fleet management is one of the important applications. GPS tracking technology helps fleets improve routing to meet increasing customer demands and home deliveries. Fleet tracking technology also helps fleets fight ever-rising costs by improving productivity and maintenance, and decreasing accident, labor and fuels costs.
More than two-thirds of respondents used in-cab video to improve driver safety and protect themselves from false claims. Coupled with AI technology as well as both road-facing and driver-facing cameras, video telematics gives fleet managers more visibility by providing a virtual ride-along. If the crashes do happen, recording the incident reduces false claims that in turn can cause premiums to skyrocket. With fewer crashes and false claims, video telematics helps reduce accident costs and keep insurance premiums in check. According to 2022 Fleet Technology Trends Report³, among transportation and distribution respondents who use GPS fleet tracking, 44% improved routing and 57% improved customer service. In the government industry, 83% of respondents said fleet technology helps protect their organization from false claims. On average, respondents using the GPS tracking technology reported that 10% decrease in fuel costs, 14% decrease in accident costs, and 10% decrease in labor costs.
Railway operators and infrastructure managers benefit from the freight tracking application improve asset management and maintenance, thereby reducing the operational costs. The operators are deploying real-time remote diagnostics monitoring systems to collect of data such as the loading of wagons, within-wagon temperature and humidity, and the position and condition of cargo and rolling stock. The data and analysis are helpful to increase rail freight efficiency, and planning of preventive maintenance.
GNSS may be used to increase the capacity of the railway network by allowing the development of future train operations such as moving block or virtual coupling. It can also ensure fail-safe train location and location integrity. For example, this allows a reduction in trackside location equipment such as the replacement of physical beacons with virtual ones, or the introduction of a multi-sensor data fusion algorithm to compute a continuous and accurate train position.
Railway stakeholders benefit from predictive maintenance that allows the infrastructure managers to react before traffic interruptions occur, and from asset management that allows them to increase reliability, availability and efficiency alongside reducing operational cost. Passengers or freight customers benefit from location-based applications such as enhanced real-time information as well as door-to-door flexible services, leading to efficiency in terms of punctuality and competitive prices.
Smarter transportation, better protection
When cars are getting connected and smarter, satellite navigation technology is utilized for planning fastest routes and considering real-time traffic situations to avoid traffic jams. Geolocation technologies can also be used to improve public mobility for such as demand-responsive transit services like on-demand buses in remote and low density population areas like small villages and enabling flexible bus routes to tackle the low usage of bus services in low-density areas.
Road safety is one of the major elements of the European Union’s transport policy. H-Gear, based on Europe’s Galileo authenticated services, is an eCall and anti-theft system for 2-wheeled powered vehicles or motorcycles. The technology leverages EGNSS (European Global Navigation Satellite System (EGNSS) features such as spoofing incident from the Galileo navigation message detection and mitigation using OSNMA, as well as the use of GNSS raw measurements (jointly with accelerometer data) during the theft or accident mode, in order to verify the motorcycle’s movement and position.
Connected technologies increased the attack surface available to hackers like the risks associated with hacking or GNSS jamming and spoofing. EU is looking to further protect and improve the resilience of critical infrastructure that relies on the timing and synchronization elements of satellite navigation. European Galileo GNSS have an authentication signal that can detect intentional interference, such as spoofing attacks to prevent from cyberattacks.
GPS technology has its limitation in certain terrains. To ensure more precision navigation, some companies like Bosch has developed a replacement sensor technology that helps in providing data for correct navigation in situations where no GPS signals like tunnels, deep urban canyons and off-road terrain. Last year, Alpine and Qualcomm announced an accurate positioning technology called “ViewPose,” which is developed to overcome the drawbacks of conventional GPS, especially in urban areas with spotty signals.4
Reference:
- https://5gaa.org/news/5gaa-discusses-the-role-of-non-terrestrial-networks-in-the-connectivity-of-the-car-of-the-future/
- https://www.euspa.europa.eu/sites/default/files/uploads/euspa_market_report_2022.pdf
- https://www.verizonconnect.com/resources/ebook/fleet-trends-report-2022/
- https://www.qualcomm.com/news/releases/2021/01/qualcomm-and-alps-alpine-advance-lane-level-vehicle-positioning-gnss
