The World Economy Runs on GPS. It Needs a Backup Plan

GPS is american, Europeans have the Galileo system, and the russians have glonass. aren't those a backup plan

<i>The most insidious tactic on the ground is GPS spoofing, using malicious software to broadcast phony signals and fool the receiver on, say, an aircraft into thinking it’s somewhere, or somewhen, that it isn’t. Such methods “would certainly work against Ubers, Waymo’s self-driving cars, delivery drones from Amazon,” and more, says Todd Humphreys, an aerospace engineering professor at the University of Texas at Austin.</i><p>Happy to see the article discuss the problem of GPS jamming and spoofing. That could become an increasing threat, especially against self-driving cars.<p>Recent HN thread: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=17539465" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=17539465</a>

Indeed. If anyone is interested in just how much GPS is used in our daily lives I recommend reading the book Pinpoint: How GPS is Changing Technology, Culture, and Our Minds by Greg Milner. It&#x27;s a neat read on the development of GPS as well as other navigation throughout history.

I was surprised to learn recently that GPS can be turned off by the government. I guess it makes sense, I just never thought of gps as inherently controlled by the government.