But GPS is using WGS84 datum (usually). And they're changing their own local datum. Nothing will be changed for GPS. It will still use WGS84.<p>Or there are weird Australian upside-down phones and navigators where GPS calculates position in their local datum?
"“We’re fast approaching the day when people will expect accuracies of centimeters in real time out of their handheld devices and then we’ll see a lot of head scratching as things no longer line up,” Smith told Scientific American three years ago. It looks like that day has arrived"<p>Has that day really arrived?<p>I doubt, given the fact that most consumer navigation systems are reliable (directions on Google Maps, pick up on Uber and alike) as long as they are not being blocked by major hurdles.
Ugh, all the recent articles I've seen on this are subtly or entirely wrong about the reasons for a datum change (though this article is a lot better than most).<p>It's possible to account and correct for most of the 1.5 meters when transforming between GDA94 (the current Australian national datum) and ITRF2008 (effectively what's used by GPS), and the transformation published by Geoscience Australia is particularly simple, having only 14 parameters.<p>If you want to know about this from a reliable source, the ICSM site is the place to go. They actually know what they're talking about, and their faq in particular explains a lot of points of jargon and convention rather clearly:
<a href="http://www.icsm.gov.au/gda2020/faqs-2.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.icsm.gov.au/gda2020/faqs-2.html</a>
and shifting about 7cm per year. I did the math last night and realized that Australia has moved further than I am tall since my birth. For some reason that messed with my head.
I wonder if google maps and OSM will be more accurate before or after the change. (I guess after, be because the maps are probably based on satellite images)