We have a serious problem with GPS navigation systems for cars and even motorcycles. However, there are problems with this motto as a high-tech toy that are more serious than you might think. Just ask anyone in a metro area who’s bought a new car with one of those cool GPS upgrades for their new SUV or sports car. We have had complaints from our customers (customers of the car wash business, which is my profession). Oh, they love the device, but they are overwhelmed by the lack of data and streets, which are not on the list. You see, we’ve seen incredible suburban growth in many cities. Locations near large DMA metropolitan areas are a problem in middle-class suburbs. In many areas, such as outside of 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 many other fast growing hotbeds.
When GPS coins for cars first appeared at CES and SEMA in 1996, they became increasingly popular, powerful, and with better data. But just like VHS and Beta, Apple and IBM, the competition became more and more, which caused a lot of consolidation in the industry along with patent fights. Much of the technology came from former defense contractors who sold their products through subsidiary companies at the consumer level. But the tight market remained due to costs. Meanwhile, companies like DeLorme and others tried to flood the market with low-priced GPS units, making things even more competitive. And the bugs weren’t completely out of the system yet. One day, all cars will drive themselves, and people will be able to watch TV, video conference, and use their transportation as a portable office or entertainment system while being driven to the location they’ve marked on their computer. Some things will have to happen before this is a reality, of course. But eventually, your car driving dexterity skills will be useless and unnecessary.
First, the satellites will need to laser align and use multiple satellites to get absolute locations of ground items and vehicles. Cars will need to have additional anti-collision coins made up of network sonars and optical flow sensors. All of which are now available and the technology is getting better and better. Many military applications today will be civil tomorrow. Just like radar, microwave ovens, nuclear power, cell phones, satellite communication, and jet planes in commercial aviation. The flow of transportation will be carried over to the next generation to better serve man.
For now, incremental changes in these technologies have hit a bit of a roadblock even though Honda, GM, Ford, Mercedes, Daimler Chrysler and Toyota have invested billions in anti-collision and safety devices that will add comfort and desirable options that you can sell to customers as upgrades. Smart Car Technologies can add thousands of dollars to the price of a car, and consumers are happy to pay for them. A factory GPS system with a display can cost as much as $6,000.00 and they sell a lot of them on high end cars. It’s a high gain item upgrade, though there are some that are only $1000. And if you want to compare these, some are very awesome with loads of features;
[http://www.gpsnuts.com/myGPS/GPS/review%20…he%20review.htm] .
There are many companies that sell aftermarket computer support items. These companies are doing quite well and the systems are working very well. The big problem is that just because it has an amazing GPS system, it doesn’t mean the street you’re looking for is on the map yet. In other words, it’s like using an old map. If you are a map scholar like me, you will see the problem with older maps. Some companies even continue to print old map data year after year without adding new ones on ramps, city streets, highway infrastructure improvements, and beltways, which is annoying for those who live outside the city. Even more aggravating looking for an address or street in a new housing area, which you can see but the motto insists, does not exist? Then there are the issues in areas like Cape Coral, FL and Tehachapi, CA or El Paso, TX and Knoxville, TN where the roads have been cleared and ready to go or set up but don’t connect or have nothing there yet. Of course, it’s very irritating to see a road and try to drive it only to discover that it’s a dirt road that doesn’t connect to anything yet or an entire subdivision that doesn’t exist. Is it a mirage? If so, where is the White Tiger Show?
ESRI’s Jack Dangermond had established entire networks of software manufacturers who developed data for his amazing software products for GPS and GIS needs. Used by government, military, utility companies, transportation companies, private companies with GPS units for sale 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 they had cut costs significantly. Thus, without the proper data, the GPS systems purchased by the upper, upper-middle, and middle class for their cars were not always good enough to support the price of newer technology. This is especially troubling since the upper-, upper-middle-, and middle-class citizens who pay the lion’s share of taxes live mostly in the suburbs. The possibilities of a middle-class American; that he bought a house during the last 3 years of the housing boom; not being able to find his house or his street on his new GPS motto is a higher chance that they will actually find it. We interviewed a man who bought a new Nissan sports car.
Who lives in a newer developed area in the upper end of Las Vegas, the Clark County suburbs, that only had the main streets on their GPS and had large blank spaces on their device? Some GPS devices allow the user to choose a satellite provider and a data and software provider, but many of the factory units do not. People think they’re getting something really cool and then find out they can’t use it for surfing, 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 got from a Dallas-area EMT ambulance driver who told us to search for streets for 15 to 20 minutes after struggling through suburban traffic jams to get to where they thought he might be. 3G cell phone technology can help those who use cell phones to send data to dispatches. For all the training we are providing across the country for first responders and continuing education for police, fire, hazmat, etc. It seems that we have forgotten about the system problems. Anytime you build a system to serve humanity, you have to simplify it and make it work, that has to be the first, the first priority, then you can fix all the other problems.
With that being said, we recently interviewed a lady who had a hellishly long day working for the Metropolitan Police Department’s Central Nervous System. The communications and dispatch center is what we mean. Although she was not aware of the problem at the center due to erroneous data or missing data in the system, she could not say how they were able to obtain the information. Fortunately, serving in a metropolitan area, they are probably connected to the planning department’s computer, which they should be. And if the police department has the new data and there is no problem in this case, why haven’t the software vendors been able to access the data? It’s a safety issue if someone with a GPS system pulls out a map and tries to read it while he’s driving in an area he’s unfamiliar 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 from talking on a cell phone, although cell phones undoubtedly a contributing factor to many minor accidents will eventually exceed this number. . . Where the streets are, frankly, I can’t understand the need to keep this a secret unless it’s the layout of Area 51, the prison, the power plant, the Pentagon grounds, the military bases, etc. If first aid divisions and contractors shared data, there might be fewer accidents and maybe they could get some help from the public by being the eyes and ears.
http://www.lancewinslow.org/nmwp.shtml
and also, perhaps, in fact, they could use the idea of Smart Virtual Mobile Communities or FlashMob scenarios as budgets are tight as Homeland Security “Red-Orange-Yellow-High-Risk-Dangerous Days” come with high Often more police and first responders are on duty and that costs money. Without significant traffic, the network coverage of a city runs the risk of slower response times. Fast response times are the easiest way to keep the peace, everyone, what gets away can cause trouble another day and of course in the event of international terrorist attacks.
Having the data on these currencies is essential and everyone is better served when communication flows. GPS units provide that and the data should be readily available and it’s probably better for cities to use the same formats as first responders and the same data can be used for utilities, consumer, military and even census data or academics studying urban sprawl and growth rates to have infrastructure ready during sprawl. Things like water and energy, which has obviously been a major focus here.
There needs to be a nationally coordinated effort to see such data leak into the private sector, because as it stands companies have been beaten up in the industry and can’t perform the services to bring these things to market. Communication is important to both government and citizens, increasing efficiencies in businesses will save government money and provide an additional tax base and revenue funds for those businesses using such data, as well as save money and time for all government services mentioned above. . If we want a screaming economy, we should be thinking about how we can streamline and speed up the flow of information to increase efficiency and allow a small slice of the expanded pie profit to continue 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 get more kids to practice and still have time to shop, all of which serve the man. The GIS digital divide is just as important to our economy as the Internet digital divide. Kids in sports use fewer drugs, become more competitive, have a higher work ethic, 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 make up for time lost in traffic and congestion. GIS-GPS systems can help in any emergency or just driving around town to get things done to check off the day’s list.