Irate
Japanese Car Drivers Hit By GPS Bug
Sunday August 22 1:10 AM ET
TOKYO (Reuters) - A steady stream of irate
customers called Japanese car navigation makers Sunday
after their automotive directional devices failed due to
a computer flaw. The screens on some car navigation
systems went blank while others froze up as a computer
bug struck Global Positioning System (GPS) devices,
electronics company Pioneer Electronic Corp said.
Pioneer, one of several car navigation system makers
battling the bug, had received several hundred phone
calls since the problem started at 9 a.m., a spokeswoman
said.
About 450 Pioneer workers manned telephone
lines and staffed service centers over the weekend to
help customers with the GPS problem, she said.
Some 95,000 car navigation units sold in Japan
may be unable to cope with an internal date change in
the system, the Ministry of International Trade and
Industry said.
Four Japanese manufacturers of GPS systems
have completed updating only about 170,000 of the
estimated 260,000 units sold in Japan since 1996 and
believed to be still in operation.
Japanese drivers are heavily reliant on the
navigational devices because most streets in urban
centers such as Tokyo are unnamed and follow curving
paths laid out among a tangle of property lines.
Japan's Maritime Safety Agency has received
reports that ships with older GPS systems are in or near
territorial waters but has not received any distress
calls as of Sunday noon, a spokesman said.
At midnight GMT, the 24 satellites of the
Global Positioning System, which provide navigational
data from 17,700 kilometers (11,000 miles) out in space,
switched their timing system back to zero.
The rollover is because the system, which uses
radio signals from satellites to provide navigation
data, was designed to ignore calendar dates but keep
precise time measured in seconds and weeks.
Only 1,024 weeks were allotted from January 6,
1980, before the system is reset to zero.
Related Links:
GPS
Clock's Update 'Bodes Well' For Y2K - Chicago
Tribune (08/23/99)
Y2K
fears calmed by satellites' smooth clock reset -
Yahoo! Finance/Reuters (08/22/99)
Japan
Cars Hit by Navigation Glitch - AP (08/22/99)
Air
Force Says GPS System Rollover Successful -
Reuters (08/22/99)
Navigation
bug fails to bite - BBC (08/22/99)
Bug
threatens positioning satellites - BBC (08/21/99)
No
Y2K Glitches With Navigation Tool - AP (08/21/99)
Rollover Sites
GPS
End-of-Week Rollover - exploration of the problem
by Richard B. Langley, University of New Brunswick.
From GPS World,
1998.
GPS
Week Number Rollover Issues - technical
explanation, history, and related links.
GPS
Year 2000 and EOW Rollover - from the Team
Space & Missile System Center web site.
List
of GPS Manufacturers - with phone numbers and web
site addresses.
Y2K
and GPS End Of Week Rollover Slide Presentation -
from the Space & Missile Systems Center.
Other GPS Sites
NAVSTAR
GPS Joint Program Office - home page of the
space-based radio-positioning system consisting of a
constellation of 24 orbiting satellites that provide
navigation and timing information to military and
civilian users worldwide.
All
About GPS - Shockwave-animation enhanced tutorial
presented by Trimble Navigation.
Global
Positioning System Overview - includes page on rollover
issues.
GPS World
Magazine - articles, columns, and resources for
the GPS user.
NASA
JPL Global Positioning System Program - overview
of the system.
Online
NewsHour: Global Positioning Satellites - 1998
NewsHour with Jim Lehrer report on how the GPS network
of satellites is changing how we get from point A to
point B. Includes RealAudio
version.
