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This weekend a man in New Jersey was driving in heavy fog with his wife and children in the car. Unsure of where he was going, and with very limited visibility, he was blindly relying on is GPS system….and ending up driving straight into someone’s house.
The accident happened on at an intersection where drivers could only turn left or right. Instead, the driver told police he was relying on his GPS system, which said to go straight at the intersection.
Not only did the driver miss his turn, he also went through a stop sign without stopping and then continued off-road for 100 feet before hitting a house. The driver and his son were unharmed but his wife and 13-year-old daughter, neither of whom were wearing seat belts, both reportedly suffered serious neck and head injuries.
This week a man in El Paso, TX, left his truck running in the driveway and ran back inside to retrieve something before he headed off to work. He told the Police he was only away from the vehicle for a few moments, and to his dismay, someone jumped inside the running vehicle and drove away.
Lucky for the truck owner, he had left his iPhone on the passenger seat of the vehicle. Police said 29-year-old, Joshua Mitzelfelt, allegedly stole the unattended vehicle but did not notice the iPhone.
The truck owner began tracking his vehicle’s location though a website monitoring the phone’s GPS system application while updating sheriff dispatchers. Officers spotted the truck about seven miles from the owner’s residence and arrested the driver.
Executives from Apple (AAPL)and Google (GOOG)are facing another day of inquiries by the US Senate about mobile phones, privacy and user consent. Facebook even joined today’s Senate hearing. U.S. politicians are concerned that companies including Apple, Google and Facebook aren’t doing enough to protect their customers’ location privacy. Members of a U.S. Senate subcommittee are urging Congress to pass new laws awarding wireless subscribers greater control over how smartphones and applications track their location.
These companies plus thousands of developers who make applications for the companies’ platforms — are facing scrutiny over how they collect, use, and store information, including data gathered from smartphones and other wireless devices.
“I think anyone who uses a mobile device has an expectation of privacy, and sadly that expectation is not always being met,” said Sen. John Rockefeller IV, chairman of the U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. “The mobile marketplace is so new and technology is moving so quickly that many consumers do not understand the privacy implications of their actions…A mother posting a smartphone photograph of her child online, he suggested, may not realize that “geotagged” location data may be embedded in the image file.”
In recent months, there have been several heated court battles between law enforcement agents and privacy rights advocates. One side argues that using a GPS vehicle tracking system to monitor suspect’s without first obtaining a warrant is perfectly legal and OK. The other side argues that this is a violation of a person’s rights to privacy.
The constitutional matter until now has been left to district courts around the country to decide, resulting in a patchwork of conflicting rulings. The use of GPS vehicle tracking devices is poised to become one of the most contentious privacy issues before the Supreme Court, if it agrees to hear an appeal filed by the Obama administration last month. The administration is seeking to overturn a ruling by a lower court that law enforcement officials must obtain a warrant before using a tracker.
In 2005 Kathy Thomas, an animal rights activist, had been aware for years that she was being tracked and followed by the FBI. But one day she noticed the tracking had stopped. The FBI agents were no longer following her on a weekly basis. She figured the FBI had given up on her, but after a few weeks she confronted one of the agents she knew had been tracking her. After the confrontation, she was suspicious that law enforcement was still monitoring her, so she decided to check for a GPS vehicle tracking system under the bumper of her car. She was not surprised to find a small black GPS tracking system under the rear bumper of her vehicle.
Last week Wired Magazine obtained the GPS tracking device found by Kathy Thomas on her car in 2005. As part of its coverage of Thomas’ plight, the tracking system was sent to iFixit for analysis. iFixit is well-known for its tear-downs of electronic devices.
Overall, the tracking system is fairly simple and contains four major parts: a magnetic mount, a GPS antenna, a transmitter/receiver unit, and a battery pack. Its simplicity likely has a lot to do with the fact that the FBI doesn’t want you to ever find it unless you’re looking for it, and something more complex would be easier to find.
With regular gas prices averaging more than $3.95 a gallon in the US, drivers will be happy to know there is a GPS system that helps drivers take the “greenest” route which saves the planet and saves money at the pump.
For businesses, the recent increases in gas prices can have a huge impact on the bottom line. A green fleet GPS system can help companies to cut fuel costs while also reducing their environmental impact. Smart driving behavior, including everything from gradual starts to optimal routing with a GPS navigation system, can reduce fuel consumption by as much as 10 percent to 20 percent in some cases.
A Green GPS system can help drivers reduce their fuel costs and their “carbon footprint” as well. More than 1.2 billion tons of carbon dioxide is discharged into the world’s atmosphere each year by the cars that we drive. According to the United Nations, “The transportation sector accounts for 30 percent of greenhouse fuel emissions in developed countries … and that share is rising.”
After months of consecutive price increases, gas prices have finally decreased — slightly. The national average price for a gallon of regular, unleaded gas is currently $3.955 per gallon on Monday, down from Sunday’s price of $3.961, according to the AAA Fuel Gauge Report. Many experts say the $4 per gallon mark is a tipping point, a price likely to dissuade consumers from driving, lowering demand and keeping pressure on gasoline prices.
The average price of regular gas in the Los Angeles area is currently $4.268 per gallon — 2.1 cents lower than last week, eight cents higher than last month, and $1.13 higher than last year.
Today’s drop in gas prices follows a week where crude oil prices tumbled. Oil prices continued to decline on Monday, dropping under $99 per barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
The price of diesel fuel began to decline across the nation this week, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration and the AAA Fuel Gauge Report. The price of a gallon of diesel gas is currently $4.13, a two cent decrease from one week ago. One week ago diesel gas was averaging 4.16 a gallon. However, diesel fuel prices are still up by two cents from one month ago, when it was averaging $4.11 a gallon.
Although the decline in diesel prices aren’t huge, it may be the start of a declining trend. Many businesses and consumer have been hoping for relief at the pumps for months now.
Nationally, the average price for a gallon of regular unleaded gas is currently $3.98. One week ago, prices were the same. One month ago, gas prices were 18 cents less, averaging $3.80 per gallon, according to AAA. However, many cities and states have seen gas prices fluctuating. Some cities have broken local records for all-time high prices, while other cities have seen slight decreases in prices at the pump.
Apple and Google testified this week in front of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Privacy, Technology and the Law. The purpose of the hearing was to to address users’ privacy on smartphones, tablets, and cell phones, and to get answers from Google and Apple about how and why they record various aspects of consumer data. Representatives from Apple and Google faced tough questions at they tried to defend their their location tracking system and privacy policies.
The hearing was called by Senator Al Franken (D-MN) in April following the location tracking controversy that first exploded over Apple’s products and Google soon thereafter. Apple VP of Software Technology Guy “Bud” Tribble and Google Director of Public Policy Alan Davidson both stood behind their companies’ policies at the hearing, while continuing to insist that they take consumer privacy seriously.
“Each year, over 26,000 adults are stalked using a GPS tracking system, including GPS tracking devices on mobile phones. This is from 2006 when there were a third as many smartphones as there are today,” Franken said at the beginning of the hearing. “The answer to this problem is not ending location-based services. No one up here wants to stop Apple or Google from producing their products or doing the incredible things that you do. What today is about is trying to find a balance between all those wonderful benefits and the public’s right to privacy.”
After 40-plus consecutive business days of gas price increases, there finally seems to be a glimmer of light at the end of the tunnel. The average price for a gallon of regular unleaded gas decreased slightly from $3.966 to $3.960, according to the AAA Fuel Gauge Report.One week ago, gas prices were averaging $3.952.
Premium gas is currently at $4.231 a gallon, as of May 9, 2011. Diesel fuel is currently averaging $4.15 a gallon.
Garmin, (GRMN) the industry leader in GPS navigation devices, announced last week that its profit nearly tripled in the first quarter of 2011, driven by sales growth in its core segment that makes GPS systems for cars.
The company has a lot of positive things going for it. It has a solid financial position with reasonable debt levels by most measures. Profits were boosted by an increase in sales at its automotive segment and a lower-than-expected tax rate. Garmin’s revenue increased to $507.8 million from $431.1 million a year earlier. The company earned $95.5 million, or 49 cents per share, compared with a profit of $37.3 million, or 19 cents per share, a year earlier.
The average price for a gallon of regular gas in the US is $3.96, according to the AAA Fuel Gauge Report. According to the Lundberg Survey, published this weekend, the average price for a gallon of regular gas topped the $4 mark . In July 2008, gas reached a record high price of $4.11. Lundberg says gas prices may have already peaked this season and predicts prices will fluctuate over the next few weeks.