The Business: Mileage-Based Road Tax Gets Pumped

May 1, 2009 GPS World

» TRANSPORTATION & GOVERNMENT

Mileage-Based Road Tax Gets Pumped

A congressional commission is recommending using GPS to tax drivers based on distance traveled, instead of taxing the gas drivers buy. The method, already tested in Oregon, is also being considered by half a dozen states.

Looking Ahead. As the public adopts alternative energy vehicles, less gas will be consumed, and that means lower tax revenues for states and less money for road maintenance. “As society changes, technology changes. We need to change the way we look at infrastructure and how we pay for it,” said Hawaii Department of Transportation Director Brennon Morioka. Hawaii may launch a pilot project as part of a highway modernization bill now in its state legislature.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood pitched the idea, which was quickly shot down by White House press secretary Robert Gibbs in a February 20 news conference. “It is not and will not be the policy of the Obama administration,” the president’s press secretary said.

But a few days later, a special commission created by Congress endorsed the idea. The National Surface Transportation Infrastructure Financing Commission warned in a report that if government fails to find a new way to raise money, “we will suffer grim consequences in the future: unimaginable levels of congestion, reduced safety, costlier goods and services, an eroded quality of life, and diminished economic competitiveness as a nation.” The commission said the current 18.4 cents a gallon gas tax and 24.4 cents a gallon diesel tax are not raising enough money to keep pace with the cost of highway, bridge, and transit projects.

The report, Paying Our Way: A New Framework for Transportation Finance, recommends moving to a mileage tax, and specifically cites using GPS technology in vehicles to track miles driven and compute tax owed. The amount could be adjusted to charge more for travel during peak traffic hours.

The commission said the transition to a national system would take about 10 years.

Opposition. Opponents say commuters who travel long distances to work every day would unfairly receive the brunt of the tax. Others cite reduced incentive to buy alternative-energy cars, and privacy concerns, because the new tax method may require a GPS to be installed in each automobile. A non-GPS method being discussed in some states is to have the government measure odometer readings to calculate miles traveled.

But in Oregon’s 2006 test of the mileage tax, the installed GPS devices didn’t transmit a signal. When drivers pulled into service stations, the pump downloaded the number of miles driven, charged the driver a fee based on the distance, and reduced the gas tax they would have paid by the amount of the user fee.

In January Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski asked the state legislature to allocate $10 million to continue the experiment. “It’s probably eight to 10 years away,” said Anna Richter-Taylor, Kulongoski’s spokeswoman. “But gas-tax revenues are not sustainable so he wants to be sure that when we do face that cliff, we don’t fall off.”The mileage tax is also being considered by Massachusetts, Idaho, Nevada, North Carolina, and Arizona.

Commission member Geoffrey Yarema told the Associated Press that the commission examined more than 40 types of funding schemes before arriving at a consensus that a mileage-based system makes the most sense, and he isn’t discouraged by the White House’s rejection of a mileage-based tax.

“I say let’s wait and see,” Yarema said. “We’re all looking for solutions and I’m sure the Obama administration will be looking for solutions as well.”

» MASS MARKET OEM

u-blox Announces Acquisition of Geotate

u-blox Holding AG has acquired Geotate B.V. (a joint venture between Road Group Holding AG and NXP B.V.). Geotate develops GPS geotagging solutions based on software GPS technology and related web services.

The acquisition represents a strategic step for u-blox, as it allows the company to expand its position in the consumer markets with GPS geotagging solutions for digital camera manufacturers and other portable device manufacturers, u-blox said.

Terms of the transaction include patented technology and products in the area of software GPS and geotagging GPS; and total consideration 5.5 million euros in cash — 2 million euros for a royalty-free patent license arrangement with NXP B.V. for selected patents and 3.5 million euros for the outstanding shares of Geotate B.V.

» MILITARY

White Electronic Awarded $8.6M in Contracts

Semiconductor maker White Electronic Designs Corporation (Phoenix, Arizona) has been awarded multiple contracts worth $8.6 million for its manufacture of products used in multiple GPS platforms.

“The products are used in a variety of military programs ranging from ground and airborne radios to precision-guided munitions and missiles,” said Dan Tarantine, executive vice president of sales and marketing. “When used in radios, it allows the command center to verify the exact location of the warfighter and to communicate via secure encryption. When used in a precision-guided munition or missile, the target is set using GPS coordinates, allowing the weapon to strike the fixed target with pinpoint accuracy while minimizing collateral damage to structures, friendly forces, and civilians. Unlike many other guidance systems, GPS guidance has a distinct advantage for all weather, day, or night combat operation.”

“While in the past we have utilized this technology in larger weapon platforms,” Tarantine said, “it is now being implemented in smaller handheld communication devices and munitions approaching 105 millimeters, and each device embraces the Navstar security architecture.”

The Navstar GPS design incorporates a security architecture that includes tamper-resistant technology, selected by the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to implement the next generation of security functions for GPS. The use of this security architecture significantly enhances the combatant commander’s ability to determine precise positioning, velocity, and time, in all environments.

» SURVEY & CONSTRUCTION

NavCom, Astrium Take Precision to Europe

NavCom Technology and Astrium Services have formed a strategic partnership to deliver precise positioning solutions throughout Europe. NavCom, based in Torrance, California, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Deere & Company. Astrium Services is part of Astrium, a wholly owned subsidiary of EADS, based in Europe.

Through this new alliance, Astrium Services will become the sole European supplier of NavCom’s GNSS product and positioning solutions, including the StarFire Network, NavCom’s global decimeter-accurate satellite-based augmentation system (GSBAS).

» SURVEY & CONSTRUCTION

Topcon Provides Receivers for China’s Earthquake Network

Topcon Positioning Systems of Livermore, California, has been selected to supply GNSS receivers for the Crustal Movement Observation Network of China (CMONOC). The company will supply 132 campaign-mode (portable) GNSS CORS receivers and GNSS choke-ring antennas for CMONOC.

The CMONOC project was established by the China Earthquake Administration (CEA) of the People’s Republic of China, to monitor crustal deformation and to predict earthquakes using GNSS technology. In the context of the devastating 2008 Wenchuan Earthquake (8.0 on Richter scale), the Chinese government hopes to use the technologies to enhance disaster-relief capability. CEA is planning to use the equipment to re-measure more than 2,000 ground monuments throughout China in 2009.

“By better understanding the Earth’s natural processes through monitoring and tracking the deformation, the devastating effects of earthquakes can hopefully be reduced and avoided. The CMONOC project is an exemplary use of GNSS technology in geophysical research,” said Eduardo Falcon, senior vice president and general manager of TPS’ Emerging Business unit.

RTK Network. Topcon will also supply GNSS receivers and software for Shandong Province Continuously Operating Reference Station Network (SDCORS), which is designed to provide full coverage of Shandong Province of China with network RTK capability. In an effort by the provincial government to improve and modernize its surveying infrastructure, 49 Net-G3 GNSS CORS receivers and CR-G3 GNSS choke ring antennas, and TopNet software with 120 connection nodes, have been selected for SDCORS through a public tender.

» TELECOMMUNICATIONS

Trimble Introduces Tiny GPS Timing Receiver

Trimble has introduced a new embedded GPS receiver for timing applications. The Trimble Resolution-SMT GPS receiver provides advancements in performance, ease of integration, and software flexibility, Trimble said. It enables system integrators to add precise GPS to provide location, Coordinated Universal Time (UTC), and synchronization to many products or systems where cost or size had previously been a limitation, the company said.

Precise timing and synchronization efficiently controls the flow of network information data to maximize the use of bandwidth in the wireless infrastructure. The Resolution-SMT receiver provides a low-cost, easy-to-use, accurate, and reliable GPS timing source for the telecommunications, broadcast synchronization, power transmission, and wireless industries, Trimble said.

The Resolution-SMT is in a 19 x 19 x 2.5 millimeter shielded module packaged in tape and reel for pick and place manufacturing processes. It features a reflow-solderable edge castellation interface so the module can be incorporated in a product design without costly I/O and RF connectors.

A starter kit is available through Trimble’s worldwide Component Technologies sales network.

» MASS MARKET OEM

Furuno Completes Acquisition of eRide

Furuno Electric Co., Ltd. of Nishinomiya, Japan, has acquired eRide, Inc., making eRide a majority-owned subsidiary of Furuno. In 2005 Furuno and eRide entered into a technology licensing agreement, and in 2006 Furuno invested in eRide’s sale of Series A Preferred Shares.

Furuno is now acquiring a majority of eRide shares, with eRide becoming a majority-owned subsidiary of Furuno. eRide, a San-Francisco-based fabless venture company established in 1999 by former Trimble Navigation employees, has been engaged in the design, development, and sales of high-sensitivity GPS receiver technology.

» UTILITIES & COMMUNICATIONS

New van Diggelen Book Covers A-GPS

Frank van Diggelen, technical director for GPS systems at Broadcom Corporation, has authored A-GPS: Assisted GPS, GNSS, and SBAS, available through Artech House Publishers. The 380-page book, intended for technical professionals involved in the study, research, design, or use of GPS/GNSS, covers both practical and theoretical details of signal acquisition and use under difficult conditions, primarily indoors.

Chapters cover coarse-time navigation (so-called instant GPS), coarse-time dilution of precision, high sensitivity for indoor use, generating assistance data, ephemeris extension and long-term orbit prediction, industry standards and government mandates, and future A-GNSS, with five appendices and a glossary.

Readers will learn how A-GPS enables the computing of a position from navigation satellites in the absence of a precise timing source, a topic not yet covered in any other book, the publishers said.