Vodafone partnership to boost vehicle-to-everything tech

Vodafone’s new partnership with California’s Topcon Positioning Group could bring major benefits to road safety.

The pair is working together to develop a new mass-market positioning system that can locate IoT devices, machinery and vehicles with more accuracy than is currently provided by individual global navigation satellite systems (GNSS).

According to Vodafone, this will allow vehicles, scooters and even the likes of robot lawn mowers to be securely monitored in real time to within a few inches – rather than feet –when connected to Vodafone’s IoT network and using Topcon technology that corrects inaccuracies from navigation satellite signals provided by a network of thousands of GNSS reference stations.

The Topcon system provides cloud-based corrections which are sent to vehicles and devices. They then derive accurate locations in “open sky” conditions – when receivers on the ground are not close to obstructions such as trees or reflections from a GNSS signal. Location accuracy is improved further when vehicles and devices are fitted with suitable antennas and receiver equipment.

The service, which will be called Vodafone GNSS Corrections, will be tested using a wide variety of devices connected to Vodafone’s global IoT network – which is one of the largest in the world with more than 150 million connections – and its pan-European network, which covers 12 countries.

To read the complete article, visit IoT World Today.