Xona Space Systems Closes $19 Million Round To Build GPS Alternative
New funding round accelerates development of a LEO alternative to GPS
Accelerating the deployment of a low Earth orbit (LEO) alternative to GPS, Xona Space Systems this week closed a $19 million Series A round of funding. The new round, led by Future Ventures and Seraphim Space, features new investors NGP Capital, Industrious Ventures, Murata Electronics, Space Capital and Aloniq.
With this new funding, Xona said it will begin beta operations of its PULSAR satellite service, which the company said “brings orders of magnitude improvements in accuracy, availability and security” over GPS. The company says this new accuracy and signal availability is critical for such use cases as agriculture, autonomous vehicles and defense.
“A century ago, people looked to the North Star for trusted guidance when other methods were unavailable,” said Brian Manning, Xona CEO and co-founder, in a statement. “AI and automation are the future—our PULSAR service aims to be for these industries what the North Star was for humanity in previous centuries.”
One of Xona’s foundational investors, Seraphim Space, went further, saying that the world’s dependence on GPS could cause incalculable damage to a global economy. “Waiting for GPS to fail, or for hostile powers to spoof it, is not an option for our security or commercial industries,” said Rob Desborough, Seraphim Space general partner in a statement. “Xona and the pioneering team are executing on building the GPS the modern era needs and we’re delighted to continue to support their transformative vision.”
Manning has been outspoken about the vulnerability of the GPS signal, issued a statement in March following reports that U.S. cell phones and other devices are receiving and processing signals from Chinese and Russian satellite—in violation of FCC rules.
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Intelsat Teams With CNH To Offer Precision Ag Service in Brazil
Intelsat has partnered with CNH CNHI 0.00%↑ to install, connect and operate ruggedized multi-orbit satellite terminals on CNH’s farm equipment operating in remote farmland throughout Brazil.
The service, which be available in the second half of 2024, will use Intelsat’s FlexMove satellite network to give farmers connectivity to adopt connected equipment. Currently, the company says that only 19 percent of available farming area in Brazil has high-speed internet access.
CNH, whose brands include Case IH, New Holland and Steyr, has made big investments on precision agriculture. Last year, the company purchased Hemisphere GNSS from China-based Unistrong for an estimated $175 million. The company said that Hemisphere, when combined with its Raven agriculture brand, will give it full control over precision and navigation technologies.
Intelsat and CNH acknowledge they going to be the first to market for this type of connectivity for remote farmers, beating out SpaceX and John Deere $DE, who formed a partnership in January. Using the SpaceX Starlink network, the venture will allow farmers with connectivity challenges to leverage precision agriculture technologies.
“As the first satellite communications company to provide multi-orbit connectivity to farmers around the world, Intelsat’s collaboration with CNH will unlock new capabilities in the most remote locations through our global communications platform,” said Dave Wajsgras, Intelsat CEO, in a statement. “We’ve proven that ruggedized, built-for-purpose terminals that can access multiple satellite orbits from anywhere offer the highest network reliability, greater throughput and the best user experience.”
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FTC Finalizes Order With Company Prohibiting It From Selling or Sharing Precise Location Data
The Federal Trade Commission has finalized a settlement with digital marketing and data aggregator InMarket Media over allegations the company unlawfully collected and used consumers’ location data for advertising and marketing. The FTC, in a complaint announced in January 2024, alleged that InMarket collects location information about consumers from several sources, including the company’s apps and from third parties that integrate its software development kit (SDK).
The FTC alleges that InMarket combined location information with other data to target advertising based on consumers’ behavior. “The FTC charged that InMarket failed to fully inform consumers about how their location data—which can include sensitive information about where they live, work and worship—would be used and that it would be combined with other data about those users for targeted advertising. It also failed to ensure that third-party apps that use its SDK obtained informed consent from consumers,” said the FTC in a press release.
InMarket will be prohibited from selling or sharing and licensing any precise location data based on sensitive location data, the FTC said. The federal agency is also ordering the company to destroy or delete all the location data it has previously collected—and even products produced from it.
AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile Aren’t Accepting FCC $200 Million Location Fines
In other privacy news, the nation’s largest wireless carriers are fighting back at the FCC for fining them nearly $200 million--as Location Business News reported last week. AT&T T 0.00%↑, Verizon VZ 0.00%↑, and T-Mobile TMUS 0.00%↑ all said they will appeal the hefty fine as they say they aren’t responsible for selling access to location data without their customer’s consent.
Trimble Reports First Quarter Results
In its first quarter reporting, Trimble TRMB 0.00%↑ said it had revenue of $953.3 million—which is up on a year-over-year basis. However, the company said the numbers were flat on an organic basis.
The company reported more than $2 billion in annualized recurring revenue, which was up 23 percent year-over-year. For the second quarter, Trimble expects to report $845 million to $875 million in revenue.
"We had a strong start to the year, delivering record annualized recurring revenue of $2.03 billion and record first quarter gross margin. And on April 1, we closed our agriculture joint venture with AGCO," said Rob Painter, Trimble's president and CEO, in a statement. "With our new reporting segment and organization structure in place, we have further simplified and focused the company to enable our customers to transform how they work, while creating value for our shareholders."
The company also reported strong transportation revenue of $195 million during the quarter. These numbers constituted a 33 percent year-over-year increase. Painter said Trimble’s transportation and logistics segment was boosted by strong bookings from the company’s Transporeon unit.”
Other Location News
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Top News:
💰 Wayve Raises Over $1 Billion. “Wayve has announced a $1.05 billion Series C investment round led by SoftBank, with contributions from new investor NVIDIA NVDA 0.00%↑ and existing investor Microsoft MSFT 0.00%↑. to accelerate its mission to reimagine autonomous mobility through embodied intelligence.
📈 NAL Research Announces Merger with Blue Sky Network. “NAL Research today announced a merger with Blue Sky Network aimed at delivering enhanced satellite communications (SATCOM), mobile communications, and assured position, navigation, and timing (APNT) solutions to customers worldwide. The merger will unite both companies under NAL Research.”
📌 USAF Buys Add-On JDAM-ER Seeker to Target Russian GPS Jammers. A $23.6-million contract was awarded to California-based Scientific Applications and Research Associates (SARA) to deliver and integrate the Home-On GPS Jam seeker with the JDAM-ERs sent to Ukraine.
🤔 Army Wants Different GPS Alternatives for Different Domains, Including Commercial Tech. “Rather than focusing on one type of the technology, the Army is seeking out a diverse range of alternatives to GPS satellites to provide positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) signals, according to the service’s lead official on the alt-PNT effort.”
👍 NextNav's CEO Explains Her 5G Network Buildout Plan. “Mariam Sorond, CEO of NextNav NN 0.00%↑ said the company is looking for a partner interested in using NextNav's 900MHz holdings for a 5G network buildout.”
🛰 SpaceX Successfully Launches Maxar Intelligence Next-Gen Satellites. “The two satellites launched in the Maxar 1 mission will augment and at some point replace Maxar Intelligence's four satellites that gather data and photos of Earth's surface.”
🏆 Skylo Certifies Nb-IoT Chipset From Sony Semiconductor for Dual-Mode Satellite IoT. “Skylo, offering Release-17 level NB-IoT on existing geostationary satellites, has certified the Altair ALT1250 chipset from Sony Semiconductor Israel for dual-mode cellular and satellite IoT communications.”
😏 Sigfox Gets '18-Times' Battery Boost – With Faster Data Rates, Fewer Data Transmissions. “Unabiz, owner of the Sigfox technology, has claimed to have enabled an 18-times reduction in energy consumption on Sigfox devices.”
Maps:
👏 Overture Map Data Now Available in BigQuery and Snowflake. “Since the data is published as data shares in BigQuery and Snowflake, users won’t have to pay for the data storage …only for computation done on the data.”
👍 PLACE: Fueling Maps for the Rest of the World. “PLACE data is a horizontal bedrock for so many uses: for governments just to be able to create an accurate map of their communities is a godsend. It can form the basis for understanding population and land use.”
🗺 Google Maps Is Getting a Makeover — Here's Everything You Need To Know. “As with the original update, the aim appears to be to ditch full-screen overlays, instead providing users with sheets that appear on top of the map, keeping at least some of it visible.”
🌨 Google Found a Way to Improve Google Maps Navigation During Bad Weather. “The company recently filed a patent for a technology whose role is to help drivers find their destinations even when their sight is obstructed due to various factors, including bad weather.”
🚍 Hivemapper’s Newest Dashcam. “Our dashcams capture images, extract intelligence about the world and build useful map products for the $20 billion a year mapping industry.”
👌 What's New in ArcGIS Pro 3.3. “One of the standout features in ArcGIS Pro is the ability to perform dynamic flood simulations in 3D scenes.”
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Connected and Autonomous Vehicles:
😮 Hyundai Is Spending Close to $1 Billion To Keep Self-Driving Startup Motional Alive. “The Korean automaker invested $475 million directly into Motional as part of a broader deal that includes buying out joint venture partner Aptiv. As part of the deal, Hyundai will spend another $448 million to buy 11% of Aptiv’s common equity interest in Motional, according to information revealed Thursday in Aptiv’s first-quarter earnings report.”
…and from TechCrunch: “Motional has pushed its plan to launch a commercial driverless robotaxi service with its second-generation AV — the Hyundai Ioniq 5 — to 2026, two years later than planned.”
🙁 Luminar Lays off 20 Percent of Its Workforce. “The company, which just announced shipments of its next-generation laser sensors to Volvo, said that it will transition to an ‘asset light’ business model that will see more of its production outsourced to its partners. As part of the restructuring, at least 147 people will lose their jobs.” Also, Tesla bought more than $2 million worth of the company’s lidar this year…even though Elon Musk hates lidar.
🚘 Google's Waymo Is Expanding Its Robotaxi Testing. “In the coming weeks, Waymo employees will begin testing rides without a human driver on city streets north of San Mateo, the company said.”
📌 Daimler to Merge Autonomous Driving with Battery Electric Propulsion. “The company unveiled a battery-electric eCascadia daycab equipped with an integrated autonomous driving stack from Torc Robotics.”
Drones:
🛩 Teledyne's New Rogue 1 Drone Hits Precision Targets at 70 Mph. “Rogue 1 can be modified to carry a variety of munitions enabling it to knock out different targets from soft-skinned vehicles to stationary armored targets.”
Financial:
🚛 FleetPulse Spun off From Great Dane, Raises $11 Million for Trailer Telematics. Trailer telematics provider FleetPulse announced Wednesday it is spinning off as its own company after being incubated under trailer manufacturer Great Dane since 2017. The telematics provider is launching independently with $11 million raised including a $6 million seed round led by Four More Capital.
😕 Fisker Is Closing Its California Headquarters: Report. “The automaker recently warned of layoffs and the potential of bankruptcy.”
✔ Globalstar Announces First Quarter 2024 Financial Results and Operational Updates.
✔ NextNav Reports First Quarter 2024 Results.
Location Industry Briefs
Send your news releases to kdennehy@driverlessreport.com. Go to www.locationbusinessnews.com for more news and an archive of stories.
OneNav Announces First L5-Direct GNSS Receiver Technology
Saying the product launch comes as Russia is interfering with GPS technology throughout Europe, oneNav announced the launch of L5-direct, which is directly acquiring and tracking L5-band signals. Russian forces have been successful in using GPS blackout technology to thwart American-made drones on the Ukrainian battlefield, the company said.
Advanced L5-band signals represent a significant step forward as these signals are 6-7x more resilient to jamming and spoofing attacks than obsolete L1 C/A signals, the company said. “Advances in GNSS technology give us the opportunity to better protect our economy, our critical industries, our military, and our E9-1-1 services from bad actors looking to exploit outdated L1 technology,” said oneNav CEO Steve Poizner, in a statement. “In addition to providing greater accuracy, L5-band signals are more resilient to jamming and interference by design. Unlike existing GNSS receivers that must first acquire old L1 signals before benefitting from advanced L5-band signals, oneNav’s L5-direct acquires these modern signals without using any L1.”
Contact: Ellen Kirk, oneNav, l5-direct@onenav.ai.
TomTom supports SMATS Traffic Solutions
TomTom [TOM2] has announced a new commercial deal with Canada-based SMATS Traffic Solutions, a multi-modal transportation data collection and analytics company. Using TomTom’s live and historic traffic data, SMATS’ AI-powered platform, iNode, provides its clients with advanced, highly accurate analytics for a range of use cases, from everyday operations to predictive planning and optimization, the company said.
Contact: TomTom, www.tomtom.com.
VIAVI Introduces SecurePNT 6200 With SecureTime Services
Viavi Solutions VIAV 0.00%↑ has launched the SecurePNT 6200 with SecureTime services, a resilient timing clock solution that delivers positioning, navigation and timing (PNT) used in worldwide critical infrastructure operations, the company said. SecurePNT and SecureTime also integrates the Fugro AtomiChron timing service, which combines signals from geosynchronous orbit (GEO), low-Earth orbit (LEO) and medium-Earth orbit (MEO) GPS and GNSS constellations, the company said.
Key features include anti-spoofing detection and mitigation, authentication on all GNSS satellite constellations beyond Galileo OSNMA, encryption and others.
Contact: Martin Smith, for VIAVI, viavi@sonuspr.com.
Parkopedia Expands To Middle East With Regeny Partnership
Parkopedia has partnered with EV charging solutions provider Regeny to provide Middle East drivers with charge point data in their vehicle head units, to simplify the process of locating chargers, the company said. This partnership will initially see UAE charging data available in cars from one of the premium global automakers, providing drivers with access to half of the EV chargers in the UAE, the company said.
Later this year, additional markets will include Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Morocco and Jordan - countries with a cumulative population of more than 200 million. Regeny offers access to more than 50 active charging sites and aggregates nearly 2,000 charging ports across the UAE, the company said.
Contact: Adam Calland, Parkopedia, 44(0)7838219129 E: adam.calland@parkopedia.com.
Geotab Ace Generative AI Assistant Kicks off Early Adopter Program with Enhanced Capabilities
Geotab has announced the roll-out of its Early Adopters Program for Geotab Ace, a new Generative AI assistant, slated to begin on May 7, 2024. Geotab Ace, launched earlier this year, features enhanced response insights and introducing new capabilities, such as an understanding of advanced engine diagnostics, the company said.
Ace was developed with Microsoft MSFT 0.00%↑, using Microsoft Azure's cloud infrastructure to create the product with with Azure OpenAI Service.
Contact: Geotab, www.geotab.com/ace.
Linxup and Angi Leads Partner To Offer Fleet Management Solutions
Linxup has partnered with Angi Leads, previously HomeAdvisor, to offer home service professionals with Linxup's GPS tracking and telematics expertise, the company said. The partnership allows companies to optimize fleet management strategies, the company said. Linxup's offers GPS tracking solutions to complement Angi Leads' platform, providing route optimization to real-time monitoring.
Contact: Genifer Redington, Linxup, (314) 532-5604, gredington@linxup.com.
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Descartes Labs Government Selects EarthDaily Constellation Earth Observation Data
Descartes Labs and its subsidiary, Descartes Labs Government, has selected EarthDaily Analytics as a supplier for their Earth observation data to power their geospatial analytics and AI solutions. EarthDaily’s Constellation will unlock a stream of data for Descartes Labs’ customers.
The anticipated EarthDaily Constellation is set to launch later in 2024. Their “string of pearls'' configuration will enable coverage of nearly 100 percent of the world’s land masses and maritime regions every 6 hours, the company said.
Contact: Tanya Cross, Descartes Labs, pr@descarteslabs.com.
Geoflex Launches Stream
Geoflex has rolled out Geoflex Stream, which offers industrial and government entities the ability to monitor and track assets. The solution’s accuracy is 2 centimeters, with thresholds of 10 centimeters in 5 minutes, the company said.
Geoflex Stream is supported by maintenance and 24/7 monitoring, the company said. It leverages a network of more than 120 stations worldwide.
Contact: Geoflex, sales@geoflex.fr.
CalAmp Enhances School Bus Solutions Suite with Dispatch Monitor
CalAmp CAMP 0.00%↑ has launched its Dispatch Monitor, which integrates into the company’s K-12 suite of application solutions. Dispatch Monitor features real-time view of route coverage, ensuring efficient operations and optimized driver performance, the company said. Other features include snapshot of critical data points, including drivers' clock-in status, designated routes, assigned vehicles, and support for multiple drivers or aides per bus, the company said.
Contact: Mark Gaydos, CalAmp, mgaydos@calamp.com, www.calamp.com.
Drivewyze Wins ITS America Award
Drivewyze has received the inaugural ITS Innovation Showcase Award from the Intelligent Transportation Society of America (ITS America) at the recent 2024 ITS America Conference & Expo in Phoenix, Arizona. The ITS Innovation Showcase Award “recognizes groundbreaking innovations and solutions that define the future of transportation.”
Drivewyze showcased its Smart Roadways technology, which state transportation agencies use to issue in-cab safety alerts to commercial truck drivers on upcoming road hazards.
Contact: Doug Johnson, Drivewyze, (780) 461-3355, ext. 254, djohnson@drivewyze.com, www.drivewyze.com.
PetSafe Introduces GPS Dog Fence and Tracker
PetSafe has launched a GPS dog fence and tracking collar featuring the brand's patented AccuGuard technology. Guardian GPS + Tracking Dog Fence features a GPS fence option that stores as many 20 custom boundaries.
In addition, AccuGuard combines GPS satellite data and motion detection, the company said. The technology allows an owner to predict when a dog is approaching a fence boundary, or has breached it, the company said.
Contact: Janna Chollet, PetSafe, (917) 826-8511,jchollet@petsafe.net.
People
Roger Lanctot has started a new position as founder at StrategiaNow.
Nikolay Mikhaylov has been named by Fugro’s as a head of GNSS R&D.
James Ito has been named director at Stellantis.
Descartes Labs has named Keith Masback to its board of directors. Masback was president and CEO of the U.S. Geospatial Intelligence Foundation (USGIF).
Ryan Gruber has been named director of geomatics services at GeoTerra Surveying & Mapping LLC.
Jobs
Segment Marketing Manager, Transportation & Logistics. Geotab.
Segment Marketing Manager, Public Sector. Geotab.
Partner Account Manager. Geotab.
Channel Marketing Manager, Carrier. Geotab.
Government Project Manager. Xona Space Systems.
Product Manager, Android Automotive. Google.
Product Manager - ADAS Software. TomTom.
Sr. Technical Program Manager. HERE Technologies.
Regional Sales Manager-Malaysia. Quectel.
Careers. u-blox.
Junior Account Executive. Mappedin.
Senior Product Designer. Smartcar.
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