Automotive navigation is the science of calculating a car’s position in the world, relating it to a map, and providing routing services to the driver. Drivers expect modern navigation systems to work reliably wherever the road takes them – from open highways to dense city streets, tunnels, bridges, and underground parking garages. In an automotive navigation system, a critical component is the sensors that provide data on the car’s position and orientation.
For vehicle manufacturers, building automotive navigation systems involves finding technologies that protect position accuracy across different environments, and different global regions. A reliable navigation experience contributes to the overall driver experience and the perceived quality of the vehicle, and therefore to the commercial success of the vehicle. GNSS is one of the dominant technologies used in automotive navigation systems.
GNSS for car navigation provides the absolute position, velocity, and time information needed to locate a vehicle on the map. However, automotive GNSS positioning systems must deliver that data reliably even when GNSS conditions become challenging.
u-blox provides automotive positioning technologies designed to meet these requirements. Our products combine GNSS hardware with sensor fusion, software, and positioning services to support reliable vehicle navigation across a wide range of vehicle types and environments that a vehicle can travel through.
GNSS forms the foundation of vehicle positioning by providing an absolute reference for a vehicle’s location, speed, and time. Reliable GNSS positioning allows navigation systems to continuously locate the vehicle on the road, which in turn supports functions such as route guidance and map matching.
Depending on the navigation requirements, different levels of GNSS performance can be used. Single-band GNSS supports standard road-accurate navigation, while applications requiring greater positioning accuracy can benefit from multi-band reception.
However, vehicles do not always operate with an unobstructed view of the sky. In dense urban environments, tall buildings can block or reflect satellite signals. Tunnels and underground parking garages often block GNSS signals completely, while bridges and other structures can temporarily obstruct signals. Vehicle manufacturers need to design navigation systems that can travel through these outages without losing accuracy.
When satellite signals are degraded or temporarily unavailable, automotive dead reckoning can complement GNSS to help maintain continuous positioning.
By combining the last accurate GNSS fix with data from inertial measurement units (IMUs) and vehicle sensors, the positioning system can continue estimating the vehicle’s position, velocity, and heading during periods of limited GNSS availability. GNSS and IMU sensor fusion can therefore help to provide smoother and more continuous positioning through tunnels, parking garages, urban canyons, and other challenging environments.
Integrating inertial sensors and dead reckoning capabilities with the GNSS solution can also simplify implementation for vehicle manufacturers. u-blox modules, for instance, remove the need for OEMs to develop, integrate, validate and maintain their own sensor fusion algorithms. You simply connect the sensors and receive a sensor-fused output directly from the module. This reduces the effort required to achieve reliable navigation performance in challenging conditions, and can ultimately accelerate time to market.
Once reliable satellite signals become available again, the system switches back to using GNSS data instead of relying on the IMU.
Learn more about automotive dead reckoning
Reliable positioning also depends on the ability to handle interference. Technologies that improve GNSS resilience to jamming and spoofing in vehicle navigation can help protect positioning performance and increase confidence in the information provided by the receiver.
u-blox offers positioning technologies for different levels of accuracy and performance, allowing automotive manufacturers to select an approach suited to their navigation requirements.
Learn more about GNSS jamming and spoofing
u-blox automotive GNSS solutions bring together GNSS hardware, dead reckoning, positioning software, and correction services to address different vehicle navigation requirements.
Navigation architectures can differ significantly between vehicle platforms. Some systems prioritize compact integration and reliable standard positioning, while others require dead reckoning, multi-band reception, higher positioning accuracy, or more advanced positioning capabilities.
A ready-made dedicated GNSS solution within the vehicle’s navigation system can help simplify the architecture compared to the OEM developing their own solution. u-blox modules remove the need for engineers to build and maintain sensor fusion algorithms, and they provide proven integrations with other vehicle systems, tested across millions of vehicles worldwide. Using u-blox enables OEMs to reduce engineering effort and integration risk, ultimately developing better vehicles faster.
The u-blox portfolio provides options for these different requirements, enabling automotive manufacturers and system designers to select an automotive GNSS module and supporting technologies according to the performance, integration, and architecture needs of their application.
u-blox has delivered market-leading GNSS performance for nearly 20 years. We are a trusted by organisations in a huge variety of industries, all over the world, to provide accurate position data even in challenging conditions.
Our products are also designed to simplify integration efforts, and to be long-lasting, with some models having been supported for over a decade. With a resilient global supply chain, high-quality standards, and dedicated GNSS expertise and technical support, u-blox helps automotive manufacturers build reliable navigation solutions for long-term deployment.
Get in touch for orders or any queries: sales@rfdesign.co.za / +27 21 555 8400
Courtesy of u-blox