Global Navigation Satellite Systems Engineering, Policy, and Design
Figures 1 & 2On April 28, 2015, the European Parliament voted in favor of an eCall regulation, which requires all new models of passenger cars and light vans that will be certified for the European market to be equipped with the automated emergency-call technology beginning in April 2018. The measure applies to all such vehicles regardless of selling price. In the future, a similar service may be implemented for trucks as well.
By Inside GNSS
Some 15 years ago, Bob Denaro predicted the disappearance of GPS into its various applications.
That prediction by the former Trimble/Motorola/Navteq executive has largely been validated. Although GPS has survived in the popular consciousness as a global brand, connoting an almost magical source of location and tracking, general recognition and understanding of GNSS as a core technology within products and services has, indeed, remained murky.
By Inside GNSS
The European GNSS Agency (GSA) has extended its timeline, until November 20, for submission of proposals to develop two specialized European GNSS (E-GNSS) “engines” for ITS applications.
Autoliv, Inc., an automotive safety–focused company headquartered in Stockholm, Sweden, announced the availability of its Electronic Horizon module, which provides beyond-line-of-sight road context and information to enhance safety and efficiency systems, at the 22nd Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) World Congress being held this week in Bordeaux, France.
By Inside GNSS
GNSS technology, which has been in the background of many intelligent transport system (ITS) projects and programs, will be front and center at the ITS World Congress 2015 next week (October 5-9, 2015) in Bordeaux, France.
Under the theme, “Towards Intelligent Mobility — Better Use of Space,” the event will draw thousands of registered attendees and around 200 exhibitors to take part in technical sessions, panel discussions, and demonstrations of ITS technology, products, and servuces.
By Inside GNSS
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is weighing a request to waive spectrum rules for a new ultra-wideband (UWB) device that would operate across a wide swath of frequencies including those used by satellite navigation. The proposal has prompted a call for a wider reconsideration of ultra-wideband limits, a suggestion opposed by the GPS community.
By Inside GNSS
One of 12 magnetograms recorded at Greenwich Observatory during the Great Geomagnetic Storm of 1859
1996 soccer game in the Midwest, (Rick Dikeman image)
Nouméa ground station after the flood
A pencil and a coffee cup show the size of NASA’s teeny tiny PhoneSat
Bonus Hotspot: Naro Tartaruga AUV
Pacific lamprey spawning (photo by Jeremy Monroe, Fresh Waters Illustrated)
“Return of the Bucentaurn to the Molo on Ascension Day”, by (Giovanni Antonio Canal) Canaletto
The U.S. Naval Observatory Alternate Master Clock at 2nd Space Operations Squadron, Schriever AFB in Colorado. This photo was taken in January, 2006 during the addition of a leap second. The USNO master clocks control GPS timing. They are accurate to within one second every 20 million years (Satellites are so picky! Humans, on the other hand, just want to know if we’re too late for lunch) USAF photo by A1C Jason Ridder. 
Detail of Compass/ BeiDou2 system diagram
Hotspot 6: Beluga A300 600ST
1. RUM DEAL
Moscow, Russia, and Havana, Cuba
Block diagram of driver-assisted truck platooning (DATP) system. From “Heavy Truck Cooperative Adaptive Cruise Control” Phase 1 reportAlthough media coverage of autonomous or self-driving vehicles has focused on their use by private car owners, an initial report on driver-assistive truck platooning (DATP) highlights the prospects for their use in the commercial freight sector.
Titled “Heavy Truck Cooperative Adaptive Cruise Control — Evaluation, Testing, and Stakeholder Engagement for Near Term Deployment: Phase One Final Report,” the DATP project was funded by a grant from the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Exploratory Advanced Research program.
By Inside GNSS
Spirent Communications has unveiled its eCall and ERA-GLONASS In-Vehicle Systems (IVS) test solution to verify the functionality and protocol conformance of the eCall and ERA GLONASS–enabled vehicular systems. eCall and ERA GLONASS will soon become mandatory in new vehicles in Europe and Russia respectively.
By Inside GNSS
When the nation’s top GPS advisors meet next month they will announce their new chairman — a former defense official, welcome four other new members, and begin with a freshly renewed charter.
By Inside GNSS
Registration has opened for the 22nd World Congress and Exhibition on Intelligent Transport Systems and Services to be held in Bordeaux, France, on October 5–9, 2015.
By Inside GNSS
Navigation technologies appear to be losing their charm among new car buyers in the United States.
Twenty years after Detroit introduced the first in-vehicle car navigation systems, employing GPS and digital map technology, collision avoidance appears to be the common theme among the most popular automotive technologies, according to a new J.D. Power study released last Wednesday (April 22, 2015).
Four leading lawmakers, apparently impatient with the Obama Administration’s less-than-urgent approach to assuring availability of critical navigation and timing resources, have sponsored a bill mandating the Department of Defense institute a backup for the Global Positioning System.
If approved, the National Positioning, Navigation, and Timing Resilience and Security Act of 2015 (H.R. 1678) would give the U.S. secretary of defense three years to establish, an alternative, land-based source for positioning, navigation, and timing (PNT) data.
By Inside GNSS
