TrustPoint Launches PNT Microsatellite
Launch magnifies low-Earth orbit systems to augment GNSS for commercial applications
Showing that the GNSS market is prime for disruption, aerospace startup TrustPoint has announced the launch of its first satellite. Launch services provider Maverick Space Systems supported the launch of the satellite, called It’s About Time, on SpaceX’s Transporter-7 Mission from Vandenberg Space Force Base last week.
The mission is intended to show that GNSS can be provided by low cost, small, rapidly deployed commercial systems that will cost a fraction of a single GNSS satellite—which can be developed in a few months, not years or decades, said Patrick Shannon, TrustPoint CEO.
“For the company, this mission is the culmination of efforts to both prove new technology, but to mature the larger enterprise necessary to execute our vision, including our internal processes and key partnerships,” he said. “Every other element of critical space infrastructure has leveraged commercial technologies to augment existing government services. Given the essential nature of GNSS, we think it’s about time that there’s a purpose built commercial complement.”
Shannon contends that roughly one third of the global annual spend on GNSS products and services is for augmentation and corrections services, a segment that exists because the baseline GNSS capability is unable to meet user requirements. “Recent proliferation of both low-cost jammers and increased state-sponsored service denial in Asia, Europe and the Middle East, further increases availability and security pain points for all users,” he said. “Technical solutions to many of these problems exist at the satellite and signal levels, which have historically been the sole responsibility of government led programs like GPS and Galileo. Unfortunately, these heritage programs are expensive and based on decades old technology choices.”
Shannon said that these government systems may be amazing, and will provide the core PNT capability well into the future, rapid low-cost innovation at the satellite and signal levels by commercial organizations providing complimentary LEO services will help solve many of the performance, price and security issues plaguing users today.
Overall, the company delivered a spacecraft in eight months. “An incredible feat achieved during a challenging economic climate, at the peak of the silicon shortage. This is a key milestone as we scale our production, constellation, and capability,” said Chris DeMay, TrustPoint COO.
While this first mission will focus on testing, calibration and optimization of microsat-compatible GNSS payload technology, Shannon says there is plenty more to do beyond the launch. “Once the satellite is commissioned, we will test, calibrate and optimize our new payload technology. We have our own plans for a series of internal tests, but are concurrently working to demonstrate the technology in conjunction with third party commercial and government partners,” he said. “Aside from this spacecraft, our roadmap for the next 18 months includes building out our ground and operations infrastructure and advancing our end user products and services.”
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Digital Matter Introduces Longest Life Battery-Powered IoT Asset Tracker
Digital Matter has announced that the next-generation Remora3 battery-powered GPS and Bluetooth Gateway is now available with global Cellular LTE-M (Cat-M1) and NB-IoT connectivity.
The Remora3 features ‘Deploy Once’ battery life and new ‘Second-by-Second’ tracking performance to support aggressive and/or extended reporting requirements, including highly accurate speeding, run hour, odometer monitoring on mobile assets such as rental equipment, trailers, vehicles and more.
“Substantial design and technology improvements on the Remora3 enable critical new use cases for our partners who require real-time tracking performance without the hassle of physically wiring in a device,” says Ken Everret, Digital Matter CEO and founder.
With a flexible and open payload format, extensive documentation, and regional technical support, the Remora3 can be integrated into any end-platform. Third-party Bluetooth sensors and tags are also supported.
Other Remora3 features include:
GPS location
Trip history
Asset recovery
Movement detection
Tip detection
Rotation counting
Impact detection
The Remora3 also functions as a Bluetooth Low Energy Gateway and can optionally scan for nearby Bluetooth tags and sensors for additional asset location and sensor monitoring applications. The Remora3 supports roaming across Cellular LTE-M and NB-IoT networks to enable global asset tracking and monitoring applications in supply chain visibility, logistics, returnables and more.
For more information on the Remora3 or Digital Matter’s other IoT asset tracking solutions, click here.
Contact: Shay Kettner, Digital Matter, shay@digitalmatter.com, www.digitalmatter.com/ourdevices.
TomTom Defies Analysts, Reports First-Quarter Profits
Saying its location technology business and automotive unit showed growth, Amsterdam-based TomTom [TOM2] has announced a return to profit in the first quarter with a profit of $2.88 million. Analysts had forecasted a loss of 12 million euros.
Citing a worldwide chip shortage coming out of the pandemic, the company, at the same time last year, had posted an operating loss of 19.8 million euros.
"We had a good start to the year, with our location technology business continuing to gather momentum in the first quarter. Our new TomTom Maps Platform, which we announced last year, will enable us to make further inroads in the enterprise and automotive markets,” said TomTom CEO Harold Goddijn, in a statement. “The new maps will add significant value for our customers and partners as they will provide global coverage, richer attributes, and fast data integration.”
Some of the highlights during the quarter include deepening a partnership with SAP to integrate TomTom Maps API with the company’s cloud-based HANA Spatial Services offering. Another highlight was the company’s Navigation SDK has been gaining traction in enterprise markets (logistics, fleet, ride-hailing and food delivery).
The company said it double its advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) installed base to over 10 million automated vehicles. TomTom also sold its equity interest in Cyient Ltd. for 15-million euro.
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Spire Launches Three Satellites
Spire Global SPIR 0.00%↑ successfully launched three satellites on the SpaceX Transporter-7 mission from Vandenberg Space Force Base on Sunday. Spire launched a satellite developed for King Abdullah University of Science and Technology to observe and characterize natural resources.
The 6U satellite hosts a hyperspectral camera with advanced on-board processing capabilities in combination with Spire’s GNSS-Reflectometry (GNSS-R) sensor payload that will collect intelligence on soil moisture.
Spire also launched ADLER-2, developed in partnership between the Austrian Space Forum (OeWF) and Findus Venture, an Austrian investor. ADLER-2 carries three payloads that detect and track orbital debris and perform air quality measurements around the globe.
The third satellite supported the company’s data solutions business, which tracks maritime, aviation, and weather activity from space. This satellite is equipped with GNSS sensors to collect radio occultation (RO) and polarimetric radio occultation (PRO) data.
In other space news:
Amazon Web Services (AWS) has announced that Xona Space Systems has been selected as part of 14 global space startups to participate in the 2023 AWS Space Accelerator, a technical, business, and mentorship program to help startups advance their space solutions and accelerate their growth using the cloud.
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Actility and UnaBiz Integrate LoRaWAN and Sigfox Technology to Accelerate IoT Market
Actility and UnaBiz have partnered to integrate their respective platforms and ecosystems, namely LoRaWAN and Sigfox 0G technology, to allow customers to accelerate their IoT projects. Actility will offer its ThingPark platform and Abeeway trackers for geolocation applications.
For its part, UnaBiz, owner of Sigfox 0G technology, will offer sensor product design, manufacturing, and data platform services.
Initially, the companies will offer a ThingPark X connector to link networks powered by ThingPark to UnaConnect, UnaBiz’s data management platform. Users of UnaConnect can access data flows collected from LoRaWAN and NB-IoT/LTE-M devices that are served by the ThingPark network deployments and global IoT SIMs, the company said.
In the future, a second integration will bring Sigfox data to LoRaWAN networks and applications via the ThingPark Exchange roaming hub. Any LoRaWAN network connected to ThingPark Exchange and IoT applications built for LoRaWAN can leverage devices powered by Sigfox 0G technology without any special adaptation, the company said.
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News tip? Send them to kdennehy@driverlessreport.com. Go to www.locationbusinessnews.com for more news and an archive of stories.
Top News:
☹ Tesla Reports Fatal February Crash in East Bay Involved Automated Driving. “The incident is the 17th fatal crash involving Tesla TSLA 0.00%↑ automated driver-assist systems since June 2021, when the government required carmakers to begin submitting data on these accidents.”
😲 The National Guard Plans to Geofence High Schools and Target Kids' Phones With Recruitment Ads. “Via location tracking, geofencing, and monitoring individual students’ phone activity, the state National Guard branch plans to beam banner ads, video advertisements, and other material to kids’ devices across social media and streaming platforms.”
😧 Inmarsat I-4F1 Satellite Outage Disables Tractor GPS Services for Farming Operations and Some Maritime Safety. “A problem in a British satellite has caused an outage that is affecting some GPS services and some marine safety systems across the Asia Pacific.”
💰 NV5 Global Bags $10M Engineering and Survey Contract From North Carolina Department of Transportation. Under the scope of this two-year agreement, NV5 will deliver traditional surveying and location services including GPS, high density laser scanning, route location surveys, and subsurface utility engineering services.
😮 Lidar Tech Company Ouster Sues Hesai Group Over Patents. “Ouster OUST 0.00%↑, a San Francisco-based provider of lidar light sensors used in fields like autonomous vehicles, defense and robotics, sued Chinese rival Hesai Group HSAI 0.00%↑ on Tuesday for patent infringement in Delaware federal court and at the U.S. International Trade Commission.”
Maps:
😉 Yes, it was an April Fool. “Alas, there is no ArcGIS for macOS in sight.”
🤞 Watch Out, Google Maps: Garmin Launches New Affordable Navigation Devices. “The company has just unveiled two new navigation units as part of its Garmin Drive product line. Their purpose is as simple as it could be: provide route guidance to the driver without draining the mobile phone’s battery. In other words, Garmin GRMN 0.00%↑ hopes its new devices will eat up Google Maps’ GOOG 0.00%↑ share in the navigation software world.”
🚘 Google Maps Competitor Creates System to Prevent Fatal Crashes. “HERE, the company that’s often considered a top Google Maps competitor, wants to overhaul the safety capabilities of its navigation software. The company patented new technology that would allow for the detection of wrong-way drivers and then issue warnings for the other vehicles on the road.”
🗺 Rand McNally Publishing Celebrates 100 Years of the "Great American Road Trip" with a Collector's Edition Road Atlas. What the…“Since 2021, atlases and paper maps have seen a resurgence in popularity with unit sales increases of greater than 20 percent. Why? Travelers are either discovering or rediscovering that paper atlases provide a richer, more comprehensive travel experience versus a GPS device that shows only a small portion of a road trip.”
Fleet:
Geotab Drives Industry Standard in Electric Vehicle Fleet Management with Data Intelligence Solutions for Over 300 EV Makes and Models. Company makes the announcement at the opening of its Innovation and Research Hub in High Wycombe, England.
Indoor Location:
👍 Intelligent Lighting Creates A Foundation For Real-Time Location Services (RTLS). “Smart lighting lays the foundation for businesses to implement real-time location services, increasing the value of their overall investment and delivering greater operational gains.”
Connected and Autonomous Vehicles:
🚕 China's Didi to Dispatch Robotaxis 24/7 in 2025, Announces Trucking Service. “The SoftBank-backed company announced a series of product ambitions, including working with Chinese carmakers to deploy self-developed robotaxis to the public on a 24/7 basis by 2025, which will complement its network of millions of drivered cars.”
😐 Cruise and Waymo Self-Driving Taxis Are Terrorizing Transit Operators. “In the fall-out of a collision with a bus, Cruise issued a software fix for 300 of its vehicles. But videos from transit drivers show many more close calls.”
😕 Huawei Releases Second-Generation Autonomous Driving System Without Relying on High-precision Maps. “Richard Yu, CEO of Huawei’s Intelligent Automotive Solution Business Unit, highlighted that it is impractical to have high-precision maps covering the entire country due to the constantly changing nature of Chinese roads in real time.”
😐 Baidu Wins Permits To Offer Fully Driverless Robotaxi Service in Beijing.
🤔 Autonomous Vehicles Need to Learn How to Deal with Aggressive Drivers. “Humans can identify angry, stressed-out motorists easily. Computers, not so much.”
Financial:
✔ Luminar Stock Surges as Chinese Demand for Lidar-equipped Vehicles Prompts Factory Expansion in Asia.
✔ Insider Robin Frew Sells 492,225 Shares of MiX Telematics Limited Stock.
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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.
Mapspeople To Acquire Assets From Point Inside
MapsPeople has reached an agreement to acquire all of Point Inside's customer contracts and indoor mapping assets. With the acquisition of U.S.-based Point Inside’s business, MapsPeople gains indoor maps of more than 1,800 shopping malls in the United States and more than 200 airports globally. In addition, through the acquisition, MapsPeople acquires access to more than 170 large retail stores, mainly in the United Kingdom. All customer services will continue without change to their current agreement or services level, the company said. Financial details were not disclosed.
Contact: Morten Brøgger, MapsPeople, 45 31 23 48 72, mobr@mapspeople.com.
Ecopia and NextNav Partner
Ecopia and NextNav NN 0.00%↑ have partnered—allowing first responders to visualize situations in 3D and locate where in a building an emergency call is coming from, the companies said. Ecopia and NextNav are providing public safety answering points (PSAPs), which allow visualized z-axis coordinates of emergency calls on 3D building data.
The z-axis coordinates allow first responders to locate which floor of a multistory building that a call is coming from. In 2022, the United States’ Federal Communications Commission mandated that all commercial mobile radio service (CMRS) providers deliver the z-axis coordinates of emergency calls to each PSAP.
Contact: Ecopia, (519) 342-0193, info@ecopiatech.com.
Mojio and CertainPath Partner To Offer Fleet Management Tools
Mojio has partnered with CertainPath to offer Force by Mojio, and other fleet management tools, to CertainPath member companies in the United States. CertainPath software is used by home services businesses.
CertainPath members that activate the fleet management add-on will also get complete access to the Force by Mojio vehicle tracking and fleet management service, the company said.
Contact: Kyle MacDonald, Mojio, (855) 556-6546, kylem@moj.io.
ACEINNA Rolls Out IMU for Autonomous Vehicles, Robots and ADAS
ACEINNA has launched the IMU330RA inertial measurement unit (IMU). IMU330RA is an easy-to-integrate, high-performance 6-DOF inertial sensor packaged in a ruggedized, sealed over-molded plastic housing at IP69K level, the company said.
The IMU330RA features a redundant 3-Axis Accelerometer and 3-Axis Rate Gyroscope sensors. “[The] ACEINNA IMU330RA IMU sensor is designed for use in Automotive Level 3 and higher ADAS systems,” says Teoman Ustun, ACEINNA’s Automotive Business Unit vice president, in statement.
Contact: ACEINNA, (978) 965-3200, info@aceinna.com, www.aceinna.com.
Cognosos Partners With Siemens Healthineers
Cognosos has been selected by Siemens Healthineers to provide real-time asset tracking and intelligence for hospitals and healthcare systems. Siemens Healthineers becomes a reseller of the Cognosos portfolio of products and services, the company said.
Contact: Casey Bush, for Cognosos, (949) 306-1140, cognosos@globalresultspr.com.
Sewio Launches Trackables
Sewio has announced the release of RTLS Studio version 3.1, which introduces Trackables. The new solution enables the virtualization of tags to provide an efficient method for mirroring real-world shop floor operations.
This feature follows the Omlox open locating standard, the company said. RTLS 3.1's API also enables tracking the sequence of assets across virtual production zones, the company said. In other company news, Cognosos recently launched the fourth generation of its finished vehicle logistics (FVL) tags, the RT-270, adding 900MHz, low-energy Bluetooth (BLE), and a new LED light to expand use cases for automotive OEMs and shippers.
Contact: Sewio, www.sewio.net.
CMT Releases Distracted Driving Report
Cambridge Mobile Telematics has announced the availability of The State of Distracted Driving in 2023 & the Future of Road Safety. CMT said distracted driving is more prevalent than ever on US roadways. Drivers are spending more time interacting with their phones on more trips. CMT’s data shows that every 10 percent increase in distracted driving kills more than 420 people and costs the American economy $4 billion per year.
Contact: Matt Fiorentino, CMT, mfiorentino@cmtelematics.com.
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PTV Lines Allows For Public Transport Planning
PTV Group has launched PTV Lines, a web-based tool for public transport service planning. PTV lines allows planners and operators to test different ideas and new measures in the public transport service planning, the company said.
Other features include the ability to improve timetables, detours during major events and construction works.
Contact: Stefanie Schmidt, PTV Group, 49 721-9651-7451, stefanie.schmidt@ptvgroup.com.
Energous and InnoTractor Partner
Energous Corp. [WATT] and Europe-based InnoTractor have partnered to integrate wireless power solutions for real-time asset tracking across various industries. The partnership enables InnoTractor to integrate and deploy Energous’ PowerBridge technology and Wiliot’s IoT Pixel tags, the company said. The joint solution leverages its inlay-assembly and tag-conversion partners.
Contact: Energous, energous@shiftcomm.com, www.energous.com.
Azuga Becomes Member of IoT Insurance Observatory
Azuga has joined the IoT Insurance Observatory as an official member for 2023. The Observatory is the world’s leading think tank on IoT use in insurance with more than 60 of the top insurance leaders in its membership, the company said. The organization is meeting next week at Mohegan Sun in Connecticut, where Azuga will share its experience in risk prevention and mitigation.
Contact: Tami Strand, Azuga, (858) 997-1234, tamistrand@azuga.com, www.azuga.com.
Gurtam Receives IOS/IEC 27001 Certificate
European GPS tracking and IoT company Gurtam has recently obtained its ISO/IEC 27001 certificate. ISO/IEC 27001 is the go-to standard for establishing and implementing information security management systems.
The company’s flagship platform, Wialon, currently tracks 3.5 million mobile and stationary assets in more than 150 countries—through 2,400 telematics and IoT service providers.
Contact: Kristina Kruchkova, Gurtam, k.kryuchkova@gurtam.com.
Sonitor Expands Product Line
Sonitor Technologies has announced the expansion of its SonitorBLU Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) solution, and SonitorMOBILE, a location visibility platform for positioning smart devices. The company said that by combining its technology with BLE, it effectively turns a smart phone into an RTLS tag. The products are marketed to the healthcare industry, where applications range from asset tracking to patient flow and clinical workflow.
Contact: Dan Conley, for Sonitor, (312) 593-8461, dconley@beaconpr.com, www.sonitor.com
Phunware Receives Notice of Allowance for U.S. Geofence Patent
Phunware PHUN 0.00%↑ has announced that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has issued a Notice of Allowance for the company’s US patent application 17/362,765 titled “Method and Apparatus for Geofence Event Predictions.” This capability will enhance Phunware's LBS capabilities and enable brands to deliver personalized, context-aware experiences to their users, the company said. The patent covers a method for predicting geofence events by retrieving non-contemporaneous geofence predictor data of a mobile device.
Contact: Phunware, (512) 693-4199, press@phunware.com
CompassCom Launches CompassLDE Connectors
CompassCom Software has announced availability of CompassLDE Connectors for the Cityworks work order management solution. The solution feeds real-time automated vehicle location (AVL) details for viewing on the Cityworks Office and Respond maps.
Updated for the latest JavaScript versions of Cityworks Desktop 3.0 and Mobile 4.0 modules, the CompassLDE Connectors also deliver valuable asset and job data to automate back-end workflows, the company said. Built on the Esri ArcGIS JavaScript API, Cityworks provides a map interface that allows users to assign, review and modify work orders.
Contact: CompassCom, (303) 680-3311, solutions@compasscom.com, www.compasscom.com.
Jimi IoT Shows Off Tracking Solutions
Jimi IoT has showcased its latest fleet management solutions at both the Global Sources Consumer Electronics 2023 in Hong Kong and Expo Seguridad Mexico. Products featured were Jimi IoT's vehicle tracking devices, asset trackers and its new JC450 Series dashcam. JC450 Series also offers SaaS platform services and GPS positioning.
Contact: Jimi IoT, info@jimilab.com.
GPS Insight Wins IoT Vehicle Telematics Award
GPS Insight has won the 2023 IoT Vehicle Telematics Company of the Year award by Compass Intelligence. GPS Insight provides fleet safety and field service solutions, including telematics, ELD, in-cab cameras, and FSM software.
Contact: Ana Love, for GPS Insight, (425) 647-5025, ana.love@anthonybarnum.com.
People:
Swift Navigation has announced that Brad Sherrard has joined its executive team as executive vice president and general manager of the Industrial Business Unit. Sherrard held executive positions at u-blox, Quanergy, Stratos-Inmarsat, Iridium and Magellan.
TomTom [TOM2], at its annual general meeting, reappointed Taco Titulaer as CFO for a third term of four years.
Comtech CMTL 0.00%↑ named Nicole Robinson as a Chief Strategy Officer.
Robinson served as president of Ursa Space Systems and as senior vice president of Global Government for SES.
Ericsson ERIC 0.00%↑ announced that Carl Mellander, the company’s CFO, will step down at the end of the first quarter 2024. Mellander has been with Ericsson for more than 25 years.
UnaBiz named David Royet as strategic account director.
Chris Horbowyj recently joined Targa Telematics as its UK sales director.
He has worked for a several companies, including Trakm8, GreenRoad Technologies and Masternaut.
Jobs:
Head of Inertial Navigation Systems R&D. Advanced Navigation.
Open Positions. Advanced Navigation.
Careers. Hexagon’s Autonomy & Positioning Division.
Pricing Manager. Taoglas.
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