Galileo! Galileo! Galileo! Galileo! Galileo fit to go: Europe's GPS-like network switches on After a long and much-delayed 17-year gestation, Europe's answer to America's GPS system has been switched on. The Galileo network will offer a free service with an accuracy of one metre, and can pinpoint locations down to a few centimetres for paying customers. The service has 18 satellites in orbit, with 30 projected by 2020 …
For when the GPS turns off.
GPS/Galileo are read-only systems in terms of position unless you're willing to pay a MASSIVE subscription on related commercial systems, so don't worry about them "knowing where your car is".
Unless your car tells them by other means, when the Galileo / GPS choice is the least of your worries.
For when the GPS turns off.
GPS/Galileo are read-only systems in terms of position unless you're willing to pay a MASSIVE subscription on related commercial systems, so don't worry about them "knowing where your car is".
Unless your car tells them by other means, when the Galileo / GPS choice is the least of your worries.
WTF have you been smoking mate?
GPS/ Galileo is a 'read only' system PERIOD. You pay for a better clock signal to get a better start in terms of GPS positioning. The clock in your handset is also a critical component too.
As to the car... having your car be able to get and use the GPS signals allows your car to calculate its position so that other systems like 'On-Star' for example can use it to find your position and send for help.
The subscription service provides a more accurate clock signal so that if you have a decent clock on your receiver, you can get cm resolution. There are some other issues dealing with the earth's atmosphere, but it should be good enough. You could also pair the GPS with a radio (clock) signal from a known location and use that to help triangulate.
Actually Lee D is correct in that Galileo ISN'T a read only system if you have enough money as the satellites also carry search and rescue beacon receivers. Once a distress beacon is received, the Galileo system will broadcast an acknowledgement to the beacon encoded in the L1 signal.
Galileo is a 'read only' system PERIOD
Err, NO. Galileo offers two way communication for a subscription fee. It's intended application is emergency beacons in ships and aircraft.
http://www.navipedia.net/index.php/Galileo_Search_and_Rescue_Service
If you're going to accuse people of being high, it would be a good idea to make sure you are in full possession of the facts first.
It's not full blown 2-way communication, using the SAR function means a device on your person can send your location to a separate receiver on the Galileo satellites, and receive confirmation. You won't be able to talk to an operator, or send texts. The EU chose to join the Cospas-Sarsat system by adding these receivers to the Galileo space vehicles, the US chose not to equip the current block III GPS satellites with them, and therefore doesn't offer this service.
"You pay for a better clock signal to get a better start in terms of GPS positioning. The clock in your handset is also a critical component too." --Ian Michael Gumby
I thought the point of having a four satellite fix when only three would do* is so that the receiver can calculate the single offset factor that would make the intersection perfect, and that this is the discrepancy between the receiver time and the (synchronised) GPS time.
Disclaimer: I am not by any means a GPS / geolocation expert.
* ok, I realise that the intersection of three spheres is actually two points rather than one, but one of these is way out in space somewhere.
My understanding is that you need 4 satellites because there are 4 'unknowns'. You don't know the exact time at which you receive the signals, at least no where near the level of accuracy required for positioning. So you have x, y, z, and time to compute. The signals from the satellites contain the very accurate position of the satellite and very accurate transmission time (with sub-nanosecond precision). Again, this is my understanding, I'm far from an expert in this.
>For what purpose?
"connected services for drivers, including real-time traffic and weather reports and accident or road works warnings"
Apparently.
Source: https://www.gsa.europa.eu/newsroom/news/satellite-navigation-core-future-connected-car-systems
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"...there's Kesler syndrome to worry about."
Not really. These objects are well above LEO, in a realm where there's not much else to run into. Kessler was thinking about situations where you have enough objects so that one collision could lead to more than one other collision; sort of a "critical mass" situation. That doesn't apply here.
Though you are right about political, ah, feces/foeces being a problem. (Isn't it always?)
Knowing where you are 'approximately' is useful, centimeter precision on a moving vehicle might aid autonomy if tied to ultra precise mapping.
Knowing where you left something, exactly, is really useful especially if that something is a cable or a duct or an inspection hatch covered over by landscaping etc.
Knowing where property boundaries are could be really useful for Land registry, Farms etc
Plus the other side of precise location is precise timing beloved of the HIgh frequency traders and others..
"So what's the point?".
The point is that Europe did not want to fall behind in technology, that only the USA had full command of the GPS and that higher precision was needed and possible. In short, common sense and competition. We produce cars in Europe regardless of the fact that they are produced in the USA too. Even a nice and smart American like Neil deGrasse Tyson was unable to hide that he was pissed off by this competition from Europe, the same regarding CERN.
"...so what's the point?"
(1) Europe doesn't have to rely on the vagaries of the US Government. (Which could, for example, turn selective availability back on again.)
(2) That centimeter-level accuracy sounds quite nice. It would certainly be a big help for making robotic lawnmowers.
Nominally the US system has 15m accuracy but under normal conditions it is somewhere around 1.5m, on a smartphone. Precision receivers can do much better.
1cm is possible by correlating to a fixed base station in the region. This compensates for atmospheric or geomagnetic distortions. Presumably the paid services query the base stations in realtime.
"So whats the point"
1. It ensures that Europe has strategic control over a critical infrastructure
2. the satellite placement is optimised for European latitudes
3. It extends the accuracy to the present GPS and Glosnass network
4. It allows the use of additional services such as automatic rescue position detection
5. It allows European firms to build expertise and technologies in important technology areas
6. It allows European firms to compete in a lucrative positioning market
7. It creates high tech jobs in Europe
Apart from that...Can't think of any good reasons.
GPS (Navstar) current official stated worst case accuracy for the civilian signal is 15m NOT ~1.5m. Since both values are worst-case, it's entirely possible for GPS to achieve 1.5m accuracy some of the time although the highest quality GPS receivers as required by the FAA have average accuracy of 2.1m. However Galileo will achieve single digit centimetre level accuracy a large proportion of the time too, so it's not really comparable.
There's another factor to it as well. Positioning systems rely on a model of the Earth known as a 'geodetic datum', which is a fancy way of saying 'a model of the shape of the Earth'.
There are several different models, which tend to be more accurate to the actual shape of the Earth in certain places. GPS uses WGS 84, which tends to be more accurate over the continental US, so when the best accuracy of 1.5m is quoted for GPS, this is almost certainly only true in the US, the accuracy in Europe will not be quite as good (because the datum there is less correct).
Galileo uses it's own datum (GTRF) which is likely to be more accurate over Europe than WGS80, so the quoted best precision for Galileo will be somewhere in Europe.
tl/dr GPS is most precise in the US, Galileo will be most precise in Europe.
"...GPS uses WGS 84, which tends to be more accurate over the continental US,"
Not quite right. WGS = _World_ Geodetic System, an effort to find a set of parameters that would be a best-fit to the entire world. (There are several other more 'local' geodetic datums -- pluralized that way, even though you'd think it would be 'data' -- such as NAD27 and NAD83, 'North American Datum', etc., etc., which are closer to what you're thinking of: parameters fitted to a particular area.)
None of which actually affects GPS. GPS will indeed give you coordinates relative to WGS84; but those can be easily converted to other geodetic datums as needed. Galileo should indeed be more accurate than GPS, but it'll be more accurate everywhere, not just in Europe.
"official website for finding Galileo enabled devices" - that's a fine choice of words for getting the Pizzagate mob roaming. Just add "so New World Order can seize your firearms", stir, and serve!
(with tinfoil hat off, if anyone has one of those tracking devices featured in movie that transmits for days to satellites even from underground, can I have the battery for my mobile phone?)
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