GPS privatization in 3...
this post was submitted on 06 Mar 2025
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You know what's a great backup? The ability to read a map or use a compass. This is set up to get Starlink or another billionaire to own GPS.
Ding ding ding. This is just a talking point so they’ll be able to pivot into “we should give Musk a trillion dollar contract to run GPS on his Starlink satellites.” Hammer the “GPS is unreliable” point long enough that the conservative voters have time to start believing it. Then pivot into handing more money to Musk. It’s a typical advertising strategy; Create a problem so you can sell the solution.
Subscription based navigation? Want to use your car's navigation system, there's a fee for that? Want to fly a drone, that'll be 9.99/month. Hopefully there will be a carve out for emergency systems.
This will also allow Tesla to up their traffic game. If everyone is using the Starlink GPS for navigation they'll have all the data.
Lemme guess, Starlink will magically be suggested.
Yeah. It's grift. They want a privatized solution.
Or GLONASS
Pretty much every GPS-capable device made in the last decade uses all systems available: GPS (USA), GLONASS (Russia), and Galileo (EU).
For those who are unfamiliar with it:
GLONASS (ГЛОНАСС, IPA: [ɡɫɐˈnas]; Russian: Глобальная навигационная спутниковая система, romanized: Global'naya Navigatsionnaya Sputnikovaya Sistema, lit. 'Global Navigation Satellite System') is a Russian satellite navigation system operating as part of a radionavigation-satellite service.
They're already are multiple alternatives to GPS. GPS is the American navigation system, but there's also GNSS which is mostly used in Europe and Scandinavia. There are other systems for other parts of the world, even the North and South pole now.
Everyone just uses GPS universally though.
there's also GNSS which is mostly used in Europe and Scandinavia
GNSS is the generic term that covers all satellite navigation systems (GPS included).
Galileo is the EU/ESA system you're thinking of.
GLONASS (Russian) and BeiDou (Chinese) are the other two major constellations with global coverage. The only other full system I know of is NavIC, which is Indian and has only regional coverage.
Most devices actually connect to all of them. I've just checked my phone, and it's connected to all of GPS, Galileo, GLONASS and BeiDou. People just say "GPS" because it's catchier than "GNSS".
I kinda like the British word "satnav".
Is constellation the actual term for a set of satellites now?
We're too dependent on a technology that we spent tens of billions of dollars researching and perfecting over decades of research!
Possibly the dumbest statement I've heard this week.
It's not as dumb as you make it out. The issue isn't that GPS is really, really good at what it does; it's that it's also incredibly vulnerable to disruption and spoofing. And due to the particulars of how GPS works, we can't entirely fix that. We can do some things to ameliorate it, but a lot of those aren't suitable for smaller things that use GPS today.
The other thing is that GPS largely replaced a tremendous number of other navigation aides and techniques, including other radio-navigation systems like LORAN-C.
It's also just a generally bad idea to be too dependent on a single system. If GPS reception fails for one reason or another, it would be good idea to have a backup.
It’s also just a generally bad idea to be too dependent on a single system.
You're saying this in the world where SMS is considered good for 2FA, and PSTN identifier is considered as good as your citizen's ID, and people's lives depend on systems incorporating NodeJS and Kubernetes. Yeah, by the way, Docker everywhere, and all the POSIX standardization and source-compatibility to allow different systems adhering to standards ... have lost to Linux just becoming another main target.
But yes! It's a bad idea. Also it's typical now for these systems to start lying in warzones where their owners don't want one of the sides to have satellite navigation. They then give shift maps or whatever to the side they want to win.
Nah the idea is sound. As someone else said, GPS is incredibly fragile. Also very terrestrial...it doesn't work once you leave the atmosphere.
This will probably be another SpaceX grift, but there are alternative technologies that are more resilient to attack. From military/defense perspective (the original reason for GPS), that's pretty important.
GPS is incredibly fragile.
No, not really. The GPS signal isn't designed to penetrate concrete, no. But that doesn't make it fragile.
Also very terrestrial…it doesn’t work once you leave the atmosphere.
Considering it was never meant to...that's really not that goddamn weird. It's a global positioning satellite system. So clearly for it to work you have to be on the fuckin' globe...
Having functional GPS in a tunnel would be very nice...as someone who drives through Boston and fucking hates tunnels.
But that's not what I meant by fragile. I meant it can be disrupted/jammed fairly trivially.
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Isn't GPS a US project?
We can’t rely on the Global(ist) Positioning System!
GPS depends on a friendly spectrum. I suspect the FCC is preparing for a war where GPS will be jammed, faked, or destroyed.
How's the FCC going to prepare for anything when it's being gutted?
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In comes starlink to the rescue. But in typical Musk fashion it won't doesn't do what's advertised and cost a shit ton more
It's literally him convincing someone to sell their house that they own outright to rent from him because it's somehow much better (for him of course). It's so fucking stupid.
Remember that time he claimed Teslas windows were shatterproof and indestructable. Then he throws a baseball and the window instantly shatters?
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Why not just stop being reliant on cars... you know... put down more rail.... use.. trains...
Reject modernity, return to sextant.
Dont need a sextant if you dont leave your house
How do we call these assholes and tell them to get their heads out of Muskovitch's ass?
What if we built a system of beacon transmitters that sent out pulses and then used recievers that would compare arrival times of those pulses to make a measurement, thus establishing positional location?
We could call it the Long Range something or other. I’m open to suggestions. Need a catchy name!
Wonder if they want to track all phones with a different system.
Don't need GPS to track phones. You triangulate the receivers.
Whatever happened to radio ranging?
That shit was super coolio.
Too often, the vertical location (Z-axis) information that 911 call centers receive is not easily usable
So...use the barometer in tandem with GPS? This is shit I can easily track from my personal Homassistant server.
Also, you know how to make GPS more reliable, secure, and redundant? You launch more GPS satellites.
Also, you know how to make GPS more reliable, secure, and redundant? You launch more GPS satellites.
But where will we find room for more Starlink satellites if we do that? Elon said he needs another contract, and when the boss says jump...!
/s
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