Editorial Advisory Board PNT Q&A: Autonomous vehicles & GNSS

How is the completion of Galileo and BeiDou affecting the development of autonomous vehicles?

Ismael Colomina, chief scientist, Geonumerics

“GNSS has had a limited impact on the development of AVs because their developers regard it as insufficiently accurate, reliable, and ubiquitous. Only a minority of them are aware of the benefits that the new/modernized constellations bring. More and improved signals and new services— both commercial and public—such as Galileo’s HAS, NMA and CAS will enable and complement visual, lidar and radar sensors for SAE levels of automation 2 and higher and for ASIL D safety levels.”
Ismael Colomina
GeoNumerics

Ellen Hall, Spirent Federal System

“Safety is critical to the implementation of AVs and this safety relies upon PNT accuracy, availability and robustness. These three requirements all benefit from constellation diversification in terms of multiple signals, frequencies, satellites, and constellation providers. In addition to the four civilian signals available on three frequencies from the GPS constellation, signals from Galileo and BeiDou provide suitably equipped receivers with extra satellites, signals and ground segment diversity.”
Ellen Hall
Spirent Federal Systems

Brad Parkinson

“The economic potential of self-driving vehicles is the major driver for their development. Can they be made affordable, safe, dependable, and useful? More operational GNSS constellations may help resolve these issues favorably, but GNSS progress should not significantly influence the large number of developers. My favorite such application is long-haul trucking, which may have some very favorable profit and safety benefits.”
Bradford W. Parkinson
Stanford Center for Position, Navigation and Time