• @lka1988@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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        5519 days ago

        Pretty much every GPS-capable device made in the last decade uses all systems available: GPS (USA), GLONASS (Russia), and Galileo (EU).

      • mox
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        2319 days ago

        For those who are unfamiliar with it:

        GLONASS (ГЛОНАСС, IPA: [ɡɫɐˈnas]; Russian: Глобальная навигационная спутниковая система, romanized: Global’naya Navigatsionnaya Sputnikovaya Sistema, lit. ‘Global Navigation Satellite System’) is a Russian satellite navigation system operating as part of a radionavigation-satellite service.

  • @Xanza@lemm.ee
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    13620 days ago

    We’re too dependent on a technology that we spent tens of billions of dollars researching and perfecting over decades of research!

    Possibly the dumbest statement I’ve heard this week.

    • @Zonetrooper@lemmy.world
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      4419 days ago

      It’s not as dumb as you make it out. The issue isn’t that GPS is really, really good at what it does; it’s that it’s also incredibly vulnerable to disruption and spoofing. And due to the particulars of how GPS works, we can’t entirely fix that. We can do some things to ameliorate it, but a lot of those aren’t suitable for smaller things that use GPS today.

      The other thing is that GPS largely replaced a tremendous number of other navigation aides and techniques, including other radio-navigation systems like LORAN-C.

      • @T156@lemmy.world
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        1619 days ago

        It’s also just a generally bad idea to be too dependent on a single system. If GPS reception fails for one reason or another, it would be good idea to have a backup.

    • @JasonDJ@lemmy.zip
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      1619 days ago

      Nah the idea is sound. As someone else said, GPS is incredibly fragile. Also very terrestrial…it doesn’t work once you leave the atmosphere.

      This will probably be another SpaceX grift, but there are alternative technologies that are more resilient to attack. From military/defense perspective (the original reason for GPS), that’s pretty important.

      • @Xanza@lemm.ee
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        2419 days ago

        GPS is incredibly fragile.

        No, not really. The GPS signal isn’t designed to penetrate concrete, no. But that doesn’t make it fragile.

        Also very terrestrial…it doesn’t work once you leave the atmosphere.

        Considering it was never meant to…that’s really not that goddamn weird. It’s a global positioning satellite system. So clearly for it to work you have to be on the fuckin’ globe…

        • @JasonDJ@lemmy.zip
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          1619 days ago

          Having functional GPS in a tunnel would be very nice…as someone who drives through Boston and fucking hates tunnels.

          But that’s not what I meant by fragile. I meant it can be disrupted/jammed fairly trivially.

          • @Xanza@lemm.ee
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            719 days ago

            Having functional GPS in a tunnel would be very nice

            In a tunnel

            a tunnel

            tunnel

            I fear for the world. You afraid that you’re gonna make a wrong turn? Inside of a tunnel? A fuckin’ tunnel my guy?

            • wjs018
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              2419 days ago

              You have clearly never driven on 93 through Boston where the person you replied to said they are from (aka the Big Dig). It is basically an entire highway that is underneath the city. There are many on and off ramps, lanes suddenly become exit only, complex multi-lane exits that branch…it’s intimidating. As somebody that has lived in the Boston area for 15 years now, I still mess things up.

          • @lengau@midwest.social
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            219 days ago

            There’s no reason why some sort of augmentation system couldn’t improve the navigation situation with the big dig. Stick some low power beacons that provide GPS-like signal in the tunnel based on their predetermined location and we’ll have GPS accounting for special relativity, general relativity and continental drift.

      • @GamingChairModel@lemmy.world
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        219 days ago

        it doesn’t work once you leave the atmosphere.

        Fun fact: just this past week an experiment on a lunar lander confirmed that GPS signals can be detected from the surface of the moon. I don’t know if those signals can give any kind of location precision, but it is an interesting finding.

  • GodlessCommie
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    5720 days ago

    In comes starlink to the rescue. But in typical Musk fashion it won’t doesn’t do what’s advertised and cost a shit ton more

    • @Xanza@lemm.ee
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      19 days ago

      It’s literally him convincing someone to sell their house that they own outright to rent from him because it’s somehow much better (for him of course). It’s so fucking stupid.

    • @Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world
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      1720 days ago

      Remember that time he claimed Teslas windows were shatterproof and indestructable. Then he throws a baseball and the window instantly shatters?

  • @nthavoc@lemmy.today
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    3919 days ago

    You know what’s a great backup? The ability to read a map or use a compass. This is set up to get Starlink or another billionaire to own GPS.

    • @PM_Your_Nudes_Please@lemmy.world
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      19 days ago

      Ding ding ding. This is just a talking point so they’ll be able to pivot into “we should give Musk a trillion dollar contract to run GPS on his Starlink satellites.” Hammer the “GPS is unreliable” point long enough that the conservative voters have time to start believing it. Then pivot into handing more money to Musk. It’s a typical advertising strategy; Create a problem so you can sell the solution.

    • @GroundedGator@lemmy.world
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      519 days ago

      Subscription based navigation? Want to use your car’s navigation system, there’s a fee for that? Want to fly a drone, that’ll be 9.99/month. Hopefully there will be a carve out for emergency systems.

      This will also allow Tesla to up their traffic game. If everyone is using the Starlink GPS for navigation they’ll have all the data.

  • @vaprz@lemmy.world
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    19 days ago

    What if we built a system of beacon transmitters that sent out pulses and then used recievers that would compare arrival times of those pulses to make a measurement, thus establishing positional location?

    We could call it the Long Range something or other. I’m open to suggestions. Need a catchy name!

  • @800XL@lemmy.world
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    2019 days ago

    How do we call these assholes and tell them to get their heads out of Muskovitch’s ass?

  • mesa
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    1719 days ago

    Wonder if they want to track all phones with a different system.

  • TimeSquirrel
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    1519 days ago

    Too often, the vertical location (Z-axis) information that 911 call centers receive is not easily usable

    So…use the barometer in tandem with GPS? This is shit I can easily track from my personal Homassistant server.

    Also, you know how to make GPS more reliable, secure, and redundant? You launch more GPS satellites.

    • @Telorand@reddthat.com
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      1019 days ago

      Also, you know how to make GPS more reliable, secure, and redundant? You launch more GPS satellites.

      But where will we find room for more Starlink satellites if we do that? Elon said he needs another contract, and when the boss says jump…!

      /s

        • @Telorand@reddthat.com
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          119 days ago

          And I’m sure that’s a distinction politicians really care about. /s

          Your answer is rational. US politicians are not, since they have an agenda to hand off their money and power to Trump and Elon.

      • bluGill
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        419 days ago

        I live in an area with a lot of iron. I cannot trust a compass to always point north. Generally I’ve had no problems in the woods: follow the trails that are on the maps, or at least stay close enough that you can always find them again and you are fine. (until of course you are not)

  • @tal@lemmy.today
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    720 days ago

    Google and Apple and others already do that ad hoc, using signal strength from Bluetooth and WiFi beacons. Can contribute to that by just setting up a wireless access point or several near where you want more signal. Doesn’t even need to be Internet-connected.