New ways of utilizing the satellite data within GPS

Sygic, part of the Eurowag group, has recently shared the possibilities of using advanced satellite technologies, such as Galileo and Copernicus, in transportation solutions. When developing new navigation features, there lays a strong potential not only for the drivers but for the smart cities and their traffic modeling as well.

In the past, Sygic was the first navigation provider ever, that offered lane assistance. The users are now informed which lane to drive, but they aren’t told in which lane they currently are. However, using the Galileo system and integrating its 1-meter precision into the navigation, could direct the drivers based on the lane they are in. Together with the cooperation with car manufacturers and the connectivity with vehicles and their sensors, the feature of guiding through Galileo would mean the perfect lane assistance which could highly enhance the Sygic GPS navigation. This milestone would follow the previous user-friendly innovations, such as head-up display, real-view AR, real-time traffic lights, and much more.

Exploring the satellite data also provides the possibility of more precise traffic modeling for smart cities. For cities, it's key to understand the complexity of their road network. This includes mainly the speed profiles for each road for 24 hours each week, the density of the driving cars, and the overall flow. When exploiting the floating car data generated by the vehicles, there is an option to infer road speeds and come up with the specific speed profile for each section. However, integration of data from the Copernicus imagery and the object detection would allow Sygic to extend the profiles with the density and match it with the speed. Another way of using the Copernicus imagery might improve parking systems based on their availability across the cities. Some of the cities are already interested, one of them being Vienna.

The last way of utilizing the satellite data lies in the map augmentation with user-relevant content. While Sygic has its proprietary format of the map it is, therefore, able to easily share any vital information within the app. Detection of particular zones can be visualized on a map and through geofencing could be integrated into Sygic routing functions. This would be relevant not only for the drivers and dispatchers but for the cities as well. An example of Vienna, it would allow restricting certain city parts for navigation. Based on research, the users of the navigation are highly interested in the weather conditions along the road. This creates the possibility of integrating augmented reality with satellite images and attached mobile cameras, and for example visualize road icing.

The importance of using satellite data is without any doubt a major step toward improving the safety of roads. Sygic, an important part of the Eurowag group, is once again leading the current explorations and bringing positives for everyone in the transportation, from drivers to cities.