Mobile World Congress 2021: Location Technology Key to 5G
Location Big Component of Future 5G Rollouts
At least one major company at the GSMA Mobile World Congress in Barcelona said such location technology as GPS will be critical for future 5G rollouts.
In a keynote address, Christiano Amon, Qualcomm [QCOM] president and CEO-elect, spent several minutes talking about how 5G precision positioning will help improve connected and autonomous vehicles, V2X and high-precision 3D maps (see CNET video below at 12-minute mark).
Qualcomm also rolled out its Snapdragon 888 Plus 5G Mobile Platform, which builds on its flagship Snapdragon 888. The unit will power smartphones, in the second half of 2021, from ASUS, Honor, Motorola, vivo and Xiaomi in second half of 2021. The unit supports GPS, Beidou, Galileo, GLONASS.
Qualcomm Mobile World Congress keynote (CNET)
While not a traditional auto show, MWC in the past few years has seen an increasing number of connected car and autonomous vehicle exhibitors and panels. For example, 5G Automotive Association (5GAA) said the not only will 5G be the driver for broad-scale improvements that connect mobility, but global deployments of cellular vehicle to everything (C-2VX) will be pervasive. The association believes C-V2X will help drive advanced safety and automated driving use cases from 2024 on.
"In the next two to three years, our association expects to see mass deployment of vehicle-to everything (V2X) use cases geared towards improving traffic efficiency and road safety around the world", said 5GAA director-general Johannes Springer, in a statement.
Another area that seemed to be big this year at MWC was an increased focus on 5G network infrastructure. HERE Technologies said it would integrate location data into M2Catalyst’s Crowd SiteIntel (CSI) dashboard. The CSI dashboard allows mobile network operators building 5G networks to M2Catalyst’s data-as-a-service offering to identify and plan the optimal placements of network antennas, the company said.
The Mobile World Congress in Barcelona was toned down version with an expected 25,000 or so attendees, depending on who was estimating. Many large companies decided not to exhibit—and those who did participate did so via video (Google (GOOGL), Facebook (FB), Samsung (SSNLF), Ericsson (ERIC) and Qualcomm are a few).
Pre-pandemic, the trade show topped 100,000 attendees and seemed to rival CES for the biggest transportation and lodging headache for companies.
Key Takeaways:
By just going to YouTube, you could watch just about every MWC keynote for free from your home or office.
Some industry pundits believe that large trade shows are dead as companies continue to make presentations via video (just like this year’s virtual CES) that are canned.
Iridium Awarded $30 Million Contract For Navigation/Positioning Support
Iridium Communications Inc. [IRDM] has been awarded a U.S. Army research and development contract worth as much as $30 million to develop a payload to be hosted on small satellites that supports several navigation and positioning capabilities.
These supported capabilities include navigation systems, guidance and control for GPS and GPS-denied precision systems, the company said. The new Iridium payload will be hosted by another Low Earth Orbit (LEO) commercial satellite constellation, which the company did not name, to complement existing capabilities.
The Army said intends to develop Iridium’s payload to “support the concept of a rapidly deployable smallsat constellation to provide more effective sensor-to-soldier data transmission when in the field.”
This is one of the largest engineering contracts in Iridium's history, the company said.
Contact: Jordan Hassin, Iridium, (703) 287-7421, Jordan.Hassin@Iridium.com, www.iridium.com.
Other Location News:
News tip? Send them to kdennehy@driverlessreport.com.
🤦♂️ Survey: Partially Collapsed Florida Condos Sank in the 1990s. “This study combined mapping and GPS technology to investigate sea level rise and flood areas.”
👌 Apple Working to Refine Siri Location-Based Responses. “Apple is continuing to refine a system for sharing information and context between devices with Siri, allowing for more nuanced and location-aware voice commands.”
👍 LeddarTech and Cognata Join Forces to Accelerate the $20B Agriculture Autonomous Vehicle Market. “Autonomous harvesting systems are witnessing huge demand from farm owners.”
👏 Roundup: Mapping Tech Evolves, Adding Third Dimension and Pedestrian POV. Dan Hight, VP, Data Partnerships, NextNav, talks about the rise of 3D Mapping.
🚌 Automated Vehicle Systems Outlook, 2021 Update. Industry veterans Richard Mudge and Alain Kornhauser authored this report.
🚀 Northrop Grumman delivers bus for Space Force’s experimental navigation satellite.
⚡ Hexagon announces Luciad 2021.
✔ Toyota: Transforming the Automotive Industry With a Location-Based Mobility Services Platform.
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Geotab Enters Brazilian Market
Geotab said it is expanding in Brazil, with the with the establishment of Geotab Telemática Ltda. The company, with more than 2.3 million active users and 40,000 customers globally, said it wanted to increase its presence in the large Latin American fleet management market.
“While the Brazilian commercial telematics market continues to remain among the strongest in Latin America, the opportunities to scale this technology are immense,” said Geotab CEO Neil Cawse, in a statement.
According to data from the Confederação Nacional do Transporte (CNT), 2020 Transport Yearbook, there were more than 2.2 million vehicles authorized to transport cargo in Brazil in 2019, the company said.
Contact: Geotab, www.geotab.com/pt-br/.
Navv Systems Gains $3.2 Million in Seed Funding
Detroit-based Navv Systems, which focuses on hospital personnel location and equipment tracking and location services, has closed a $3.2 million seed funding round led by Arboretum Ventures. The company’s NavvTrack, developed at Henry Ford Innovations in Detroit, is in place at the Burlington, Mass.-based Lahey Hospital and Medical Center and other hospitals.
Contact: Navv Systems, info@navv-systems.com, www.navv-systems.com.
Companies Panning National LoRaWan IoT Network
Everynet and Crown Castle [CCI] said they will launch a national LoRaWAN Internet of Things (IoT) network in the United States. Everynet initially plans to roll out the network in the top 36 U.S. metropolitan areas.
The network, expected to be operational by the end of the year allows mobile network operators (MNOs), mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs), application service providers (ASPs), managed service providers (MSPs) and internet service providers (ISPs) to offer carrier grade Low-Power Wide-Area (LPWA) IoT services to their customers, the company said.
Some use cases include tracking and monitoring critical assets such as pallets, containers and goods. By managing the geo-location, cold-chain monitoring, humidity and shock, enterprises can effectively receive real-time data on the movement, condition and arrival of assets through the complete supply chain, the company said.
Currently, the company has networks in Brazil, Indonesia, Spain, United Kingdom, Italy, Puerto Rico, Ireland and Iceland. Everynet also participates in the LoRa Alliance global association that offers roaming to more than 27 countries across the globe.
Contact: Allison DeLeo, for Everynet, (415) 694-6700, everynet@racepointglobal.com.
TomTom Maps Go Into New Nissan Car
TomTom [TOM2] said its advanced mapping technology and connected services will be integrated into Nissan’s ugraded ProPILOT with Navi-link driver assistance and the NissanConnect infotainment system’s built-in navigation. The new Nissan Qashqai in Europe will have the unit installed with ProPILOT’s automated vehicle steering, acceleration and braking within a single lane on highways, the company said.
When the car crosses to a lower speed limit zone on the highway, the Nissan Qashqai uses its sensors to read road signs and draws information from TomTom’s advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) map to slow itself to the appropriate speed, the company said.
Contact: TomTom, tomtom.pr@tomtom.com, www.tomtom.com.
BAE Systems Sending M-Code GPS User Equipment to Germany
BAE Systems [BAESY] said it received the first contract from the Space and Missile Systems Center’s Space Production Corps to deliver M-Code Military Global Positioning System User Equipment to Germany. The German foreign military sales order focuses on BAE Systems’ Miniature PLGR Engine – M-Code. MPE-M features precise positioning, navigation, and timing capabilities; anti-jamming and anti-spoofing; a modern security architecture; and a size suitable for space-constrained applications, the company said.
BAE Systems will ship the first receivers to Germany for integration, test, and evaluation later this year. Work on the program will be at the company’s facilities in Cedar Rapids and Coralville, Iowa.
Contact: Mark Daly, BAE Systems, (603) 233-7636, mark.g.daly@baesystems.com, www.baesystems.com/US.
HERE, Vodafone and Porsche Partner on Real-Time Warning System
HERE Technologies, Vodafone and Porsche are testing 5G technology and precision location to improve traffic safety and reduce accidents. The three companies are developing a real-time warning system so that vehicles and their drivers can receive hazard warnings directly, without any delay, the companies say.
Research is being conducted at Vodafone’s 5G Mobility Lab to focus on hazardous situations “that are not visible or difficult to see for vehicle drivers, such as when the view is blocked by the traffic ahead,” the companies say. To detect dangerous situations ahead, the Live Sense SDK from HERE Technologies is used alongside HD maps and positioning technology.
Research is being conducted at Vodafone’s 5G Mobility Lab to focus on hazardous situations “that are not visible or difficult to see for vehicle drivers, such as when the view is blocked by the traffic ahead,” the companies say. To detect dangerous situations ahead, the Live Sense SDK from HERE is used alongside HD maps and positioning technology, the company said.
Following the initial tests, the companies plan to further optimize the real-time warning system and evaluate its potential in everyday use. Additional tests will be performed at different locations, the companies say.
Contact: Jordan Stark, HERE, (312) 316-4537, Jordan.stark@here.com, www.heretechnologies.com.
u-blox Offers Explorer Kits for Precise Indoor Positioning
Thalwil, Switzerland-based u-blox [UBXN] rolled out two “explorer kits,” allowing product developers to evaluate the potential of Bluetooth direction finding and high precision indoor positioning, the company said. The u-blox XPLR-AOA-1 and XPLR-AOA-2 explorer kits allow developers to test the technology’s capabilities to enable a variety of applications including access control, collision detection, smart appliances, indoor positioning, and asset tracking, the company said.
The u-blox XPLR-AOA-1 and XPLR-AOA-2 explorer kits feature one of the first complete Bluetooth-based tracking solutions to offer sub-meter-level accuracy in indoor environments, the company said
Contact: Natacha Seitz, u-blox, 41 76 436 0788, natacha.seitz@u-blox.com, www.u-blox.com.
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