Comtech Awarded $29 Million for Location Services
Company's location technology to be part of government tracking system
Comtech CMTL 0.00%↑ has announced that it has been awarded a $29 million contract from Al Yah Satellite Communications Co. [YAHSAT] for communications technologies and location services that will operate on Yahsat’s Thuraya 4-NGS satellite constellation.
Comtech said it will design, develop, install, integrate, and test communications and location-based technologies for Yahsat’s Location Tracking Services Platform and User Terminals. Comtech’s offerings will help enable blended communications and enhanced location-based services for end users of Yahsat’s network, the company said.
The deal highlights the advantages of blending satellite and terrestrial technologies for worldwide commercial and government customers, said Ken Peterman, Comtech president and CEO.
The LTS platform, set to be operational in 2025 and marketed to government entities, includes have four versions: personnel, vehicular, maritime and aeronautical terminals. When combined with Thuraya’s satellite network, LTS will offer secure satcom tracking, messaging, and Push-to-Talk (PTT) service to customers.
While focusing on government customers, Yahsat said the LTS system is ideal for personnel and asset tracking. Thuraya also offers a tracking and monitoring service called SeaLite for maritime services.
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T-Mobile Signs Roadside Assistance Deal With AAA
T-Mobile TMUS 0.00%↑ has partnered with AAA to provide connectivity for the organization’s roadside assistance fleets nationwide. Under the terms of the agreement, T-Mobile will use Geotab fleet telematics solutions to provide AAA roadside assistance fleet managers with data and reports on driver behavior, route optimization, fuel economy and vehicle health, among others.
While financial details were not disclosed, T-Mobile said the deal was a long-term agreement. In addition, the company already has outfitted thousands of AAA roadside assistance technicians with 5G phones.
This is a big deal as AAA, with more than 63 million members, responds to more than 30 million roadside assistance calls each year.
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Introducing Latest Nav Sensor from CTi Sensors
CTi Sensors has released a high-performance Inertial Navigation System aided with multi-constellation GNSS measurements (INS/GNSS). The CS-GN300 combines the latest in inertial sensors and GNSS modules with an advanced fusion algorithm, all packaged into a beautifully compact form factor.
3D position, velocity, and orientation are supplied at 200 Hz as are measurements from 3-axis accelerometer, gyroscope, and mangetometer. The GNSS receiver is multi-constellation and supports GPS, GLONASS, BeiDou, Galileo, SBAS, and QZSS constellations.
The CS-GN300 is configured for easy setup and includes all that is needed to hit the ground running. Use the included CTi Sensor Connect GUI software to begin testing within minutes or integrate the sensor into your own data acquisition workflow.
Other Applications:
Mapping and surveying
Automotive and ground-vehicle testing
Off-road vehicle testing
Marine applications
Unmanned Autonomous Vehicles (UAVs)
Simulation Localization And Mapping (SLAM)
Beyond Visual Line Of Sight navigation (BVLOS)
Precision agricultural
Construction applications
Machine control and automation
Robotics application
For more information, click here.
Contact: CTi Sensors, (440) 264-2370, info@ctisensors.com, www.ctisensors.com.
Wialon Telematics Platform Reaches 3.5 Million Connected Vehicles
Gurtam has announced that its Wialon telematics and IoT platform has enabled more than 3.5 million units connected worldwide. When counting connected vehicles and other assets, Gurtam claims Wailon it is now the largest fleet management platform in the world.
These numbers include not only cargo and passenger vehicle fleets, but special machinery as well as such stationary units as generators and fuel storage.
While many industry observers say Geotab is the world’s large fleet management company, Wailon, which says it has more than 2,400 partners, said it reached the 3.5-million connected vehicle when it installed a fleet of ambulances in Africa. Overall, the company said it gained these large numbers predominately operating in France and West Africa.
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Luminar Accused of Passing off Chip Design as Its Own Technology
Lidar company Luminar LAZR 0.00%↑ has been accused of passing off a future chip design as its own technology at a recent investor conference, according to Forbes. Israeli startup LidWave sent a cease-and-desist letter to Luminar last week asking it to remove the image from its website.
Luminar has since removed and replaced the chip image from its website and issued a statement denying intellectual property theft allegations.
LidWave also notified the Securities and Exchange Commission, saying that Luminar misused its product image to promote its company to investors, according to the Forbes article.
Luminar has made strong moves in a very competitive autonomous vehicle market. At CES, Location Business News reported that the company purchased HD mapping startup San Francisco-based Civil Maps to make it more than just a lidar company.
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Top Stories:
Geoflex Raises €6 Million to Market Its Hypergeolocation Services (in French, but can be translated to English). Geoflex completed a 6-million euro Series A round. Investors include Groupe Bouygues, Stellantis and Thales.
Maps:
🗺 TomTom joins the OpenStreetMap Foundation as its first Platinum Member. “TomTom [TOM2] is contributing 20,000 euros to the OSMF as the first corporate OSM member to join the foundation at the Platinum level.”
🤔 Google Maps, Waze Force Top Sat-Nav Company to Abandon the Fight. “Navman is leaving the sat-nav market in Australia, planning to focus entirely on dashcams in the long term.”
👏 Google Maps Immersive View Finally Appears To Be Rolling Out. “After being announced almost a year ago back at I/O 2022, Google Maps “Immersive View” finally appears to be rolling out more widely.”
📱 Waze Route Plans Will Now Include Electric Vehicle Charger Locations. “The new app feature will let you specify your EV type and the relevant charging plug, which you can use to filter just the appropriate charging stations.”
Connected and Autonomous Vehicles:
😮 Wialon Telematics Platform Reaches 3.5 Million Connected Vehicles Worldwide. “The firm said it’s now the largest fleet management platform in the world by number of connected vehicles and other assets.”
🛺 GM’s Autonomous Cruise Origin Shuttle Is Still All Dressed Up With Nowhere To Go. “It’s particularly irksome for GM’s Cruise division, which has allocated precious manufacturing capacity to build and then deploy some 2,500 Origin vehicles. But that plan has been on hold this year pending approval from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.”
🙂 Self-driving Startup Gatik to Double Workforce, Strikes Kroger Deal. “Gatik will double its workforce by year end, a top executive said, after it announced a deal on Wednesday with grocer Kroger to transport goods within its Dallas network.”
😦 California Bill Would Require Drivers in Autonomous Trucks. “Introduced in January, the bill would impose a de facto ban on autonomous trucks in the state by requiring a human operator.”
👍 GM Files Patent For Lidar System. “The system could be used in conjunction with upcoming GM autonomous vehicle technology.”
🚚 Ford Connects to Webfleet's OEM.connect To Boost Fleet Performance. “By joining [Webfleet’s] OEM.connect programme, American auto giant Ford F 0.00%↑ will bypass the in-vehicle hardware installation process for its connected passenger cars and vans, directly accessing OEM.connect to use telematics technology.”
Drones:
🛩 Drone Delivery Is About To Get Real. “Zipline and Wing, two of the world's leading drone delivery companies, are amping up their operations in preparation for wide-scale U.S. deployment starting next year.”
👏 Self-Steering Droids Define Zipline's New Platform 2 Drone Delivery Service. “The P2 Zip proceeds to fly to the destination address, staying at an altitude of at least 300 feet the whole time. Once it reaches that location, it hovers in place while lowering the droid down on a retractable tether.”
Rail:
TTX Begins Equipping Boxcars and Auto Racks With GPS Tracking Devices. “The car pooling company, which is owned by the Class I railroads, aims to equip 1,700 new and existing boxcars by the end of the year, along with hundreds of auto racks.”
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Location Industry Briefs
Send your news releases to kdennehy@driverlessreport.com. Go to www.locationbusinessnews.com for more news and an archive of stories.
GMV and u-blox Partner
GMV and u-blox [UBXN] recently partnered at the MWC 2023 to combine u-blox’s GNSS receiver hardware with GMV’s safe correction service, sensor fusion and positioning engine for the automotive industry.
From the 2nd quarter 2023, u-blox will commercialize the solution. Both companies will provide integration service and certification support for ADAS 2+ and up to full vehicle autonomy, the companies said.
Contact: GMV, marketing@gmv.com, www.gmv.com.
Safran Consolidates Business Units
Safran Electronics & Defense has consolidated its positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) technology and another unit into one called Navigation & Timing.
The new Navigation & Timing unit will include inertial measurement technologies and control; systems, algorithms, and architectures for interference detection and mitigation; sensor fusion and update technologies; GNSS technologies, including simulation; and clocks and timing
Contact: Charles Jones, Safran, charles.jones@nav-timing.safrangroup.com, www.safran-navigation-timing.com.
HERE Earns HITRUST Certified Status
HERE Technologies has announced that its HERE Location Services, including Indoor Map to support indoor positioning, geocoding and routing services, has earned certified status for information security by HITRUST. The organization says HERE has met key regulations and industry-defined requirements and is appropriately managing risk, the company said. The HITRUST Assurance Program helps organizations address security and data protection challenges.
Contact: Jordan Stark, HERE Technologies, (312) 316-4537, Jordan.stark@here.com, www.here.com.
Samsung Announces UWB Chipset for Mobile, Automotive Devices
Samsung Electronics Co. has announced its first ultra-wideband chipset, the Exynos Connect U100. With single-digit centimeter accuracy, the new UWB solution is tailored for mobile, automotive and IoT devices, offering precise distance and location information, the company said.
Leveraging time of arrival (ToA) and 3D angle of arrival (AoA) measurements, Samsung’s Exynos Connect U100 provides an accuracy of single-digit centimeters and under five degrees. This makes it especially useful when tracking location in challenging indoor environments where GPS is unavailable as well as for AR and VR applications that require exact and real-time tracking of moving people, the company said.
Contact: Ujeong Jahnke, Samsung Semiconductor Europe, 49(0)89-45578-1000, sseg.comm@samsung.com.
NOAA Selects Woolpert for Hydrographic Survey
Woolpert has been selected by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association to perform hydrographic surveying and collect bathymetric data for hydrodynamic modeling in the Chesapeake Bay Watershed. The $5.5 million award with a $1.4 million option, funded in part by the bipartisan Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, is being administered through NOAA’s Office of Coast Survey hydrographic services contract, the company said.
Woolpert will mobilize five hydrographic survey vessels that are equipped with multibeam and side-scan sonar systems out of the firm’s East Coast hydrographic hub in Charleston, S.C. Vessel locations will be displayed in real time through a customized GIS dashboard, the company said.
Contact: Woolpert, woolpert.com.
Quectel Rolls Out IoT Module at Embedded World
Quectel Wireless Solutions has launched the CC200A-LB satellite module for IoT industries, which uses satellite IoT connectivity provided by ORBCOMM. The company said applications include maritime, transportation, heavy equipment, agriculture, mining, and oil and gas monitoring.
The CC200A-LB module is designed to enable communications in remote areas without cellular network coverage, the company said. The module also supports multi-constellation GNSS and supports intuitive AT command set, the company said.
Contact: Phil Rawcliffe, Quectel, phil.rawcliffe@quectel.com, www.quectel.com.
AARP Launches Free App to Reward Safe-Driving Practices
AARP has launched a free smartphone app that empowers drivers to stay safe behind the wheel by analyzing driving behaviors linked to increasing safety and preventing crashes. AARP SafeTrip measures driving quality based on acceleration, braking, cornering, speeding and phone usage, and rewards success in each area or encourages improvement if needed, the company said.
AARP SafeTrip was developed jointly with Cambridge Mobile Telematics (CMT) and AARP Driver Safety.
Contact: Alex Guerin, AARP, (202) 710-0472, aguerin@aarp.org, AARP.org/drive.
Qorvo Demonstrates UWB Indoor Navigation
Qorvo QRVO 0.00%↑ demonstrated its ultra-wideband-based indoor navigation system running on a smartphone at last week's Embedded World 2023. The navigation demonstration leveraged Qorvo's DW3720 UWB solution integrated in a smartphone, along with DW3000-based anchors and location expertise from Pinpoint GmbH. Qorvo's UWB solutions are tailored to automotive, smartphone, consumer and industrial IoT markets.
Contact: Alexis Mariani, Qorvo, (336) 678-5605, alexis.mariani@qorvo.com, www.qorvo.com.
Topcon Announces GNSS Option for Machine Control Solution
Topcon Positioning Systems has announced a GNSS option for its MC-Mobile compact machine control solution. The GNSS option allows contractors to integrate their compact machines into fleets already powered by location technology, the company said.
The MC-X architecture combines Sitelink3D connectivity platform and IMUs and GNSS receivers that tailor solutions directly to a contractor’s workflow, the company said.
Contact: Staci Fitzgerald, Topcon Positioning Group, (925) 245-8610, corpcomm@topcon.com, www.topconpositioning.com.
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IntelliShift Partners With Data Xchange
IntelliShift partnered with Data Xchange at CONEXPO-CON/AGG 2023 in a deal that enables the company to integrate with Trimble TRMB 0.00%↑Viewpoint and Sage construction industry enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems. The first phase of this partnership with Data Xchange empowers mutual customers to automate the flow of data between Trimble Viewpoint Vista and IntelliShift, the company said.
Contact: Ryan Driscoll, IntelliShift, Ryan.driscoll@intellishift.com, www.intellishift.com.
Garmin Rolls Out Outdoor Navigation Devices
Garmin GRMN 0.00%↑ has announced the GPSMAP 67 Series and the eTrex SE outdoor navigation devices. The new lineup features multi-GNSS for better coverage in challenging environments, the company said.
The GPSMAP 67/67i features multi-band support that uses multiple frequencies for improving positioning accuracy, the company said. In addition, the GPSMAP 67i with inReach technology lets users stay in contact with friends and family even without cell service through interactive SOS to the 24/7-staffed Garmin Response Center, the company said.
Contact: Mike Cummings, Garmin, (913) 397-8200, media.relations@garmin.com.
Sateliot Joins GCF
The Global Certification Forum (GCF) has announced that Sateliot, which offers NB-IoT connectivity on its LEO constellation, will be industry’s first satellite operator to become a member of GCF. The collaboration will align and speed up the market availability of certified 3GPP Rel-17 NTN LEO-supported IoT chipsets and modules, the organization said. GCF recently introduced the 3GPP Rel-17 NB-IoT/eMTC support for Non-Terrestrial Networks (NTN) specification, the organization said.
Contact: Marc Figuerola Delgado, for Sateliot, 34 682 032 121, pr@mindsetcomms.com.
Fairview Rolls Out Mil-Spec GPS/GNSS Antennas
Fairview Microwave has introduced a series of mil-spec GPS/GNSS antennas for mobile and small form factor applications. Fairview's mil-spec GPS/GNSS antennas provide coverage from 1597 MHz to 1607 MHz—and are available in active and passive versions, the company said.
These MIL-STD-810G GPS/GNSS antennas include multi-standard GPS L1, Galileo E1 and Glonass options and are designed for environmental performance according to the MIL-STD-810G standard.
Contact: Peter McNeil, Fairview Microwave, (978) 682-6936, sales@fairviewmicrowave.com.
Airgain Says Railroad Company Selects NimbeLink Asset Trackers
Airgain AIRG 0.00%↑ has announced today that “a leading provider of railcars” selected its NimbeLink asset tracking solution to track and monitor its fleet. The NimbeLink asset trackers combine a cellular backbone with WiFi and GPS triangulation to pinpoint the location of each asset, the company said. In addition, Airgain’s asset trackers come equipped with multiple sensors that include temperature, humidity, tilt, motion, accelerometer and more.
Contact: Brian Critchfield, Airgain, (760) 579-0200 ext. 5412, media@airgain.com, www.airgain.com.
Road Ready Unveils GPS-Based Asset Tracking
Clarience Technologies’ Road Ready subsidiary has launched SmartSite, a GPS-based equipment tracking solution, at last week’s CONEXPO-CON/AGG 2023. The SmartSite GPS tracking solution allows customers to track and manage their assets through a simple portal, the company said.
SmartSite allows contractors to react when equipment goes missing, which often means it was either delivered to the wrong job, delivered to the right job and overlooked, or, in rare cases, stolen, the company said. In these situations, contractors can login and pinpoint the exact location of the equipment on a map, the company said.
Contact: Mark Johnson, Clarience Technologies, (248) 846-8298, mjohnson@clariencetechnologies.com, www.clariencetechnologies.com.
LoJack Sponsors Auto at COTA and Watkins Glen
LoJack will join Zeigler Auto Group as co-primary sponsor on Live Fast Motorsport's No. 78 Chevrolet Camaro, driven by Josh Bilicki, at the upcoming NASCAR Cup Series races at Circuit of the Americas race. Zeigler expanded its LoJack stolen recovery service to all of the dealership’s cars at 35 locations in Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin.
Contact: Priti Sharma, Solera, (407) 734-7332, priti.sharma@solera.com.
InfiniDome Announced as Finalist for AUVSI XCELLENCE Awards
InfiniDome has been named as a finalist in the XCELLENCE IN TECHNOLOGY category of the XCELLENCE Awards by the Association for Uncrewed Vehicles Systems International (AUVSI).
Winners will be announced at XPONENTIAL 2023 on May 8-11 at the Colorado Convention Center in Denver, CO. InfiniDome develops GPS protection and resilient navigation solutions tailored to defend UAVs and vehicles from jamming attacks.
Contact: Noa Zilkha, InfiniDome, 972-54-7799569, noa@infinidome.com, www.infinidome.com.
ARway Signs SDK Deals
ARway Corp. [ARWY], which offers an AI-powered augmented reality navigation platform, has signed five new deals for its Software Development Kit (SDK). The new deals include using the ARway platform for map management of virtual tours, AR-powered app for a marketing agency, a new location-based game in Italy, for an airport guided tour company and a social engagement/sharing app.
Contact: Julia Viola, ARway, (866) 274-8493, investor.relations@arway.ai, www.arway.ai.
Rooster Enhances Asset Tracking System
Rooster LLC has announced that its Rooster Asset Tracking System now includes meter reading and reporting capability for heavy duty trucks and construction equipment. The feature allows users to track and view current equipment telemetry, the company said.
Rooster Hubs are data portals that connect to the Cloud through an integrated cellular connection to deliver equipment activity and telematics data, and GPS location for $10 per month, the company said.
Contact: Cindy Trotto, for Rooster, (785) 581-0441, 355573@email4pr.com.
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Swift Navigation has named Brad Sherrard as executive vice president and general manager for its industrial business unit. Sherrard was chief revenue officer for Quanergy Systems. He also held executive positions at u-blox.
Location-monitoring company SCRAM Systems named Chris Linthwaite as CEO. Linthwaite was CEO and president of Fluidigm.
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