Automotive GPS integration

We've most of us seen those high-end cars with integrated GPS systems, centrally mounted on the dashboard. Integrated satellite navigation, as it is often called, remains a very expensive option available to the automotive purchaser, often adding thousands of dollars to the list price. By contrast, third-party GPS systems can start at some 200 Australian dollars. 

However, right now there is no way to get third-party GPS to talk to the average automobile, rather like the situation until very recently where car stereo systems would only accept input from MP3 players such as iPods, by way of radio adapter gadgets. 

Think of the technical possibilities if your car and your third-party GPS system could talk to each other easily:

• Calibration: did you know that your car's speedometer is likely to exaggerate your speed by roughly 4 km/h at 100 km/h? Presumably, motor manufacturers do this, in order to save you from your own propensity to break the speed limit. Whatever the reason, it's annoying for those like me who wish to drive at the precise limit, whenever it is safe to do so. For this reason, I normally drive with my GPS unit on, even when I know where I'm heading, as the GPS unit has an extremely accurate speedometer. Similarly, those with cruise control option in their car would obviously like to set the precise speed to avoid speeding fines while maximising speed. given the superb accuracy of GPS unit, it should be possible to calibrate your car's speedometer at will, and even to run a digital speedometer, directly off the cheapest unit. 
• Dynamic cruise control: modern GPS units model that currently applicable speed limits for every location. Using such information, as well as the GPS's speedometer and altimeter information, it should be possible to design a cruise control system that is far more sophisticated than the existing offerings. Such a cruise control system would dynamically adapt to the changing terrain, preventing over-and under-shooting of the correct desired speed. More excitingly for the law-abiding driver wishing to avoid speeding fines, such a system could readily be configured so as never to break the applicable speed limit.
• Trip computer: given sufficient two-way communication between your car and your GPS unit, either one should be able to perform all the functions of the most sophisticated trip computer, including current and historical fuel efficiency data as well as distance to empty, distance travelled, etc.
• Automated indicating: your GPS gives you turn by turn instructions, no reference to your selected destinations so why shouldn't it also control indicator of your car obviously, it should be possible to override the automatic indication whenever you choose to do so.
• Automated steering? This is a no-no right now and for the foreseeable future. Given that GPS is currently accurate only to 10 m rather than to the 1 m theoretically possible (due to encryption of the signal by the US military), automated steering controlled solely by the turn-by-turn and lane navigation systems of your GPS unit would be hopelessly unsafe. Nevertheless, GPS systems may one day, provide at least some of the input into automated steering systems for the highway, just as they have done in the DARPA car challenge. it should not be forgotten that the European Union is planning to launch the Galileo system of navigation satellites, which promise greater accuracy than the existing GPS system. By then, some of the more daunting problems such as automating obstacle avoidance, keeping maps sufficiently up-to-date in view of roadworks, etc, may have been solved. 
  

What seems to be lacking is agreement on a communications protocol which would connect third-party GPS systems with a range of automobile marques. What could be holding this work up? Is it a case of a battle of incompatible standards, similar to what we witnessed over the last few decades in fields such as video cassette recorders, DVD burners and high-definition DVD players? Perhaps, but my guess is also that car manufacturers are not playing ball for their own reasons, either simply through resistance to really getting the best out of this new technology or, perhaps more likely, because close integration with third-party GPS systems would jeopardise the very fat margins they are currently able to charge for in-car satellite navigation options.

What is needed, probably, is for one or more innovative car manufacturers to team up with one or more GPS manufacturers to come up with a communication protocol. GPS conductivity, could be a real selling point for car factories, just as iPod connectivity has become more innovative manufacturers such as Hyundai. Ideally, the protocol settled on would be an open standard rather than a proprietary standard, but it probably doesn't matter too much, as long as some protocol is. 

In my next post, I will continue on the theme of possible improvements of GPS technology more broadly, including using GPS technology as a platform for in-car display of regulatory and other information.