The Firehouse

So Erick Schonfeld took a shot at the iPhone maps app, which uses Google Maps as its data source, and all other car-mount GPS manufacturers such as TomTom or Garmin, saying that Google should make Apple beg for maps navigation. I don’t agree with much of his post, here is why:

1. Real-time navigation availability depends on the type of license map data is served under, as I explained in a post a few months ago. The map data served by Google to Apple for use on the iPhone does not allow real-time, turn-by-turn navigation, thus, it is cheap and much less money flows from Apple to Google for it. This is explicitly referenced in the iPhone SDK’s licensing terms. Google must be paying a premium on the data it serves on the Android GPS app for this kind of use.
2. A real-time navigation system depends on constant availability of maps, which means online devices, such as an Android phone running Google’s app, must have perfect wireless coverage, in terms of both connectivity and bandwidth, and we know this is next to impossible. A comment on Erick’s post suggests Google caches map data when the route is created, which would be fine…if people followed the route perfectly. Many times, this is impossible for a number of reasons, such as bad routing, roadworks, or heavy traffic. All of these require re-routing, so Google, and any online system, would need to cache also every possible deviation and re-routing from the original path, which is impossible. There is a reason why TomTom’s iPhone app comes loaded with several hundred megabytes of map data.
3. The GPS chipset on mobile devices is not well-suited for high-rate position updates. This is evident if you use TomTom’s iPhone app, and is also evident as TomTom includes a separate GPS chipset in their iPhone car kit, for “…the most accurate positioning“. Since position update rate means battery consumption, and a phone has a ton of battery-consuming electronics on its own, the GPS typically provides less frequent updates than a dedicated GPS device.
4. Dedicated GPS units are best at taking you from A to B, re-routing you within a couple of seconds if you deviate, and showing you the location of speed traps safety cameras and other points of interest (POI). As you go up the price ladder, you are provided with additional functionality, such as voice commands, phone connectivity for hands-free audio and real-time traffic data. On this particular point, I totally agree with Matt Burns on his CrunchGear post, who says of GPS makers: “They are in the habit of producing 78 different versions of the same GPS. Each model steps you up $20 and adds another feature“. But I digress. With such a model, of charging for map updates, or for safety cameras, would they not also be charging for POI data if it was of any real use in vehicle navigation? Like updates to the “Restaurants” category? No, the issue here is that POIs are the least used feature in GPS navigators, and the makers know this. You may occasionally look for the nearest gas station, but that’s about it. If you want to eat something, you will ask around at your destination, or will have looked up options before the trip, but very very rarely do people go looking for stuff on their GPS devices. It’s true that Google makes it a lot easier to access this kind of information, and puts it right there on your face, but nothing will beat a dedicated service such as Yelp, or a dedicated app such as Bliquo (shameless plug for my good friend David Douek, who works there now, hope it helps your SEO at tiny bit!).
5. You can pick up a dedicated GPS unit for almost what you will spend on car mounts and cig-lighter adapter cables. They have faster routing, better planning capabilities, no need for wireless connectivity, and a much better audio output than any mobile phone.
6. You are supposed to be looking at the road while the GPS guides you by voice instructions, not at the GPS screen while it provides you with fancy data and/or graphics. Once you safely stop to look at the GPS, there are much better ways to present useful data, such as POIs, than Google’s interface. Many countries are looking into forcing GPS manufacturers into blanking the screen while the vehicle is moving in order to further prevent distractions to the driver.
7. TomTom, as an example, can add natural voice route requests to their higher-end units via software updates. Some already feature dictated destination input, but its use is clunky and not very useful right now – I bet we will see improvements soon. All it takes is the licensing of a proper speech-recognition engine. Google doesn’t have any major competitive advantage here, other than being the first to implement an (allegedly pending actual reviews) good functionality.
8. TomTom owns Tele Atlas, and Nokia owns NAVTEQ, which combined provide a huge chunk of the map data used by Google Maps. I love you Fake Steve, but you’re wrong on this one – GPS makers are fine, and they know it. Unless Google is planning on re-creating all the map data on their own of course, which is discussed extensively on this post by James Fee, but this would only mean Google would be free from other providers, not crush them.
9. Erick argues that “…the future of mobile apps are Web apps”. I think this is a huge over-simplification – the future of some mobile apps are apps that pull some or all of their data from the web. I regularly use an iPhone app that provides emergency response information on hazardous material (HazMat) incidents – I would be screwed if I had to depend on cellular coverage and a web service for this! We all saw how long Apple’s hard stance on iPhone web apps lasted, and the App Store just broke the 100.000 approved app barrier, so I rest my case.
10. Further from the GPS-centric topic, I’ll question wether Google really developed the Mail and Search functionalities of the iPhone – AFAIK, these are implementations of Mail and Spotlight respectively, can anyone confirm this one?

We had a curious situation the other night. A driver left home and drove down some dirt tracks, following (the obviously wrong) directions his GPS navigator game him. Like I reported some time ago, these navigators sometimes include even horse trails as valid roads, and will try to take you down them if you’re not cautious.

Local Police Department received the call at 8pm, informing the driver was stuck in mud in an unknown location. He could see a railroad track which provided a first clue as to his whereabouts. Three units were dispatched to assist the officers searching for him. A while later, the control room talked with the driver directly, and he gave a set of coordinates that he managed to pull from his GPS navigator. We checked these but turned out to correspond to the point of departure (his home). The driver was found shortly after, before we could call him again and try to instruct him on how to get his actual coordinates from the GPS.

The main lesson learned from this: we are going to try and write a compendium of the steps needed to read the latitude and longitude from the most sold brands of GPS navigators. Looking back at some calls involving lost drivers or RTAs with undetermined location, such advice over the phone would have proven invaluable. I would recommend you study this protocol for your own departments, as one day you could find yourself in the situation where life depends on quickly finding a vehicle equipped with a GPS navigator.

It was through a TUAW post that I discovered PosiMotion, who are going to launch a WiFi-enabled GPS receiver towards the end of the year.

They claim things like “Want to keep track of your child or pet’s location? The G-Fi will stay connected to your device for over 100 feet!”, which seems pretty pointless, as they are most likely going to be in visual range. And there would be nothing more unnerving than looking at your child’s position and suddenly have it drop out of range, which knowing how WiFi behaves is bound to happen even at closer distances than 100 feet.

Another supposedly useful feature is to locate your car in case you forgot where you parked it. I’d rather make a note of the parking spot’s number on my phone (you can even just pretend to dial the number, and use the recently called numbers list to recover it), than paying $180 which will let me locate the car…if I can get within 100 feet of it, by which time I’m either blind, or I will be able to see it. Oh, and make sure you park in open spaces, as GPS won’t work in underground car parks.

Honestly, this seems like a pretty bad idea for a product, and at that price, I doubt it’s going to be on many’s Christmas shopping lists.

Reading this post on iLounge about TomTom’s plans to include their real-time navigation software on the iTunes AppStore (or lack thereof) brings back memories from when I was developing advanced vehicle tracking systems a few years ago.

The root of the issue seems to be this line on the iPhone SDK’s license agreement:

“Applications may not be designed or marketed for real time route guidance; automatic or autonomous control of vehicles, aircraft, or other mechanical devices; dispatch or fleet management; or emergency or life-saving purposes.”

This stems from a chain of license rights that originates with the providers of mapping data, such as NAVTEQ or Tele Atlas. Apple has integrated Google Maps on the iPhone, which in turn uses mapping data from these providers under license. Pricing of map data varies with respect of what you intend to do with it, and for some reason, the providers value real-time tracking of anything as a top dollar use.

Apple had to accept the licensing restrictions that Google’s providers impose, and they very likely include real-time navigation and tracking of objects. In fact, Google Maps terms of use read:

“Except where you have been specifically licensed to do so by Google, you may not use Google Maps with any products, systems, or applications installed or otherwise connected to or in communication with vehicles, capable of vehicle navigation, positioning, dispatch, real time route guidance, fleet management or similar applications.”

This trait started when Microsoft released MapPoint 2004, which included for the first time a clause in its terms that forbid using the application for real-time tracking of vehicles and objects, and any such tracking should have a minimum 15-second delay between reality and display. With MapPoint 2002, one could use ActiveX objects to integrate the maps into a third-party application, like I did when I released StumbVerter, and fully control the map and data overlays. This meant that one could write a VERY cheap real-time tracking software application to go with the GPS tracking hardware the company sold. One could thus use pretty good maps of Europe and North America for a little over 400 Euros, compared to quotes I received that licensed only Spain for some 90.000 Euros! Microsoft got some heat over this, but defended its position by stating this restrictions had been imposed by the map data providers.

I don’t think TomTom will have a problem placing their software on AppStore, as they don’t infringe on the intended Location Services API clause, and maybe Apple will ease this clause by stating that the restriction is on using Google Maps rather than your own licensed map data for displaying location of tracked objects.

I don’t particularly enjoy criticizing companies, but sometimes things are so obvious (which is not to say they are not clever) they deserve a post, even if it’s on a tiny little blog like this.

Today, got an email from Dash, the makers of the car GPS navigation unit on steroids, and for which I applied to receive one of their “beta” units. Didn’t really get one, which was not appreciated, particularly considering I have been involved with GPS technologies since the first portable units were manufactured, such as the Garmin GPS-55AVD (which I still keep). From developing complex fishing buoy data systems to tracking a fleet of over 200 garbage trucks (when GPRS was not even invented, and it was all done over analog radio modems), I even helped Kenwood debug their TK-780 (also known as Fleetsync) radios, the first sporting built-in GPS data relay modems. So, even though I felt well qualified to get a test unit, I never even got an email from Dash, until it was time to pre-order. Then, out of the blue, an email arrives:

Dear N/A:

We’ve had a great response to our recent pre-order email program and are working hard to finish the first version of the product for general consumer sales. Thank you for your continued interest and support! We hope you don’t mind taking just a few minutes to answer this brief survey. As always, your effort is much appreciated.

The survey itself can be found here. Before it disappears, I have taken a screenshot of the extremely short “survey”:

Yeah, it took no time at all. I believe one can click one of the checkboxes and hit ‘Submit’ in less than one second (they said “a few minutes” in their email…maybe the survey site is slow to load, who knows!).

Now, do I have any reason to think that this is cleverly concealed spam? I mean, they only ask me if I was aware they are taking pre-orders, and in case I forgot, they handily provide the link to the order page – in bold. Are they not interested in any other opinion I may have? Or things I’d like to see in their product? Or suggestions and comments? Rating their efforts? No, they just wanted to remind me that I can pre-order one of their devices. Alas, I think I will pass on this one.

A few days ago, while looking for a new mouse, I stumbled upon a game controller, which consists of a seat and a wheel styled in Formula 1 fashion. Right now, Fernando Alonso is looking as the candidate to win this year’s World Championship with Renault, and so he has become a coveted prize for any advertiser worth anything. Now, picture the box of the game system:

Can you spot the cheeky part? Yes, the device is designed by none other than the world-famous…Fernando. Not Fernando Alonso, but the great Fernando. I feel sooo compelled to buy this thing right now and give it a place of honor in my house. Besides, the guy in the picture looks like he is about to hit a bridge head on.
The second piece of totally wrong design is this:

So, how am I supposed to use this Bluetooth GPS receiver, which came with the Route66 Mobile package, without voiding the warranty? The ‘void if broken’ label is placed on the wrapping, not covering a screw hole as usual, to prevent opening of the actual device. If one could switch it on without opening the wrapping, it would still be viable, but the battery that comes with this module, is an external LiIon that needs to be installed prior to use! So, if you buy Route66, beware – you will not be able to use the product without voiding the warranty, which makes it kind of useless…

Sometimes, I feel like a human GPS navigator. And there are probably many more of us out there. Ever get a call from your wife, asking you to direct her to some remote place she is trying to drive to? My solution was to get a TomTom 500 navigator for her birthday. It comes with the maps for Spain in full detail, and a basic map of Europe, with main roads and cities. It can also be used as a Bluetooth handsfree for your mobile phone, so it’s quite a convenient device.

We set about trying it during a trip to visit my mother – since I knew the way, it would be a good sanity check on the navigator’s ability to lower our phone bills. When I told it where we wanted to go, and it told us to turn west instead of east, I started imagining what would happen. After a few minutes of following the navigator’s instructions without even looking out the window, this is where we ended up:

Yes. It wanted us to go up a dirt path that only horses (and fit ones at that) can manage. Take a close look at the full-resolution picture, and judge by yourself.

After turning around, and following the route we always take, we had to turn off the sound for almost half the trip, as it kept insisting that we should “turn around as soon as possible” so we could take the easy-going dirt track.

GPS navigator manufacturers only make the devices, but not the data that’s in them. There are a few companies, such as Navtech and TeleAltlas, who take care of that, and license the use of the data. In this case, it seems that overzealous cartographers had simply taken anything that looked like a road in survey maps, and turned them into navigable paths. The result is my unfortunate experience. The collateral is that my wife doesn’t trust the device, unless it’s for navigating within city limits – thus limiting it’s usefulness, and not limiting my phone bill so much.