Weekly Top News: FCC Gives Green Light to GPS Complimentary Tech

Our top story this week is the FCC gives ok to finding complementary GPS technology and industry comments.  See our paid subscriber coverage.

Top News:

😕 Launch Delays Hamper Near-Term Impact of GPS Experimentation Program. “The [U.S. Space Force] planned to launch the Navigation Technology Satellite-3 demonstration, dubbed NTS-3, in 2022 with an eye toward experimenting with new PNT signals and payloads that could be installed on future GPS satellites and shape its long-term plans for the constellation. The satellite’s development, led by the Air Force Research Lab and L3Harris, has proceeded on schedule, but delays to the rocket assigned to fly the spacecraft — United Launch Alliance’s new Vulcan Centaur — have stalled the program for years. The mission is slated to fly on Vulcan’s first national security launch this year, but those plans are on hold as the company awaits final certification from the Space Force.”

💰 Sateliot Closes $75 Million Series B Round with $10.7 Million from Hyperion. In a big step to deliver 5G/IoT connectivity from space, Sateliot closes a $75 million B Round, with $14.8 coming from the Spanish government.

🌎 Protection of the Radio Navigation Satellite Service from Harmful Interference. Three international organizations, the International Telecommunications Union (ITU), International Maritime Organization (IMO) and International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) issued a plea for the protection of radio navigation satellite service from interference.

🛩 No Signal, No Problem: Intelligence Firm Debuts Drone Tech Equipped to Beat GPS Jammers. “The war between Russia and Ukraine presented a unique problem: each military had learned how to jam the other’s GPS signals, meaning their drones would be flying blind. Maxar has the capability to counter GPS-jamming technology through its Raptor system.”

☹ Are Israel’s GPS Attacks Impacting India As It Records 465 Incidents Of “GPS Spoofing” In Last 15 Months? “India recorded 465 incidents of interference with aircraft navigation systems between November 2023 and February 2025, mostly in the border regions of Amritsar and Jammu, both near the Pakistan border.”

Expert nationwide installation services for fleet technologies.

Maps:

📲 Apple Says It’ll Use Apple Maps Look Around Photos to Train AI. “Starting in March 2025, Apple AAPL 0.93%↑ will use blurred imagery captured during Apple Maps surveys to improve other services.”

🤷‍♂️ ChatGPT Just Got New Mapping Features, But They Don’t Work Very Well Yet. “I used ChatGPT Deep Research to plan museum visits in Tokyo. As detailed as that report might have been, however, it missed a critical piece of information: the map. OpenAI doesn’t have its own mapping service, so it can’t place those points of interest on a map. I still used Google Maps to plan my days based on the ChatGPT Deep Research report.”

🖐Android Auto Users Confused Over the Google Maps Feature Many People Hate. “The ability to report incidents in Google Maps on Android Auto is powered by a hazard icon appearing on the screen when navigation is enabled. However, this icon doesn’t appear on the screen for all users running Android Auto, and many believe this is because Google GOOG -1.97%↓ hasn’t enabled the feature for everybody.”

😦 Apple Maps Bug Randomly Showing Airport Baggage Claim PINs. “A strange Apple Maps bug is showing point-of-interest pins for a smattering of airport baggage claim stations across the United States, while the map is zoomed far way enough that otherwise almost no landmarks, let alone airports, are marked.”

✈ Mappedin Directory for Airports. The directory allows passengers to look up flight status, find deals and events, get directions and browse in different languages.

🙂 Google Maps Is Getting More Specific About Route Overviews. “Beyond these tweaks, Google Maps is also getting Gemini-fied. An upcoming integration will let you ask Google’s Gemini AI contextual questions about a place you’ve opened within Maps.”

😐 LandsD’s 3D Digital Maps Achieves Territory-Wide Coverage

🗺 Most Taxi Drivers Use Google Maps, Waze Not Even in Second Place. “The 2024/25 National Taxi and Private Hire Driver Survey [in the United Kingdom] revealed some unexpected numbers, especially as more taxi drivers embrace technology to plan their routes and find a faster way to arrive at the address requested by the customer. The survey highlighted an important change in trends. While most taxi drivers used to rely on their experience to find a faster route to a destination and avoid heavy traffic and slowdowns, 68.7% of the drivers now claim they rely on satnav for the same purpose.”

Editor’s Note: Only 68.7 rely on satnav in the UK?

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Connected and Autonomous Vehicles:

👍 Caterpillar Taps Luminar’s Lidar for Self-Driving Construction Equipment. “Caterpillar CAT -0.24%↓ is adding lidar to its heavy-duty construction equipment after striking a deal with Luminar LAZR 7.75%↑ which makes the laser sensor for a number of automakers and self-driving car operators. Caterpillar says it will integrate Luminar’s hardware into its Cat Command autonomy platform, which it uses to power self-driving features in its trucks and other vehicles.”

👉 Everyone’s Missing the Point of the Tesla Vision vs. Lidar Wile E Coyote Video. “It was essentially a comparison test between Tesla’s TSLA 1.99%↑ camera-only autopilot/FSD system and lidar systems, with the lidar vehicle running Luminar’s LAZR 7.75%↑ system. The test results showed the lidar doing better overall, primarily due to its better performance in fog and rain. For more realistic light fog or lighter rain, the cameras likely would have fared better.”

🚕 Lyft to Roll out Robotaxis in Atlanta. “The ride-hailing company said last week that users will be able to take rides in self-driving cars starting this summer, with autonomous vehicles first hitting the streets of Atlanta. The rollout will be done in partnership with May Mobility.”

🤨 Waymo Plans Robotaxi Launch in Washington, DC in 2026. “But it will need to change the law prohibiting fully driverless vehicles first.”

🚘 Waymo to Begin Testing Autonomous Vehicles in Nashville. This week…

🙄 Tesla’s Self-Driving Dreams Hit a Wall in China–But a Comeback Is Already Brewing. “Tesla TSLA 1.99%↑ is inching closer to launching its Full Self-Driving (FSD) software in China but not without navigating a fresh wave of regulatory hurdles.”

🤔 Zoox CTO: Why Self-Driving Cars Are So Hard to Get Right. “Zoox agreed to recall the software on 258 vehicles due to unexpected braking issues following two accidents involving its test vehicles in May 2024, according to Reuters and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.”

👉 Former Cruise CEO Vogt’s Robotics Startup Valued at $2 Billion in New Funding. “It reflects investors’ confidence in a company that has yet to release its product and has no revenue, as the appeal lies in the potential of robotics powered by AI models that can learn to do new tasks, which have captured Silicon Valley’s imagination.”

😉 Elon Musk 10 Years Ago Called Autonomous Driving ‘A Solved Problem’—Said We Will Be There In A Few Years.

🌍 UAE Emerging as a Leader in Autonomous Vehicle Innovation, Says Arthur D. Little. “Dubai and Abu Dhabi, especially, have worked to become testing grounds for autonomous vehicle technology.”

👌 Nexar Teams with NVIDIA to Advance Autonomous Vehicle Innovation. “Nexar has partnered with NVIDIA NVDA -0.57%↓ aimed at transforming the automotive landscape to combine NVIDIA’s AI and computing capabilities to help process Nexar’s vision data.”

Fleet Telematics:

🚍 Platform Science Partners with MapUp for Fleet Toll Management. “Platform Science has announced a partnership with MapUp to integrate MapUp’s suite of toll management products with Platform Science’s telematics capabilities. This integration leverages real-time GPS tracking and dispatch data to provide insights into toll costs and route optimization.”

🚚 Azuga Celebrates Two-Year Membership with the IoT Observatory.

🚛 New SKF and Samsara Fleet Safety Partnership. “SKF Automotive announced a new partnership with Samsara IOT -2.29%↓ to deliver an integrated bearing safety solution.”

Financial:

😕 Trimble Gets Nasdaq Non-Compliance Letter Over Delayed Annual Report Filing.

✔ Intermap Announces 2024 Results and 2025 Guidance.

💲 Runnymede Capital Advisors Takes $441,000 Position in Samsara.

✔ STMicroelectronics Announces Status of Common Share Repurchase Program.

😐 Urgently Notified By Nasdaq Of Non-Compliance With Nasdaq’s Continued Listing Standards.