Robotic car technology being developed at Oxford University that interprets its surroundings and makes decisions about where to go could eliminate the agony and cost of traffic jams. Whilst human drivers might use GPS to find their way such systems cannot provide anything like the coverage, precision, and reliability autonomous cars need to safely navigate. GPS also fails to tell a robotic car anything about what surrounds it; its proximity to obstacles, other cars, pedestrians, or their intentions.

Bulletproof vest has GPS, sends alert: The S-911 Vest from Laipac Technology is chest armor with brains. It has sprouted a GPS system. It’s designed for military, police, law enforcement agencies etc. It is the invisible eye for the Commander during tactical missions. It provides automatic GPS tracking with accurate position, time, date, speed & heading.
www.laipac.com

France to begin investigation of Apple’s location-based tracking services: The issue over location-based tracking has been plaguing Apple for a while now. The Cupertino-based company along with Google were questioned by the government over privacy concerns with location-based tracking. A federal lawsuit was also filed against Apple several months ago and not too long ago Apple recently settled a similar lawsuit in South Korea by paying a $3,000 fine and an additional $1,000 to a South Korean user, who seemed to take an issue with the tracking. Given that the fine Apple had to pay in South Korea seems like a pittance, we’re guessing the legal fees will cost a lot more and it appears that Apple may have to start digging into their coffers again as France has started their own investigation.

The use of mobile apps by small businesses saved approximately USD 17.6 billion annually, estimates a survey conducted by the Small Business and Entrepreneurship (SBE) Council. The most popular type of application used was GPS navigation, with 68 percent, followed by apps for contact management at 46 percent and remote document access at 41 percent. Other popular kinds of apps included travel planning (32 percent), banking and finance management (30 percent), social media marketing (27 percent) and location-based services (23 percent).

iMapWeather radio application: Weather Decision Technologies, Inc. has announced the full suite of Location-Based Service features on the iMapWeather Radio App. The app sends alerts only to a user in a geo-referenced polygon of dangerous weather, reducing false alarms and keeping alerts focused on exact areas of impact.

SatNav in JV with AND:
SatNav Technologies has announced plans to set up a Joint Venture based on shared vision and complementary business opportunities. From an India perspective, the deal will give SatNav access to the best mapping technologies in the world and upgrade their Indian map IP in line with the standards followed worldwide.

TomTom apologises for giving users’ data to cops
TomTom apologized for supplying driving data collected from customers to police to use in catching speeding motorists. The data, including historical speed, has been sold to local and regional governments in the Netherlands to help police set speed traps. As more smartphones offer GPS navigation service, TomTom has been forced to compensate for declining profit by increasing sales in other areas, including the selling of traffic data, Dutch newspaper AD reported.

GPS power for Australian public transport info: The next generation TransLink mobile website will include Journey Planner easy travel, featuring a GPS capability that allows customers to search for stops, go card retailers and journeys near their current location, according to Annastacia Palaszczuk, Transport Minister, Australia.

Senator to introduce privacy bill for LBS
The US needs consistent rules for how law enforcement agencies can access the ever-growing collection of location-based data from mobile devices, according to a US senator Ron Wyden, an Oregon Democrat. He said that he will soon introduce a bill that would require law enforcement agencies to get courtordered warrants to get location-based information from smartphones and other mobile devices, instead of simple subpoenas or other methods without court oversight. The increasing ability of mobile service providers to track customer locations raises “serious issues” for law enforcement and intelligence agencies, he added.

Consumers share uneasy relationship with LBS
Location-based advertisements prompt nearly half of customers to take action, says a new study from Microsoft. The Microsoft-commissioned research in the UK, Germany, Japan, the U.S. and Canada, and found that 18% of consumers (22% in the U.S.) have seen an advertisement based on their location. Of those, 46% have taken action, including redeeming the coupon offered or visiting the store. Nine in 10 users think location-based ads are useful.