GPS World

Tag: Google

  • Record Number of Automakers at International CES

    It’s a daunting task — trying to find the big location story in a maze of 150,000 attendees and thousands of exhibitors at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. Aside from every automaker touting their connected vehicle efforts, the big deal this year at CES is wearable technology (last year it was 3D printing? Yawn). Despite sore feet from walking football-field lengths of booths, CES is still a cool show, blaring stereos, walls of TV screens, robots…and connected cars. 

    LAS VEGAS — Although the largest number of worldwide auto manufacturers attended this year’s International CES here, many industry experts believe that technology giants Google and Apple will swoop in and grab not only the market, but will control what will go into the connected automobile in the future.

    “Leading IT, consumer electronics and Internet companies will marginalize specialist vendors. I’m worried that Internet companies will take over the [connected car] market — away from the auto manufacturers,” said Thilo Koslowski, Gartner vice president at the Consumer Telematics Show, held the day before CES

    Koslowski’s fears have been partially validated as Google launched a partnership, called the Open Automotive Alliance, with automakers to bring the Android operating system into cars. The Google move comes after a similar announcement by Apple, which was launched to get its iOS platform into connected cars.

    Initial Open Automotive Alliance members include Audi, General Motors, Honda, Hyundai and Nvidia. Apple, in its group, has Jaguar Land Rover, Volvo, Mercedes-Benz, Honda, Ferrari, Nissan, Chevrolet, Infinity, Kia, Hyundai, Opel and Acura.

    “We think [Google] is a strong content partner — the deal gives [you] perspective on where we as a company are heading. Same on the Apple side,” said Charles Koch, Honda manager, new business development, at the Consumer Telematics Show.

    Despite standing room-only crowds at CES during most of the connected and automated car session, Koslowski said companies need to keep the right focus on the future. “[Connected vehicles] still are not a definite market, but we will see if it is in the next 3-4 years,” he said. “HMI and user interface will be biggest differentiators. Personalization will be important, but it will also be an expected feature.”

    Koslowski said the Holy Grail for connected vehicles in the future is the transition to autonomous capability. “It’s progressing very quickly. Automakers have to avoid the gold rush mentality as it may not be the treasure trove,” he said.  “They have to meet expectations [about the the technology] and avoid the creepiness factor that you know too much about the consumer.”

    Regardless of the future, Koslowski believes the connected vehicle is a disruptive opportunity.  “I can see carriers offering a car for free in exchange for lifetime data. Less dramatic would be with an eight-year data plan,” he said. “This would probably be a smaller, less expensive vehicle than a Ferrari or Audi.”

    Overall, the telematics market has gone through several market changes in the past 10 years, said Kevin Link, senior vice president and general manager, China, for Verizon Telematics.  Link said that Telematics 1.0 included door unlock, navigation, automatic collision notification, call centers and navigation. “It all began with GM and Mercedes becoming springboards for the industry. Initially, there was low consumer awareness; now, it is something like 88 percent in the United States,” he said.

    Outside the U.S., however, the consumer awareness for telematics drops into the single digits. “The business model, especially in the U.S., is a burden on the consumer. In China, it’s a business-to-business play, which is not a burden on the consumer, which also explains the high usage rate,” Link said.

    At CES, a record nine automakers attended and exhibited:  Audi, BMW, Chrysler, Ford, General Motors, Kia, Mazda, Mercedes and Toyota.

    AT&T Mobility Makes Big Announcements at CES

    In a pre-CES press conference, General Motors announced its first LTE-enabled vehicles — in which AT&T Mobility is powering the LTE network for GM’s OnStar service. The first LTE-enabled vehicles, which will be available this summer, are Impala, Spark, Volt, Orlando, Spark RV, Silverado, Silverado HD, Malibu, Equinox and Corvette Stingray.

    AT&T also announced it will provide connectivity for Ericsson Connected Vehicle Cloud which connects to the AT&T Drive platform for automakers

    “We expect about 50 million cars to be connected by 2020. The car will be another device in your life,” said Glenn Lurie, AT&T president, emerging enterprises and partnerships. “LTE in a car will get another set of application developers involved — how will they differentiate the car?  It’s a global opportunity.”

    Magellan and Navigation Solutions’ Nav System Features Proximity Capability

    Navigation Solutions, owned by Hertz, said it is working with Magellan to offer the NeverLost 6 navigation device that features connected services — many of which offer a consumer choices based on businesses and attractions near their current location.

    A number of new systems, including Magellan’s new models and Pioneer’s five NEX models, which consist of four navigation and an A/V receiver, feature connected services that allow access to navigation — even when the phone isn’t connected to a data source. This has been a sore subject for users of the free Google Maps on a phone — no Internet, no navigation.

    Magellan also announced a new line of RoadMate Personal Navigation Device (PND) units featuring Easy Touch screens and an underlying Android OS to improve navigation capabilities and features.

    In other CES news:

    • Broadcom continues to make strides in indoor and Wi-Fi position with several new product rollouts. The company also is rolling out its BCM47531 GNSS chip that can grab signals from five satellite constellations at the same time (GPS, GLONASS, QZSS, SBAS and BeiDou), said Mohamed Awad, Broadcom director, product marketing.
    • Alpine rolled out the aftermarket’s first 9-inch navigation system, which will cost $2,600 and be available in June.  The company is targeting used trucks and other vehicles as they are staying on the road longer, said Melvin Diaz, Alpine product planning manager.
    • In its press conference at CES, Kenwood said its navigation units are selling well.  Its flagship, a $1,500, 7-inch system, features INRIX traffic and Garmin navigation.
    • In the LBS Insider February blog, several industry experts will be interviewed about the future of the autonomous vehicle.

  • Honda Joins Google Alliance to Develop GPS Solutions

    Honda Motor Co. is joining an alliance of companies that will work with Google Inc. on technological innovations for inboard automotive information networks, such as GPS, according to The Asahi Shimbun. Honda will be joining Audi AG, General Motors, and Hyundai Motor Group in the Open Automotive Alliance. The alliance plans to incorporate Google’s Android operating system into automotive communications systems.

    Google has also indicated interest in the development of driverless cars.

    Toyota Motor Corp., meanwhile, established a joint venture with Microsoft Corp. three years ago to develop information technology for Toyota’s next-generation vehicles. The technology allows for updating map data and other services for the GPS in Toyota vehicles, as well as track stolen vehicles.

  • 2013: A Positive Year for Location Industry

     

    2013 was an up-and-down roller coaster of a year for the location industry…and 2014 appears to be more of the same. What was the big story? Google buying Waze? While it is easy to predict what will happen, the harder thing to do is to predict when it will happen. With that in mind, LBS Insider reached out to industry veterans to discuss the big buzz in 2013 in the industry — and what the future holds, next year and beyond.

    It’s that time of year — to assess the big deals and trends — good, bad and ugly — in the worldwide location industry. Some of the stories seem obvious, such as the Google acquisition of Waze for more than $1 billion.

    “The valuation remains a mystery to many in the mapping community, but it is always nice to see a truly great exit in this business.  There haven’t been enough for an industry that is both foundational in mobile and online, and really hard to do well,” said Marc Prioleau, president of Prioleau Advisors.

    Prioleau says one of the big stories of 2013 was the reemergence of Apple Maps.  “For all the flak they took, they’ve worked hard to make them better.  Their default position in iOS has given them traffic, as has the extension to OSX in the Maverick’s release,” he said.  “Last year you saw Apple start to buy companies that could extend the features (like HopStop), a sign that they think they’ve fixed the major problems and are working on moving forward. They are also hiring aggressively and have brought in some very good people.”

    Last year, Prioleau predicted that the combination of data with location to derive better location-based context would be a big thing.  “I think a lot has happened in that area with much more to come.  It’s happening in apps (see Foursquare recommendations), advertising (PlaceIQ and others), CRM (SAP Precision retailing as an example),” he said. “There is a lot more to come here, and we should expect many new applications, most of which will do things badly, but some — likely the ones with the most targeted data — will do things that really change the model.”

    Prioleau says MapBox is making mapping cool again (and Prioleau is a director at the company).  “Just when all was going to be subsumed by the Google Maps juggernaut, MapBox is doing new interesting data visualization work,” he said.

    Crowdsourcing being embraced by the wider mapping community is another big trend Prioleau has identified.  “Everyone knows about OSm, but then you add Waze for crowdsourcing real-time traffic plus map corrections. Google is in deep with MapMaker, and even Nokia is pushing crowdsourced input,” he said.  “It’s no longer the battle between crowdsourced maps and professional maps. It’s how to make the two work together.”

    Prioleau sees the location industry having a few benchmarks in 2014.  “I’ll stick with the same prediction as last year:  Data + location for better location context. Google Now is a great benchmark,” he said. “Break out in location-based ad targeting. The technology is better, and the providers really understand the advertising market now. Complementary ad technologies like Real Time Bidding are maturing, and these will fit in to a model that really works. And if for no other reason, if we keep predicting it, it will be right one year, right?”

    Prioleau believes Google Map domination will begin to show cracks. “Google has a great platform, but as they monetize it more aggressively, more companies will look for alternatives,” he said. “Apple maps will be one. HERE will be another. But solutions from MapBox and others will grow as well.”

    In terms of connected car and other automotive technology, Prioleau says new and interesting applications will come from local search, driver services, and diagnostics — rather than just basic navigation.

    Another industry insider, Mike Dobson, president of TeleMapis, said 2013 was a quiet year for location-based services.  “Even the biggest deal, Google’s acquisition of Waze, does not look as if it will have much impact, other than as a defensive strategy. Perhaps the most interesting aspect of the year was the stream of patents covering LBS and GIS-like applications from both Apple and Google, not to mention those of several start-ups,” he said.

    From his perspective, Dobson said 2013 was yet another year in waiting, but 2014 looks like it might actually be exciting. “It appears that Google will finally make its move into the in-car navigation market. Apple is beginning to play with the idea of allowing its users access to a more GIS-like parsing of its map database,” he said. “Perhaps the biggest change will be a new focus on thematic maps that aim not to be navigation aids, but to perform the function of information devices for travelers and others using directed search technology. I suspect that 2014 will be another slow year for indoor positioning, but maybe it will flourish as a subset of BIM.”

    Indoor Mapping Still Considered Trend for Location Industry

    While many in the location industry have seen new companies and products coming to the indoor positioning market, at least one analyst says that Wi-Fi positioning has been weak.

    “The biggest trend in 2013 was indoor mapping, the beginning of the hockey stick adoption curve in my opinion. Major retailers like Home Depot, Lowes, etc., launched indoor maps with product search/locator,” said industry veteran Kris Kolodziej. “What was overblown was indoor Wi-Fi positioning. The latency and accuracy is not good enough for micro location. It’s good enough to know what store/venue you’re in, but that’s about it.”

    Kolodziej said that the big deal in 2014 will be ibeacons or Bluetooth low energy (BLE) for micro location and proximity services. “BLE solves the many shortcomings Wi-Fi has,” he said.

    Prioleau says that in-door location will be big, but it is where outdoor location was in the early 1990s:  many technologies and technology providers all pushing different solutions — and most will not succeed.

    “Beyond the location technology, the market needs to figure out how the money will flow from beneficiaries of the market (retailers, brands) to the providers of indoor location technology (mostly semiconductor companies and tech companies).  There is no natural connection,” he said.

  • Public Geolocation Vault on the Horizon?

    Imagine a vault of highly accurate geolocation data that provides look-up service for any device, in any country, based on publicly sent signal data. It is an appealing idea. Mozilla, best known for its popular Firefox browser, is a nonprofit organization dedicated to openness on the web. No one is better positioned to create the very first public geolocation database. Mozilla wants to build the data service with the end goals of enabling innovation and improving location data privacy. The group makes the point that improving the privacy of user data is counter incentivizing for-profit companies that collect this data. Privacy continues to be a major industry issue that has gotten more than one company in trouble with regulators and customers.

    Mozilla is starting out with a pilot project, named “Mozilla Location Service,” to assess how it would build and operate a location service to provide geolocation look-up for devices. The data will be based on publicly observed cell tower, Wi-Fi or IP address information. Mozilla is enlisting its loyal community to collect the data via a special app for Android-based phones.

    Admitting Wrongness. Those of us who skewered Apple for its map troubles continue to eat crow. The Apple maps have improved and are popular, or at least good enough, with most iPhone and iPad users in the U.S. As you may recall, Google maps were expelled from the iPhone when Google refused to give Apple access to its turn-by-turn navigation. Google, who had delighted in Apple’s map debacle, has now been badly humbled. The company has lost almost 23 million mobile users in the U.S. as a result of its banishment. iOS users can still assess Google Maps, but data from market research firm ComScore suggests that few actually take the trouble to download Google Maps. When iOS 6 began to roll out and introduced Apple’s maps as the default, the number using Google Maps dropped precipitously, even as the number of iPhones and Android phones began rising.

    Big Money from Mapping. The value of being a map provider cannot be underestimated. Both Apple and Google cull anonymous data for traffic reporting and improving their network. More importantly, they have created a gold mine by using the data to glean for behavioral information about users. The data is fed to advertisers who create contextual ads that are more likely to get us to buy. Google also uses the data to improve search results.

    Good news for the Enterprise Industry. A survey of 500 fleet operators conducted by C.J. Driscoll and Associates shows high satisfaction and strong intent to purchase GPS fleet management systems. From an enterprise customer’s standpoint, GPS-enabled solutions are measured by how quickly the company can recoup its outlay. An impressive two thirds of the fleets surveyed reported that they have recouped their investment in their GPS fleet solutions. Of the fleets that haven’t deployed a GPS fleet management system, 16 percent indicated that they expect to do so within the next 18 months. The fleet survey is contained in the C.J. Driscoll 2013-14 Survey of Fleet Operator Interest in MRM Systems and Services report.

    The Final Frontier: Indoor Location. Applications are increasingly hungry for ubiquitous, well-performing location for all devices. Sensor fusion, or the intelligent combination of data from multiple sensors, will become a standard feature to help make this happen in indoor locales. “Sensor fusion will surpass Wi-Fi and Bluetooth low energy (BLE) as the most important handset-based indoor location technology by 2017,” predicts Patrick Connolly of ABI Research. “We see a significant trend towards hybridization, with Wi-Fi, BLE, and sensor fusion proving to be vital.” Companies in this market include Movea, HillCrest, indoo.rs, and Senionlab.

    Wind Blowing in New Direction. PlaceIQ, the location context company, has ventured into location-based behavior analytics. The start-up company had been focused on providing information on the context of location in small geographic areas, 100 by 100 square meter units. One of the company’s new offerings, PIQ Analytics, “can identify which competitors a brand’s audience is most likely to visit, the restaurants where they typically dine, the type of device they use, and the stores that they frequent,” reports the PlaceIQ website. The company’s other new product tracks individuals and “determines where consumers were before arriving at a brand’s physical location.” PlaceIQ is going to have to careful how it treads this ground, if it wants to avoid raising opposition from privacy watchdog groups.

    Mapping Sadness  As you may have heard, a father has discovered that Google Maps shows the body of his son, who was shot to death in 2009 beside a railroad track in Richmond, California. In a written statement, Google announced that it would accelerate the replacement of the satellite image of the map, the first time that it made such a change due to a request. Google indicated would take about eight days to make the change, as the image has continued to be visible on their maps. Perhaps a reader can explain to me why replacing this map segment would take so long, or why the image could not have been obscured by Google until the replacement is made?

    I will be moderating a session at the IEEE International Conference on Connected Vehicles and Expo on December 5 in Las Vegas. The SAE-organized panel is on Connected Infotainment. The panelist are industry experts who will share perspectives in this interactive session.

  • Avenza’s PDF Maps App Launches on Google Play Store

    Avenza' PDF Maps app is now available at the Google Play Store.
    Avenza’ PDF Maps app is now available at the Google Play Store.

    Avenza Systems Inc., producers of MAPublisher cartographic software for Adobe Illustrator and Geographic Imager geospatial tools for Adobe Photoshop, announce that PDF Maps app is now available on the Google Play Store.  The first and only geospatial PDF and GeoTIFF reader for Android devices, Avenza said, the PDF Maps app is unique to the space due to its extensive collection of more than 100,000 detailed maps sourced from well-established publishers, cartographers, government agencies and aficionados of outdoor recreational activities, all of which are downloadable directly from within the app.

    PDF Maps take advantage of geospatial technology that allows consumers to view maps and measure real world distances and areas. Paired together with mobile devices that use GPS such as Androids, the PDF Maps app provides constant access to geographic locations and even points of interest without the risk of losing reception due to cell tower proximity.

    Designed with its audience of travelers and outdoor enthusiasts in mind, Avenza’s PDF Maps app has already garnered accolades from the International Map Industry Association (IMIA) and Geospatial World for its innovative use of technology on the iOS platform in 2011 and 2012.  Since then, its versatility for recreational or business purposes out in the field has been recognized across several industries and it’s gaining momentum.

    “The market is currently saturated with map apps that are limited in map data, or too simplified to be functional for offline navigating.  We wanted to address those issues by providing a free navigational app that catered to a segment of users who needed something more substantial than the average turn-by-turn digital maps offered today, while providing map-publishers with an iTunes-like environment for distributing their maps direct to devices” said Ted Florence, President of Avenza Systems Inc.

    “With Avenza’s PDF Maps app Android users can do more than just view their location.  PDF Maps provides a meaningful interface to measure distances, drop placemarks and share personal recorded data in various formats.  It’s more than just a viewing tool, but will provide the Android market the best of both worlds — access to maps from well-known paper map publishers that work in tandem with the functionality of GPS devices.  We’re thrilled to finally make it available to a new market.”

    Unlike other map apps that provide one view of a location using GPS coordinates as most maps do, Avenza’s PDF Maps app expands a traveler’s choices, allowing them to access detailed geography or points of interest created by specific map publishers for use on land, sea or air.  PDF Maps app for Android allows consumers to access information while at a destination, providing users an opportunity to make the most of their time experiencing their environment rather than searching for cell reception to access directions.

    Currently, Avenza’s vast PDF Maps app library covers maps for domestic and international travel organized by state and area.  Android users will appreciate the breadth of tool management features available.  All maps — free and purchased — are accessible through the in-app map store and offer the following capabilities:

    • Add maps from the file system, Dropbox, a URL, email, or Map Store
    • Browse, purchase, and download maps from the Avenza Map Store (existing iOS PDF Maps accounts are compatible)”
    • Show GPS position on maps
    • Add Placemarks
    • Import and export KML
    • Find Coordinates
    • Measure Distance or Area
    • Open current view in Google Maps

    Avenza’s PDF Maps in-app Map Store features a variety of publishers that focus on recreational activities as well as all segments of the map-use market.  Below is a small sampling of maps available:

    • Camping and hiking including National Park Service maps and other regions of the world
    • Nautical and marine navigation including NOAA and FAA charts for North America and other regions of the world
    • Topographic use including USGS and Canadian Topographic maps and other regions of the world
    • Maps for tourists, transit, travel, special events, historic and much more

    PDF Maps is available now in the Google Play Store free of charge. For more information about PDF Maps, visit the Avenza website at www.avenza.com/pdf-maps. Pricing of each map is set by the publisher and free maps remain free to users through the PDF Maps app in-app store.

  • Hybrid Indoor Location to Dominate Billion Unit Smartphone Market

    ​Apple’s acquisition of WiFiSLAM has brought smartphone indoor location technologies to the fore. With more than 1 billion new smartphones forecast to use indoor location technologies in 2018, there are still significant opportunities for companies with the right technologies and strategies, according to a report by ABI Research.

    In ABI Research’s latest Location Technology report, “Smartphone Indoor Location Technologies,” it has forecast the adoption of different indoor location technologies, and the companies that are best placed to be successful. “We see a significant trend towards hybridization, with Wi-Fi, BLE and sensor fusion vital,” said senior analyst, Patrick Connolly.  “By 2014, hybrid solutions will have already surpassed standalone indoor location technologies on smartphones, with Wi-Fi and sensor fusion hybrid solutions reaching over 900 million units in 2018. Longer term, technologies around optical light, object recognition and LTE-direct are all forecast to offer differentiation.”

    “We are already seeing start-ups pivot out of this space, but there is still huge opportunity for partnerships and acquisitions with major Android handset vendors, carriers and large application developers,” said practice director Dominique Bonte. “Clearly Google is developing its own Wi-Fi indoor location solution; however, it may well open up its indoor location framework, enabling the market to expand much more rapidly. For IC vendors, with access to the hardware abstraction layer, indoor location innovation is vital for future socket wins.”

    These findings are part of ABI Research’s Location Technologies Research Service, which includes research analyses, market data, insights, and competitive assessments focused on the indoor location market.

  • Google Disappoints with Mobile Ad Revenue, Apple Shines

    Janice Partyka
    Janice Partyka

    It has been a busy month. Apple is getting help turning around its embarrassing mapping debacle with an acquisition of HopStop and Locationary. Latitude, which enables location sharing and check-ins, is being sunsetted by Google, as it adds that functionality to Google Plus. Twitter acquired Spindle to enable real-time location recommendations. Nokia, leading the charge in augmented reality, added LiveSight sight recognition into apps. And mobile advertising, the life blood of many location apps, is exceeding expectations for social media, but is disappointing with mobile search.

    In a week when Facebook’ mobile advertising revenue far exceeded analyst expectations and garnered 41 percent of the company’s revenue, Google’s advertising woes are particularly interesting. Second-quarter revenue results from Google indicate that mobile devices are depressing its online advertising prices at a rate greater than expected. Search-ad prices have been declining since late 2011, but Google’s numbers are still surprising low. The average cost-per-click rate, the price Google gets paid by advertisers, is down 6 percent from a year ago. This was double the drop expected by analysts. The decline is due in part from the lower cost-per-click on sites that are accessed from mobile devices than those seen from PCs.

    Earlier this year, I wrote about Google’s move to accelerate advertisers’ shift to mobile. The company overhauled its AdWords platform in February in an attempt to reach consumers across all device screens. This required advertisers to pay for mobile ads, even if they only wish to reach consumers via the desktop. Google saw this as a way to more revenue and insisted that an integrated platform would also benefit advertisers. The results have been disappointing and the switch to a mobile world may not be entirely good for Google.

    Whatever it Takes. Apple is hard at work overhauling its mapping. Apple has confirmed its acquisition of Locationary and HopStop. Locationary solves the problem of out-of-date points of interest and business data with a platform that collects and verifies crowd-sourced and other data. It also checks the actual physical location of businesses and other places. HopStop offers a door-to-door navigation app that includes transit, walking, biking, and taxi directions in more than 500 cities worldwide.

    Tweeting Spindle. Twitter has acquired Spindle, whose mobile search application leverages the social graph to deliver real-time local recommendations. The app harvests social media activity, including location and time of day, and identifies nearby restaurants, retail and other places in the vicinity. In March, Spindle added push notifications based on user preferences. Twitter has closed down the Spindle offering and is certain to repurpose it.

    Airport Trip Timing. Traffic is only one of the delays that can be encountered on a trip. Not knowing the expected wait time at airport security frustrates travelers. TripAdvisor has acquired GateGuru to provide security-time estimates, gate locations, and real-time flight status. The company collects information from a mix of user-generated content and data from airports. The offering also includes weather forecasts, detailed maps, and information on terminal amenities.

    Augmented Reality at Nokia. Augmented reality (AR) is a leap forward for mapping and is beginning to leave the realm of emerging technology and entering mainstream. Adding AR to maps creates an innate experience in which one can “see” a place with text or a superimposed image. Nokia, a leader in augmented reality, has added LiveSight, an integrated sight recognition technology into the Here suite of apps for some Window phones. Users can enter LiveSight mode, which will scan the surrounding area and pull up relevant information about nearby locations, like addresses, phone numbers, and ratings.Virtual signs are attached to buildings as viewed through the camera display. This can all be accessed off-line.

    Augmented Job Searching. One novel app is Nokia’s JobLens, which adds augmented reality to job hunting. Users can visually see jobs around them through the phone’s camera lens. A number of search filters help narrow down jobs, including filtering jobs that have a connection with one’s social networks. JobLens is integrated with LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and Windows Live. Data is provided by partners that include LinkedIn, Indeed, Salary.com and Zillow. When a user finds a job that she wants to apply for, the application will then walk her through the application process and keep track of her progress. Will the job pay in fictitious currency?

  • Apple Maps Another Foray, Still Needs Google

    Kevin Dennehy
    Kevin Dennehy

    By Kevin Dennehy

    Trying to shake off last year’s mapping debacle, Apple recently bought two companies, HopStop and Locationary.  The purchases, whose financial details were not disclosed, get Apple rooted once more in the location business; how firmly those roots prove to be, and how well they serve the company against arch-rival Google, time will tell.

    Apple has been stockpiling companies and mapping software since last year’s introduction of Apple Maps on iOS devices, which turned out to be a big fiasco. GPS World’s LBS Insider reported extensively on the problems Apple encountered with its mapping software. Some of these problems included sending drivers to a wrong location and direction.

    After the mapping software problems were made public, Apple CEO Tim Cook apologized for the mapping software’s problems and even suggested that users go to such competitors as Waze, MapQuest and Microsoft’s Bing. The fallout from the Maps debacle was swift.  Apple fired Richard Williamson, who oversaw the company’s Maps team, according to Bloomberg.  The company put pressure on Apple partner TomTom to update mapping data and consulting with third-party mapping experts.

    The fiasco proved how important maps and navigation are to users of mobile phones.  Industry experts noted two further points:

    • Maps are extremely hard to do, and
    • Maps are really important for a major platform to own, rather than rent from Google.

    Hopping Forward. The HopStop app provides directions to users in 600 urban areas, with an emphasis on mass transit — real-time transit maps and schedules —  as well as pedestrian- and bicycle-oriented guidance.

    HopStop’s purchase may be Apple’s answer to Google’s recent purchase of Waze.  HopStop traffic data, like Waze, is based on updates from people using the application; that is, crowd-sourced data.

    Staying With It. The Locationary acquisition constitutes a further measure to keep current, going beyond the pressure Apple put on partner TomTom.  Locationary checks on and seeks to eliminate out-of-date points of interest and business data with a platform that collects and verifies crowd-sourced and other data. It also checks the actual physical location of businesses and other places.

    Coming Inside. To top off the company’s location awareness, Apple is even getting into the hotly-contested indoor positioning and navigation space, spending $20 million for Silicon Valley start-up WiFiSLAM in late March. According to published reports, WiFiSLAM can pinpoint a user’s indoor location to within 8 feet, using Wi-Fi. Apple rival Google already has been in the indoor positioning and navigation market, mapping shopping malls, airports and sports venues in several countries.

    Google Maps Now Major Apple Feature

    Speaking of the strange bedfellows, Google recently rolled out an iOS version of Google Maps for use on the iPad. For the last nine months, iPad users who wanted to use Google Maps have been required to use one designed for the iPhone, according to published reports.  Google also updated the iPhone version of Google Maps.

    Both the iPhone and iPad mapping software feature live traffic updates during turn-by-turn navigation.  The app includes live incident reports, road closure information, construction sites, accident reports and other features.  Apparently, Apple users won’t get the rerouting capability that Android folks will get, according to published reports.

    Real Power. The cool factor, and one that industry experts believe is the real power of location-based services, is an “explore” function that both Apple and Android have with Google Maps. This proximity feature allows users to find nearby restaurants, shopping areas, gasoline and other sites. Google also introduced a rating system for the iOS application that allows users to rate restaurants and other businesses.

    The Google Maps for iOS also has turn-by-turn directions for bicyclists, featuring more than 330,000 miles of bike paths and trails worldwide.

    Previous versions of Google Maps, which were designed for the iPad, were removed by Apple last September.  Apple, to replace the version, brought out the infamous mapping software that featured many errors.

     

  • Oblique Imagery: The New Kids on the Block

    Last month I covered current vendors of ortho imagery with some pros and cons regarding the different sources. There wasn’t room to also include oblique imagery, so I’m covering that topic this month.

    I’ve been a very strong proponent of oblique imagery for many years based on my experience as the GIS manager for the Atlanta Regional Commission, where I found that there was no single geospatial tool that had such a positive and dramatic impact on our first responders as oblique imagery. (See my 2008 article that describes why.) I felt so strongly that it could make our troops more effective and help save lives that I joined Pictometry for a few years to help promote oblique imagery military projects. At that time, Pictometry was the only oblique game in town, since it had patent protection dealing with much of the technology. However, the patent protection is ending and many new players are entering the field.

    A Graflex camera circa World War I.
    A Graflex camera circa World War I.

    Early History

    Few people realize that the first serious aerial surveillance collections were oblique images taken with old Graflex cameras held out of a biplane cockpit. The images were good but users soon learned that it was a nightmare to try to assemble the oblique perspective images into a large mosaic. So analysts switched to ortho imagery that could be stitched together nicely, and we’ve been pretty much stuck in that straight down world. Fortunately, sophisticated algorithms and digital image processing have changed all of that.

    The underlying reason that oblique imagery works so well for visualization compared to ortho imagery is a function of our mind-eye vision referred to as anamorphic illusion.  Our eyes can look at 2D images and perceive them as 3D objects if the right visual cues are present. There are some interesting examples of anamorphic illusions on the web.

    So let’s look at the current sources of oblique imagery.

    Pictometry International, Corp.

    Pictometry has been the dominant force in oblique imagery capture for more than a decade, thanks partially to patents and surrounding technology the company has developed. Not only does Pictometry have the tools and technology to capture, serve and exploit the oblique imagery, it also amassed a huge library of images covering almost 90 percent of U.S. populated areas. Pictometry has desktop viewing software that permits users to view and measure almost any aspect related to the oblique image — x,y location, length, width, and very accurate heights, while also displaying overlaid GIS data including elevation data and contour lines. Pictometry does this by re-projecting the GIS vector data to match the trapezoidal footprint of a perspective oblique image. Pictometry also serves its extensive library of images, over two petabytes, through an online service called POL (Pictometry On Line). Users can view imagery and do the same measurements as with the desktop software.

    Pictometry's desktop viewing software.
    Pictometry’s desktop viewing software.

    My experience showed that the positional accuracy ranged in the 3- to 15-foot range. To meet USGS National Map standards, Pictometry developed AccuPlus, which includes ground surveys and image correction of the ortho view to meet USGS’s 30-cm product specification.

    For users who want to view and use the oblique imagery inside the ortho footprint ArcGIS environment, the Pictometry engineers developed a transform tool that effectively stretches the back of the trapezoidal oblique footprint to a rectangular image that can be used just like an ortho image but with an oblique view. The only downside is that without perspective the image looks a little funny. Note this example and the fact that the garage is the same width in front as in back. This is what happens when the perspective is removed. This transform tool is now part of ESRI’s ImageServer so users can import an oblique image and the transformation is automatic. Pictometry also supplies oblique imagery for Microsoft Bing, called the Birdseye View.  The imagery supplied for Bing has slightly less resolution and cannot be measured, as with Pictometry software.

    The Pictometry transform tool.
    The Pictometry transform tool.

    Woolpert, Inc.

    Woolpert has been in the oblique imagery capture business almost as long as Pictometry, but it uses a completely different technology, the push broom method. Most oblique capture systems take five oblique single frame photos — north, south, east, west, and straight down.  Those oblique images show natural perspective so the image footprint is a trapezoid. Woolpert uses a three-camera system – one ortho and a forward and aft oblique image scanner. The continuous 45-degree scanning has a big benefit in that the system produces an oblique image with a true ortho footprint right out of the box, so the resultant oblique image can be viewed by GIS software as if it was an ortho image. The down side of push broom capture is that the geometry of tall buildings is distorted so that some of the buildings seem to lean toward each other.

    The Sanborn Map Company, Inc.

    Sanborn is a large and well-established aerial imagery firm now getting into the oblique business. Although I haven’t had any broad experience with its imagery and navigation tools, the online demo has a very slick interface and very nice quality imagery.  Try it yourself.  As an oblique newcomer, Sanborn’s coverage is limited, and I can’t judge its accuracy, but it has a strong reputation of producing quality work and products so it is a company to watch. Some of the company’s imagery is credited as part of Google Maps, but both are secretive as to the extent or parameters.

    Fugro EarthData, Inc.

    I’ve had no personal experience with Fugro data and software, but I did see a trade show demo of its software, PanoramiX. The software and imagery looked good, but as a newcomer its image library is limited and the accuracy of its imagery is unknown.

    GEOSPAN, Corp.

    On its website, GEOSPAN lists oblique imagery capture in addition to Street level imagery, orthophotography, 3D models, street centerline creation, and GIS feature extraction. There is no information available as to coverage or accuracy.

    ControlCam

    ControlCam is the newest entry into the oblique market. It is a Florida-based aerial imagery company that pioneered and perfected a process of identifying cable TV leaks through the use of aerial surveillance. The company owns and manages its own fleet of aircraft  capturing both orthogonal and oblique imagery. ControlCam will soon launch a software platform, including a mobile app, that will permit clients to have quick and seamless access to the imagery with measurement tools.  The sample image shown here is 2-inch GSD, very nice for a newcomer to the oblique business.

    A ControlCam image.
    A ControlCam image.

    Microsoft Bing and Google

    If you have any doubt about the popularity and value of oblique imagery, just look at Bing Maps and Google Maps, the two elephants battling for eyes-on-site time. Both have incorporated oblique imagery in their viewers. Both bring up the oblique views as you zoom in from a high-level ortho image, then transition to street-level imagery. The key difference is that Bing uses Pictometry oblique images, which show a natural perspective, and Google uses oblique imagery from different sources. Bing shifts from one optimal oblique to another while Google stitches together multiple oblique images. This multiple-image stitch is good at ground level, but causes funny building lean similar to a push-broom capture (see the sample images). Both are very good for their intended purpose, but neither permits measurement, nor do they include accurate metadata.

    By their own admission and licensing agreements, neither Bing nor Google claim to be authoritative GIS data sources. So be cautious how you use their imagery. Note the problem I cited in my article last month about a police SWAT team raid using Google. Another issue for federal users is FARS and licensing restrictions, so make sure your legal staff reads the fine print.

    A Google oblique image.
    A Google oblique image.
    A Bing oblique image.
    A Bing oblique image.

    Other Systems

    If you’d like to do a deep dive into oblique cameras and capture systems including overseas operations, I recommend reading “Systematic Oblique Aerial Photography Using Multiple Digital Cameras” by Professor Emeritus Gordon Petrie of the University of Glasgow. In his presentation he quotes the ISPRS 2008 Congress that “There is a strong movement towards combining traditional nadir images with oblique images acquired at high angles to build 3D models of cities with the texture of building walls taken from the oblique photos. For non-specialists in the emergency services (military, police, fire and ambulance), the combination of oblique and nadir images improves their interpretation while special software allows simple measurements on the oblique photos.”

    The Future

    I have no doubt that within a few years the zoom-in from space to orthos, obliques, accurate 3D models, ground-level imagery, and interiors of buildings will be smooth and seamless. Ultimately, accurate, detailed and up-to-date 3D models draped with actual imagery, not textures, will be optimal. This will be especially important if 3D or holographic display technology reach acceptable quality levels. 3D model creation keeps improving, and I believe that the merging of ortho imagery, oblique imagery, LiDAR, and ground-level photos with more powerful computers and software will make accurate 3D models practical and ubiquitous.

    For some closing amusement, somewhat related to our current discussion, take a look at what 360 Cities is doing with very high resolution fixed panoramic cameras.  Note the 80 gigapixel photo of London and this zoom-in to a London Eye giant Ferris wheel pod.  Although coverage is limited to one viewer location, I could see this being one of several resources to drape 3D modes.

    Contact me at [email protected].

    A zoom-in on the London Eye with 360 Cities.
    A zoom-in on the London Eye with 360 Cities.

  • Expert Advice: Cooperative Updates with Maps 2.0

    Oliver Kuhn, Skobbler
    Oliver Kuhn, Skobbler

    By Oliver Kühn, Skobbler

    Not so long ago, paper maps were a necessity in many walks of life. Today, they are increasingly a nostalgic novelty, to coin a term.

    It’s not difficult to understand why digital maps replaced their paper brethren. Digital maps are more accurate, more adaptable, and most importantly, in an increasingly real-time environment, much faster at making the appropriate updates and amends.

    Now, however, digital mapping finds itself at a crossroads. Crowdsourced navigation platforms like OpenStreetMap — affectionately referred to as the “Wikipedia of maps” — are forcing digital maps and the map-building process to evolve significantly. As a result, the future of mapping is now in the hands of location enthusiasts and everyday map users. These people are redefining what a map is, how data is sourced and utilized, and how much it can cost to harness that information both efficiently and effectively. Those of us who have been in this space for years can see the writing on the wall.

    Some, however, are eager to write off crowdsourced mapping. Corporate digital map providers, for instance, often refer dismissively to these mapping platforms as “hobby maps.” Nevertheless, they recognize the potential for change such innovation brings and are vulnerable to it.

    What potential? Consider the benefits attainable through a crowdsourced approach, in the following sections.

    Scalability

    As with any process, cost is critical. It is particularly core to building a digital map. Truth be told, the fewer dollars ultimately spent on a map’s construction, the more its long-term operational preservation and, through that, scalability can be ensured. Despite massive innovation in our field, collecting data and creating a usable international digital map is far from cost-effective or efficient today. Candidly, it is one of the clunkier processes in technology, perhaps because it appears compulsory.

    Look no further than Google, which spends billions of dollars a year to maintain its platform, yet we marvel at the huge scope of its operation. In truth, it is an effort in dire need of real streamlining. Google, via its recent acquisition of Waze, along with Navteq, TeleAtlas, and the like, leverage laser-enabled cars and high-tech backpacks that are astoundingly inefficient from a pricing standpoint, costing hundreds of thousands of dollars. Nokia’s Map Mobiles, for example, are each outfitted with more than $25,000 of computing equipment.

    To think this is sustainable in the long term, on an international level, is wrong. It will inevitably cripple a map’s quality and viability, with corporate providers choosing to limit global detail and upkeep to balance costs.

    For crowdsourced map platforms, this problem does not exist. They can and are scaling rapidly, without the exorbitant costs corporate players are used to — and tired of. These costs secondarily manifest in mapping service usage fees for third parties, as well as subscription costs for consumer navigaton products. For either use case (business-to-business or business-to-consumer) crowdsourcing delivers cost benefits traditional players cannot match. Again, this leads directly to scalability, with crowdsourcing the most enduring maps option.

    Same time, same place — different look. Crowdsourced OpenStreetMap (left) and Nokia map (right) of central Berlin, Germany. Photo: Oliver Kühn
    Same time, same place — different look. Crowdsourced OpenStreetMap (left) and Nokia map (right) of central Berlin, Germany. Photo: Oliver Kühn

    Detail

    Crowdsourced mapping services and platforms like OpenStreetMap are more than just cost-efficienct tools to coax scale. As a crowdsourced dataset built using more than a million dedicated mappers, OpenStreetMap inherently delivers benefits above and beyond those obtained from corporate map providers like TeleAtlas and Navteq.

    The most visible benefit is the unrivaled map quality. With an army of contributors, the data dynamically and constantly evolves — just as places do. Locations are rarely fixed or stable. They change and progress over time. No other service or platform can immediately provide developers with the real-time, on-the-ground granularity of a crowdsourced map. Google and the others are trying, but the costs they incur will ultimately be too taxing to maintain detail.

    Firsthand influence carries equal weight. Mappers who edit an open-source map have often had personal interactions with a place or locale. They know places intimately, and this makes their contributions detailed, rich, and hyperlocal. More companies and developers are looking to OpenStreetMap for this reason: they want to future-proof their services and products, making sure that they always have the best and most up-to-date data. Only a platform like OpenStreetMap can do this. Corporate map providers are painfully aware of it, too.

    Flexibility

    Google owns Google Maps, and TeleAtlas owns its TomTom platform. Not surprisingly, this affects what a third party, whether an automotive company or a travel brand, can and cannot do with the service. It is essentially a copyrighted product like an MP3, an audio digital file. So, Google can limit the way you visually render and showcase its platform. Needless to say, this can be suffocating for those interested in building their own unique services. This is what makes crowdsourced mapping such a significant development for those interested in integrating additional data with a digital map. Do with OpenStreetMap what you will, visually or design-wise; there are absolutely no limitations. Every map can be made unique and rendered differently. This also speaks to the flexibility of crowdsourcing more generally.

    Beyond design, crowdsourced maps can harness the data to build completely new maps that cater to a specific concept, creating thematic maps for different uses, such as walking, hiking, bicycling, routes for those with disabilities, and more. More traditional digital maps lack this flexibility; it affords possibilities to source non-traditional location data to build even more accurate maps.

    The Future — Through Cars

    Despite the fact that crowdsourced maps are forcing digital mapping to adopt a more scalable, cost-efficient, detailed, flexible andaltogether long-term approach, digital mapping definitely has room to grow.

    One of the most exciting opportunities for crowdsourced maps specifically, and digital maps generally, lies in car user data, which is just coming into its own. Cars are obviously one of the largest travel tools utilized by individuals on a daily basis, and, with the advent of the connected car, the data that they collect via internal/external sensors has grown more nuanced, granular, and specific over the years.

    Cars are simply getting smarter, with sensors capable of providing everything from weather conditions to speed-zone information.

    Making this information available in the cloud and combining it with data available via crowdsourced mapping platforms produces remarkable possibilities for innovation.

    Imagine adding road-condition data, as just one example, to crowdsourced mapping services. By marrying a crowdsourced map with crowdsourced car-sensor data, the map’s overall utility multiplies immeasurably.

    To avoid missteps that have positioned companies like Google to spend billions on building a digital mapping service — unsustainable long-term figures — we must always look to embrace that which is cutting-edge. We find that today in crowdsourced mapping platforms, as they enable us to maintain, update, and enrich maps as never before. We must also consider the limitations of the cutting edge and understand how to improve the latest innovation (car-sensor data, and more) before the once cutting edge becomes the next paper map, so to speak. This is key to evolving maps for the better and for the future.

    Oliver Kühn has an MBA from the University of Cologne, Germany. He has 10 years of location-based service experience and was Head of Product Management Special Projects at navigation systems specialist Navigon AG (acquired by Garmin). In late 2008, he co-founded skobbler GmbH, being responsible for business development and legal matters. He is also a board member of the OpenStreetMap Foundation.

  • Google’s $1.1 Billion Purchase of Waze Under FTC Scrutiny

    Google’s $1.1 Billion Purchase of Waze Under FTC Scrutiny

    Kevin Dennehy
    Kevin Dennehy

    In a year of ho-hum location deals, or the lack of any, the recent Google purchase of Waze for more than $1 billion is a big one. In fact, readers of GPS World magazine’s LBS Insider would have to go back to the summer of 2007, when TomTom purchased Tele Atlas and Nokia bought Navteq, to find an industry acquisition as big as this one.

    The Federal Trade Commission is reviewing Google’s $1.1 billion acquisition of Israel-based mapping startup Waze, according to published reports.  The big issue is that while Waze’s revenue was too low to trigger automatic review by the FTC, it may have hundreds of millions of users worldwide.

    The fact that Google’s acquisition of Waze has caught the FTC’s attention is not unusual, said Mike Dobson, TeleMapics president, who authors a location industry blog at www.telemapics.com. “Google, in an attempt to speed the acquisition, declared that the assets of Waze based in the United States are worth less than the $70.9 million that requires an antitrust review. Google maintains, and I agree, that the majority of the [intellectual property] for which they were willing to pay $1 billion was created in Israel, where it is currently located, and in that location it continues to be revised and enhanced,” he said.

    One of the supposed reasons, which were publicized in media reports, is that the deal with Facebook fell through because the social media giant wanted to relocate the Waze development activities to the U.S. and the Israel-based company declined.

    Google’s purchase of Waze ends months of rumors and stops other suitors, including Facebook, Apple and Microsoft, from moving in on the mapping startup. Google has said that its mapping technology will be incorporated into Waze.

    The Waze deal may strengthen Google, but won’t be the deciding factor on whether it has an unfair advantage in the [location] market, said Marc Prioleau, president of Prioleau Advisors. “They will have that regardless of Waze. I am not sure the criteria for the FTC, but I think Waze is just a spark to trigger a look at Google’s mapping position overall,” he said. “The FTC will have a hard time making the case that Google dominates the industry when Google can point to market share for Apple Maps, Nokia/Here [through its own sites as well as Bing, Amazon, Facebook and others] and even MapQuest, which stubbornly hangs on to a high market share with the over-50 demographic.”

    When it comes down to it, it is all about money. “It appears that the FTC’s preliminary interest in the Google acquisition of Waze is in determining if the U.S.-based assets are worth more than $70.9 million, and whether or not Google’s position regarding the Waze IP being located in Israel is justified,” Dobson said. “Many would argue that a considerable portion of the value of the Waze IP affects consumers in the United States, resides on cell phones of users in the United States, and has a functional impact in the United States beyond the $70.9 million that Google is claiming. Functional impact is a difficult issue, but since Waze generates little income, Google is probably in a good position here.”

    Dobson said that other pundits are commenting that the problem here is that Noam Bardin, Waze CEO, described Google as its only competition during a recent press conference. “Oh, how unusual, someone selling their company trying to increase the value of the company,” he said. “Has everyone forgotten about Nokia and TomTom? Does anyone really think they are incapable of competing with Google, Waze or the combination of both companies?”

    Google Made Strategic Decision Not to Buy Tele Atlas and Navteq                          

    Dobson said that, more troubling for the FTC and other antitrust interests, is this:  If Google wanted to monopolize the mapping world, why did it not choose to bid (or counterbid) when Navteq and Tele Atlas were sold in 2007?

    “I think the answer to this question is quite plain. Google did not participate in either acquisition because it had tried both companies’ data and found that the content quality and spatial coverage was not quite what Google had set as goals when developing its strategy for mapping. Instead, Google built its own ‘map machine’ and has managed to out-innovate either of these companies over the last several years,” Dobson said. “In addition, both Nokia and TomTom have fallen on hard times, not because of Google’s success, but because both companies overpaid for the assets they acquired, just before a worldwide economic downturn. Reduced budgets (for research and compilation) at TomTom and Nokia have had a lot to do with Google’s success in the mapping world.”

    The big deal in Google’s interest in Waze lies in the success that the mapping startup has had in capturing traffic information, as well as how it has attracted a large user community willing to contribute traffic data, Dobson said.

    “I doubt that Google will find that the map coverage provided by Waze has data they have not already mapped and mapped more exhaustively than Waze. However, it is somewhat camp to be an ‘anybody but Google’ fan boy and I suspect conspiracy theories about the acquisition will abound,” Dobson said. “I doubt that the FTC will find anything actionable. If Google were to announce next week that it was acquiring Inrix, I suspect that the FTC might have a real case with real antitrust issues.”

    While Waze hasn’t generated much revenue, its real-time maps and traffic information are valuable. This value was magnified last year when Apple tried to replace Google Maps on the iPhone with a not-so-good alternative.

    Analysts are looking around at what other companies are out there as potential acquisition targets — particularly as the smartphone industry becomes even more competitive. The apps on the smartphones will need to be distinguishable, particularly the mapping systems and capability, say several analysts.

    One company that stands out as a potential acquisition target is TomTom, which is the last independent provider of digital maps, now that Navteq was gobbled up by Nokia.

    Send all of your LBS stories to [email protected].

  • The Race to Own Mapping

    Mapping turned up the heat in June, becoming a hot topic across the board. Apple ended negotiations to buy Waze, a provider of crowd sourced mapping and traffic, reportedly because the company did not want to relocate from Israel. Google quickly took Apple’s place as Waze’s buyer. With almost 50 million drivers using Waze, many via Apple Maps, Google would get another leg up in the race to own mapping. The connected car industry, gathered in Detroit last week, discussed the need for intelligibility in the market, particularly more organized categories of offerings.  Also of interest this month is the backpack-mounted Google Trekker used to map the world where cars don’t go, as well as the LocationTech working group.

    Surprisingly, reaction to Google’s sweeping design of new personalized maps, now in limited release, has been muted.  The maps show landmarks, restaurants, and other details tailored to the user’s plans, habits, and interests that will become increasingly individualized with usage. One person’s map may include bars and public pools, another’s may include book stores and playgrounds. Google also introduced other map features like blending of Google’s place images, 360 degree views within retail shops, and 3-D satellite images of earth without a plug-in or download needed.

    Connected Car Gathering. At Telematics Detroit last week, the connected car industry tried to reach much-needed clarity on the state of the connected car, with attention to standardization, consolidation, increased collaboration, and partnership. Many are trying to build a smartphone experience in the car but, “compared to a mobile phone, you’re always going to lose,” said Robert Acker of Harman. “The car is another device on the ‘Internet of Things,’ and we need to optimize that thing for consuming content while driving. Don’t make it a bigger smartphone device. That’s all Google or Apple can do. Rather, completely change the paradigm. Make it totally seamless; introduce gesture, head-up displays, steering controls. Make it truly revolutionized for the customer.”

    Auto OEMs Are Changing Really. Smartphone-like capability in the vehicle is revitalizing the staid OEM industry and has encouraged car manufacturers to take more risk and speed up development time. It used to be de rigueur that a car maker would first pick a supplier like Denso to build a component, like a radio. “Now the automotive companies are first choosing a platform and layering on companies to build the solution. Tech companies are specialists,” says David Jumpa of Airbiquity. “We stand in the middle of the platform that makes it all work together.”  Jumpa expects connected car services to get bundled and consumers to pay a subscription fee.

    Freedom to Choose. To the unhappiness of wireless carriers, the automotive industry is planning on building cars with embedded subscriber identity module (SIM). Unlike current SIM cards that are carrier-specific, these are universal SIM cards that would enable customers to pick their vehicle’s wireless carrier and then change it at will. For OEMs, embedding SIM cards creates great efficiency. SIM cards can’t be easily replaced, as they must be soldered into vehicles because of vibration and shock. With OEMs shipping vehicles to multiple countries that have different carriers, a universal SIM card provides great flexibility and cost savings. Apple once tried to pursue an embedded SIM card and the carriers rose against it, but let’s see how the OEMs fare.

    Mapping the World on Your Back. You’ve probably seen cars loaded with GPS and cameras for mapping streets. It is less likely you’ve seen mapping trikes, carts, or new photo-mapping backpack. Google uses the Trekker, a 42-pound backpack equipped with GPS and 15 cameras. Every 2.5 seconds it takes a picture as a person lugs it along trails, narrow streets, alleys, and mountains. Photos are stitched together to create panoramic images for StreetView.

    Location Collaboration. A new initiative, LocationTech, has arrived on the location scene and is dedicated to individual and company collaboration on open-source software with an emphasis on location. The non-profit Eclipse Foundation, has created the working group LocationTech, led by Oracle, IBM, OpenGeo, and Actuate. LocationTech will allow companies to jointly develop and deploy components that bring location awareness to enterprise IT. “No single vendor can address the range of issues our LocationTech working group members are going to solve,” said Mike Milinkovich of Eclipse. “By creating a multi-vendor, open platform for location technologies, we intend to spur even broader adoption of location aware products, devices and services.” LocationTech might sound similar to the Open Geospatial Consortium (OGC) and the Open Source Geospatial Foundation (OSGeo); however, LocationTech offers full-service support and staffing for open-source location-aware technologies.