How Does GPS Actually Work and Why Many GPS Devices are About to Stop Working

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In this video:
Developed over the course of decades, GPS has become far more ubiquitous than most people realize. Not just for navigation, its extreme accuracy in time keeping (+/- 10 billionths of a second) has been used by countless businesses the world over for everything from aiding in power grid management to helping manage stock market and other banking transactions.
Want the text version?: www.todayifound...
Sources:
en.wikipedia.o...
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en.wikipedia.o...
www.faa.gov/ab...
en.wikipedia.o...
www.gps.gov/go...
www.orolia.com...
en.wikipedia.o...)
www.gpsworld.c...
en.wikipedia.o...
en.wikipedia.o...
www.wateronlin...
www.leapsecond....
www.gps-repeat...
www.thespacerev...
science.dodliv...
www.pcworld.co...
electronics.ho...
www.maptoaster...
timeandnavigat...
ftp://tycho.usno.navy.mil/pub/gps/gpstd.txt
www.scientific...
en.wikipedia.o...
www.spirent.co...
defencelover.i...

[@TodayIFoundOut]

Thank you Tom Tom for making this one possible! Visit this link to update your Tom Tom devices now: bit.ly/TomTomUpdates

[@curiousentertainment3008]

Fucking clickbait, really? You’re better than this.

[@tedphillips2501]

Why at 1:10 are you inserting very low volume, but highly irritating 1930s quality "music" ?

[@Erin-Thor]

Curious Entertainment - Awe... why would a competing channel post such a harsh unfair comment? Hmmmmm... perhaps a wee bit of professional jealousy? Never, and I do mean NEVER disparage a competitors success, copy it, learn from it, but don’t be an ass. I found this video informative as I do many of TIFO’s videos, and learned a thing or two as well!

[@Erin-Thor]

Why does my GPS say Mary-Mary?

[@Stoppskylten]

Bought TomToms app with "lifetime updates" on Google apps. The apps lifetime was however cut short the year after, when the app was killed off in favour of a subscription model app. ;) I really hate the future.. :(

[@bw-leftturnracing7779]

My GPS keeps telling me to drive off a bridge into the river

[@georgemitchel23]

You should listen to it... :v

[@Kenxclout]

Ok Dwight

[@CaptmagiKono]

That's a sign that your social credit score is very low.

[@Marvin_R]

mine often tells me I'm wading through water, instead of walking on a path a few meters next to it.

[@bw-leftturnracing7779]

@@georgemitchel23 Ur an undercooked piece of toast >:(

[@H00L3y]

"6th of April, this year" *Checks date on phone* *April 6th 2019* Well there's something to look forward to today...

[@GhostlyTekk]

Same

[@hanro50]

Wait...

[@motalasuger]

My gps calibrated time tells me I’m late to this news

[@Silentgrace11]

Include finding out about this on the 10th, so ;u;

[@AngelOfMusic20]

@@Silentgrace11 August 12th and only just finding out this information.

[@sidd065]

He answered the question in the title at 11:18

[@YocasFilmz]

Holy molly thank you for this.

[@bjm6104]

You are awesome

[@yuenhai]

This needs to be upvoted to the top, literally saved me ten minutes of my time

[@trebailey646]

Thank u

[@kamilk6956]

This guy is a Fucking joke. Thank you for this

[@Jacob-fv6co]

Can you do a video on how witness protection programs actually work? I think that would be a cool one.

[@sleeptyper]

Trying to find Jimmy, who snitched your businesses?

[@danielsjohnson]

If he did that then I imagine they wouldn't work as well at hiding people.

[@atlasthebird]

Trying to find someone? D:

[@TodayIFoundOut]

Here you go :-) kzbin.info/www/bejne/q2eTgGOApalli6M -Daven

[@Adamsnadler214]

When he asked me to go to Florida I knew I wasn’t gonna come back alive

[@BrilliantDesignOnline]

So you are saying all my missiles will need a firmware update?

[@sundhaug92]

@Akin Khoo Also, consumer receivers will stop working if they think there are part of a missile launch

[@enoch9019]

Yes FBI, this guy right here

[@erikhendrych190]

@@sundhaug92 They indeed will. I think it stops working at certain speed and altitude. For me the GPS worked on a plane going over 800 km/h. It is not nearly enough for ICBM but could be enough for something like tomahawk (subsonic version). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomahawk_(missile)

[@plowed4weeks]

@@erikhendrych190 Interesting, it didn't work for me and I was on a shitty turbo prop engine that couldn't have been going as fast as you. I guess the speed limit depends on the manufacturer which seems to defeat the purpose becuase if i just go and program a gps receiver i can leave out the speed limit. The speed limit could be hardwired into the chip but again what's stopping me from fabricating a new chip and if i have the capabilitys to build a missile then i can defiantly create a germanium chip

[@xWood4000]

@@plowed4weeks It's probably height then.

[@britshell]

TomTom low-key trying to sell me a new GPS with scare tactics.

[@TodayIFoundOut]

Actually they're just telling you to update your old one. ;-). That was literally explicit in what they were asking when they approached us and said almost ver batem- "We don't want to scare anyone or seem like we're trying to cause a panic. We just want people to update their device firmware, no matter what brand."

[@loc4725]

@@TodayIFoundOut Well +1 for letting people know in advance why their SatNav is about to stop working.

[@reedcolintomlinson]

@@TodayIFoundOut anywhere I can find a credible list of products that will be affected?

[@sundhaug92]

@@reedcolintomlinson Given that it's fundamental to NavStar GPS, all products will be affected if not updated. TomTom does have support documentation to help bit.ly/TomTomUpdates

[@dom1310df]

@@TodayIFoundOut So are they going to release firmware updates for devices that they stopped supporting years ago?

[@glenngoodale1709]

Thank you so much for the amazing content. It's so refreshing and reassuring to see that in this age of dumbed-down rubbish that plagues almost every media outlet, there are still some passionate people dedicated to producing interesting, high-quality content. I love your videos and can't wait for more. You make the world a better place with your work, and I wish you all the success you deserve for it

[@johnbaxter533]

Hear hear

[@enoch9019]

Preach bro

[@glenngoodale1709]

@Mike Milburn Wow, you know your stuff ...thanks ... do u have a web page ?

[@DevonS2]

And it's nice the sources are included aswell so you know were not being fed bullshit

[@JoseGranny]

@Mike Milburn Crazy how mankind has got it all to work right? I mean a satellite is in perpetual motion, in other words it's falling, around the planet. With practically every country on Earth invested in this, I would think there is some semblance of ceasefire when it comes territory. Maybe I'm wrong and that's not how it works at all.

[@flightmaster178]

4:20 the airline drifted into USSR airspace due to the INS (Inertial Navigation System) drift exceeding limits. All INS systems drift to a point, but that one was bad. An INS systems uses GPS as well as an INU (Inertial Nav Unit) which contain gyros which go bad over time. Also the Soviets thought the airline was an RC-135 which is basically a 4 engine Boeing 707. They still fly RC-135s. They also fly OC-135s over Russia as part of a Open Skies Treaty. I used to work on RC-135s. Also, you never mentioned RAIM (Receiver Autonomous Integrity Monitoring). When a GPS receiver is tracking more than 4 satellites, it'll watch for data that is out of limits from what the GPS is receiving from the others. If the GPS receives such erroneous data, it'll drop that satellite and disregard it's information. Also, a GPS can connect to several (more than 4) satellites, some receivers can track up to 12 satellites. Also, easier explained, Almanac data is to let the receiver know where each satellite will be approximately in a 24 hour period. Ephemeris data is an hourly update, and let's the receiver know exactly where each satellite will be every hour. Also, you'll usually get up to a +/-10ft EPE (Estimated Position Error) with civilian GPS receivers which is accurate enough. There are two levels of GPS on two frequencies. Civilian GPS (L1) is transmitted on 1575.42MHz and is unencrypted. The military also uses 1227.6 MHz (L2) and that is encrypted. Using this encrypted GPS can get you to within a foot. Also, on most aircraft they use what's called Kalman filtering, where FMS (Flight Management System) will combine the positions of different GPS receivers onboard, and give the flight crew the most precise position from all of them. I'm typing all of this on my phone, and I apologize for Amy grammatical/spelling/auto correct errors. Also, not all GPS satellites are owned by U.S. most receivers can use GPS, Glonass, and Galileo satellites. -Avionic Systems Field Engineer F-16, RC/TC/OC/WC-135, CH-53E, S-70 Blackhawk, Beechcraft King Air 350 avionics experience.

[@jmchez]

Also left out the relativistic timing effects as described by Einstein. Because the satellites are moving at thousands of miles per hour with respect to the ground, the clocks in the satellites experienced time more slowly than clocks on the ground. But, because the satellites are farther from Earth's gravity than the receivers at ground level, the satellite clocks experience time faster than the clocks on the ground. You need to add and subtract the time differences to get the necessary precision in the time signals to give you your location to within a foot. This is actually one of the most famous and common modern proofs of Einstein's Special and General Relativity theories.

[@flightmaster178]

@@jmchez yes! Couldn't have worded that better!! Thank you!

[@jmchez]

@@flightmaster178 Thanks.

[@sladoeii]

Small point of order: An Embedded GPS/INS (EGI) combines the GPS and INU information. An INS *might* include GPS, but I'd consider it to then be mislabeled since an INS might also just be a bunch of IMUs & Gyros whose data is fused to a single output. EGIs also do the Kalman filtering, which as personal experience has borne out, can also get corrupted and give bad data (don't run them sitting on a shelf for a long time, kids!).

[@RoadkillbunnyUK]

Brenndon McGill thank you so much for taking the time to expand on the topic, much appreciated 🍻

[@CaptmagiKono]

"The US government is footing the bill." So what you actually mean is, "The Net Tax Payers of the US are footing the bill."

[@Captain_Wet_Beard]

Just like roads, its covered by your tax money. The difference is, since it has a military application they actually care about maintaining GPS

[@spazda_mx5]

Thanks America, you're the best :)

[@CaptmagiKono]

@@spazda_mx5 I figure other countries also have similar infrastructure, but I'm not sure.

[@Mira_linn]

@@spazda_mx5 there are other providers so you are probably paying for some kind of GNSS service as india, China have geo stationary systems and Russia and EU have global systems working the same way as gps

[@spazda_mx5]

​@@Mira_linn ​ @CaptmagiKono Yep there is the Russian GLONASS system which is up and running, and the European Galileo and a Chinese system at various states of completion. I think some GPS units can use both the US and Russian systems.

[@MostlyPennyCat]

Ha! Tom Tom. I remember them. From before when we had Google Maps.

[@YdenMk-II]

To be fair, even when google maps exists, there was a period of time you still needed to print out the directions so Tom Tom devices were still in use cause you couldn't always plan ahead. Then everyone got smartphones.

[@MostlyPennyCat]

@@YdenMk-II Oh yeah, Google maps from before smartphones. Fuuuuck, that was a loooong time ago. It was also useless because paper can't update itself if you stray off the path. Now, I always wrote the motorway junction names and numbers out on A4 sheets in highlighter and black. Then, I gaffer taped them to the dashboard. This was back when satnav devices cost 100s and 100s of pounds. The first GPS navigation device I had was the Sony Ericsson C905 feature phone. It came with an app but it was too slow. I installed a new one (for java, those were the days) which was graphically simple but fast. Then my next phone was one of the Google nexuses and that was the end of standalone satnav devices! Phones really took a back slide after the best Sony and others put out during the feature phone era. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_Ericsson_C905 Actual xenon flashes!

[@berendharmsen]

Which still are sometimes supplied by TomTom

[@DavidLee-df888]

@@MostlyPennyCat I have a similar story. I had a Sony Ericsson w850i and it had a moving map display which was 2d but used the GPS signal. It came after I had bought a TomTom 910 from pc world for almost £350, and basically I rarely used that TomTom since it needed to be set-up, attached to the windscreen (since no way was I leaving it in place), and fully charged (if it got to about 20 percent charge it played up). What a hassle, just wedge the phone in this convenient gap in the dashboard and be done.

[@MostlyPennyCat]

@@DavidLee-df888 I had a convenient slot too! It was a handle hole to open a shallow storage bin on the dash. I was a K-series man, loved that camera. Your still can't get a proper flash on a smartphone! I swore I would never get dedicated GPS until I could afford a double din head unit with it in. Those ring stains on your windscreen from the GPS mount was a sure fire way to get your Windows knocked in!

[@A_Dopamine_Molecule]

GPS devices are about to stop working... Guess I'm about to stop driving.

[@focusfrenzy9759]

and using cell phone, or lights, cell phone network towers are all synchronized using GPS signal, power grids are monitored and controlled using GPS

[@shenghan9385]

There is always the maps and Street directory. GPS navigation for commoners haven't really been a thing for too long anyway.

[@johnturner4400]

Dopamine. You did watch the video?

[@jeroenvandenbulk]

@Dylan sky lel, I drive with GPS everywhere. I drive better than most people. Without it I would simply follow road signs but I am lazy as fuck

[@gorkskoal9315]

lol wait they work? well I guess my watch sort of does. and google maps hasn't ever worked well...consistantly anyway. But egad everything else is screwed.

[@Adam-cq2yo]

The FBI wants to know your location. Preferably before April 6th.

[@tuongtran4862]

Adam Ah shit....I have 2 days left

[@joaquimrodriguez8961]

IRS

[@nagrazol]

@@joaquimrodriguez8961 ,,,hittij n njkvjbjgkåöepesäwö1299ö0å1pql1lqlaqlw.lawlo ugnspannkaka

[@MJKToys]

FL350 is pronounced "Flight Level Three Five Zero", each number is spoken to alleviate confusion. - former ATC

[@AtlasReburdened]

Of course we didn't learn anything from Y2K.

[@ViviSectia]

That's because even the people that lived through Y2K are unaware of what happened or all of the time and money spent to mitigate the problem in the time leading up to it.

[@Raysnature]

Oh I could hug you @ViviSectia. I was only explaining to someone the other day, who brought today's media hype and thought Y2K was just a conspiracy theory/mass panic event, that a lot of people put in an awful lot of work to make sure the world kept turning. As you may have guessed I was one small cog in that wheel.

[@gorkskoal9315]

I can partially answeer that was around then. That particular bug was to some degree overstated...ish. Partially because of the hilarity that (then) legacy 16bit and (then )slightly more modern oses that had firmware written in COBOL. It was also partially because of switching to the net-time protocol and updating that. At the time colleges, and universities (for example) didn't care that much about Windows at least not in the bay area. This was when people were still excited about FreeBSD, a few used (then) fledgling Linuxes, and some used BeOS. Windows 95-Win98 for the most part had non-issues other than the amusement of waking up to a horribly out date (punintended) callander and..that was about it. Banks used what became known as block chaining and p2p to keep from crashing with some exceptions (BofA for one). True ATMS failed spectalarly and True other assorted random servers might have as well but that was about it

[@gorkskoal9315]

But it was wickedly cool to celibrate y2k new years though.

[@jonnunn4196]

It was basically a series tedious tasks in 1997 thru 1999; and in most cases if not fixed would have just caused display errors (printing "1900" or "19100" instead of "2000".) Banks though were least impacted as to number of bugs; these display errors started showing up on 30 year mortgages back in early January 1970 so most of these were fixed decades ago. Banking regulations though caused a whole series of jobs dealing with reporting that 100% of the code including vendors had been certified as not having any Y2K defects. Even less of an issue was Feb 29th, 2000; when short cuts were taken on leap year calculations it would normally result in erroneously reporting 1900 & 2100 as a leap year rather than incorrectly reporting 2000 as not one. I should note that in some cases, the Y2K problem was "solved" by creating a Y2K+30 problem. (Software still supporting 2 digit year entry and pivots on Jan 1, 2030.) Other related problems are 2 digit fields for age, and the upcoming (signed 32 bit) unix time rollover.

[@marsgal42]

I work with systems that use GPS for precision timing, and our software is all week-rollover clean. If it wasn't my boss would yell at me. :-) Our newer GPS receivers implement the 13 bit week number, while our software compensates for the old ones. We've been assuring a lot of customers lately.

[@christelheadington1136]

Bless you Dear.

[@Pdro-gw7lu]

Laura Halliday I don’t do much with 1PPS but use/service RTK receivers for survey and autonomous equipment. I don’t think we’ve really even noticed any issues. Granted the firmware with fixes was rolled out a while ago, but I’m sure there’s a few clients out there with old as hell equipment that’ll be coming out of the woodwork as soon as they realise they are having issues lol

[@DasAntiNaziBroetchen]

Can you tell me why that shit was only bumped to 13 bit and not something higher? Transfer rate?

[@Pdro-gw7lu]

DasAntiNaziBroetchen probably to do with how long that will last compared to satellite lifetime as well as bandwidth vs latency. But I don’t really know. Might be a good question for me to ask the boffins who generate the kinematic algorithms

[@NarwahlGaming]

"Assuring customers" I'm picturing you hugging each customer like Voldemort hugging Malfoy. 😂

[@Bigfoot_With_Internet_Access]

Justin Y isn't commenting much anymore. But if he was, I bet he'd say something like "it just works."

[@CaptmagiKono]

I guess he could not afford the like bots anymore.

[@xxXthekevXxx]

I hated him

[@valletas]

@@CaptmagiKono they werent bots... in one video he said he wasted 1-3 hours a day making comments

[@smorrow]

@@valletas, don't we all

[@CaffeinatedTech]

What about GLONASS - the Russian system? I have a Garmin Glo which connects to both positioning networks. Looks like there are no updates related to this issue.

[@matchrocket1702]

Thank you. That was very helpful. I will use that information to educate flat Earthers. They are wilfully ignorant and think GPS work from cell towers.

[@amojak]

sadly you will be wasting your breath, those people are terminal stupid

[@allenz7688]

Most flat Earthers are just trolls. Figuring out your location would work the same, though, if the Earth was flat or round (also the same if you use towers on the ground or satellites in the sky). You are finding a single, unique point in space and time.

[@matchrocket1702]

@@allenz7688 Cell towers don't work in the middle of the ocean.

[@allenz7688]

@@matchrocket1702 Fair enough. Just to also be pedantic, they would work...they just generally don't exist. =) To be even more pedantic, many ships have cell towers of their own, so those towers will certainly work in the middle of the ocean. =P

[@michaelrichter4941]

There are some low key above you

[@fatalfury66]

"after all jesus did walk on water, so... why not you" glorious lmao I love this guy lol

[@nicholashullander7211]

Nathan A effectively your under water by law.

[@AECRADIO1]

I am god, all winter, I walk on water, gods not required, or wanted.

[@M240D]

Can you blame the Soviets for thinking that flight 007 was on a spy mission?

[@rwech]

Ummmm, yes

[@qwertyuiopzxcfgh]

I mean, if you would organise a spy mission, would you name it after the most famous fictional spy ever? If I would organise a spy mission I'd call it operation "let's have Starbucks tomorrow", or something like that.

[@misium]

They are about to enter international airspace. We must shoot now even if it looks like an airliner, it would be awful to shoot down a spy plane in international airspace!

[@allenz7688]

Yes. Several US lawmakers were on that flight, so the Soviets were likely very keenly aware specifically of its departure. KAL007 was communicating via civilian channels. The Soviet leadership choose to shoot the plane down without trying to identify it. The pilot even reported it as a likely civilian plane since it had blinking lights and two rows of windows after getting the order to shoot it down and was ordered to shoot it down anyway. A 1993 Russian report of the incident shows that the plane was over international water by the time the fighter pilot was able to get a shot on it. Soviets then tried to cover up the shooting. Soviet defenses: Cold War tensions were extremely high at that time, paranoia over a missile test occurring that day, and a US reconnaissance plane was monitoring the area in International waters already.

[@joesterling4299]

If they hadn't murdered over 200 people, that would actually be pretty funny.

[@stephen3164]

Today I found out - that I need to start buying maps!

[@efuller6770]

DeLorme sells an awesome map of each state with way more data and reference than most people will ever use. If not in the states... may still be worth seeing if they have awesome maps for your area.

[@MAGGOT_VOMIT]

*I need to sell instruction vids on "How 2 Re-Fold Your Maps".......again.*

[@Vaderoid]

It's pronounced "KAM-LOOPS". Not Kamploops, BC :) @8:00

[@kellyjackson7889]

It was really Kelownda anyways...

[@Mladjasmilic]

Why you wrote Спутник as SPЦИIK? As a Slav, I read that as Srciik.

[@zorakj]

Mladen Milić That is a very bad typo!

[@PixelatedH2O]

It wasn't meant to be Cyrillic but a generic font approximating it but in English.

[@mojoman2001]

Pat, I'd like to buy a vowel? Lol

[@thelegend8570]

currently watching this on the 6th of April, this was a total coincidence...

[@jayyyzeee6409]

The much lesser-known Y2K precursor problem. Ah, 1999. I remember you.

[@jmchez]

Also left out the relativistic timing effects as described by Einstein. Because the satellites are moving at thousands of miles per hour with respect to the ground, the clocks in the satellites experienced time more slowly than clocks on the ground. But, because the satellites are farther from Earth's gravity than the receivers at ground level, the satellite clocks experience time faster than the clocks on the ground. You need to add and subtract the time differences to get the necessary precision in the time signals to give you your location to within a foot. This is actually one of the most famous and common modern proofs of Einstein's Special and General Relativity theories.

[@joergsonnenberger6836]

It is even more important to mention from a different perspective. GPS is one of the very very few common use cases that require both Special and General Relativity to operate.

[@ktowill]

Kamloops, BC is pronounced cam-loops. fyi

[@christelheadington1136]

Some day Simon will make a video with all proper names pronounced correctly. The viewers will then collectively faint.

[@Moparornocar74]

All the likes from citizens of Kamloops lol

[@Kris_L.]

I haven't even finished the video yet. But as soon as I heard him say that, I had to pause just so I could scroll through the comments to find someone correcting him so I could like it. Haha. :) Hear hear to my fellow Canucks!! And to Simon, just giving you a hard time. We know you try and your content is some of the best out there so thank you for everything you do. :)

[@EinChris75]

Sputnik (written on the image in 1:23) is not properly written in Cyrillic alphabet.The proper spelling is Спутник. That letters in the image are gibberish, because there is no I in Cyrillic. "P" is R, "Ц" is Z. So that is Srztn?k.

[@BenTehKitty]

I think it was just a weird stylized typefont to imitate Cyrillic

[@Fuckethead]

It’s so obviously not meant to be actual Russian

[@PixelatedH2O]

It was only meant to be a stylized approximation of Cyrillic using English.

[@karlbrundage7472]

As an 80's US submariner I recall the trips to periscope-depth for a satellite fix and message dump. Inevitably, it was during the worst weather ever encountered by man on the high seas........................................

[@blindleader42]

There might have been some intent there. Bad weather would have made detection by the Soviets more difficult, given the technology available to them at the time.

[@NeoMK]

Shitty weather? Surface boys!

[@samuelbarrett1082]

Being a submariner in the 2000's, not much has changed.

[@NeoMK]

Curious, how deep does a sub have to go before the motion of the waves isn't felt anymore?

[@blindleader42]

@@NeoMK I used to know that, but had to look it up to refresh my memory. At approximately one wavelength of depth below the mean surface, there are no molecules of water involved in the wave. So under some circumstances (under a really severe storm) a sub might feel some movement over a hundred feet down.

[@wojciechmuras553]

Ummm... I have a 2004 GPS Palmtop running Windows Mobile... What do I do now? EDIT: It works. Just fine.

[@tacwolf4962]

This was both hard to listen to and really really well done!!! Bravo on the technical jargon and making it understandable. Love the videos!! Thank you for all of the uploads.

[@Javier.Giron.24]

You want to know what devices are going to stop working? Min. 11:19 You’re welcome 😴

[@TiagoOliveira1000]

i was about to give up..... thank you stranger

[@xxbastet6305]

My science teacher at high school helped work on the GPS/Y2K bug

[@ashwynverma699]

FBI Wants to know your location

[@subscriber6181]

NSA

[@MrZZ-py4pq]

CIA

[@glenngoodale1709]

Elon Musk

[@rubenleal4821]

Sally Mae.

[@davidroddini1512]

Let them query my GPS for it. I am not going to make things easier for them.

[@pebblecups]

Time to see if there is an update for my well travelled Garmin. Thank you for this video, I wouldn't have known otherwise.

[@immortaldeadfast5530]

My favorite gps instruction was "When possible, make an illegal U-turn."

[@rubenvd3913]

Where the hell do you live that u-turns are illegal?

[@immortaldeadfast5530]

@@rubenvd3913 It was on the interstate.

[@Roxor128]

I have to wonder: Why only do the expansion to 13 bits? Why not a nice round 16 or even 32 and make it long-term future-proof? 16 bits would get you about 1260 years of range and 32 bits would get you over 82 million years.

[@NeoMK]

You're talking about a 50 baud per second transmission with GPS

[@chistinelane]

Because why? We can only transmit so much data, and to keep gps small enough to fit in a wrist watch or key fob or even the back of a starling, we can't afford the space for storage we don't really need. Plus by that time we'll likely have another system

[@wolf1066]

I fully intend on being around long enough to have to worry about the 13-bit WNRO - and I'm sure I'm going to need a reliable GPS to aid me in combatting the robot overlords...

[@davidwise1302]

I'm a recently retired software engineer who had worked closely with GPS receivers for more than 20 years, I can attest to this being a real thing. For that matter, I went through the first Week Number rollover event, 22 August 1999, in which case all our GPS-dependent products worked perfectly during the rollover because the GPS receiver manufacturers had done their job right -- the conversion from Week Number and Time Of Week into a date and time is performed by the receiver, so handling this rollover should be the responsibility of the receiver manufacturer -- at most, a system using a GPS receiver would need to check that the receiver handled it right and to correct the incorrect receiver output. Frankly, I'm surprised that any receiver would not be able to handle rollover; we were taken by surprise by the first rollover, but ever since then we have known full well that the next one (ie, this one) was coming. One thing you should have mentioned is that this is going to happen at midnight UTC. While that will be on Sunday for your UK and Continent viewers, your USA and Canadian viewers will get hit by it on Saturday between 5PM (PST) and 8PM (EST) and even earlier for Alaska and Hawaii. BTW, good job explaining the basics of how GPS works and why this problem exists.

[@XSpImmaLion]

Bonus facts: your smartphone has several other ways of determining your position without the help of GPS satellites. One of the most commonly known methods is through cell tower triangulation/multilateration. Kinda similarly to the GPS system, it uses multiple cell towers with parameters like time delays, signal strength and whatnot to determine distance and direction. With multiple towers generating those parameters for you, it can estimate your position. There are other systems that rely on other stuff to determine your position too, like Wi-fi if you are connected to an access point or handset-based that uses cell towers plus other smartphones positions to tell where you are. Another bonus fact: most smartphones also uses extra GPS related techniques to give you a position faster, or give you something in case you are in some area with poor satellite reception - those techniques are usually under the name of A-GPS, A standing for assisted. These will use server side data and time, plus processing and information on satellites, to estimate where you are. Instead of letting the GPS chip/receiver inside your phone to do all the work by itself, it'll attempt a number of different strategies on the mobile operator server side to give you a position. Different strategies requires different conditions, but it's all mostly hidden from normal users because it's just a bunch of things employed to give you that point on the map.

[@hihu7200]

Just get a stand alone GPS reciever as a back up to GPS on your phone. They work even if your cell phone has no signal and there is no wifi to know where you are. They are cheap but can get expensive. They are more accurate and have more features than any smart phone. Also, if the satellite configuration is not giving you the best possible accuracy, you will still get a signal. It may not be ideal, but it will still work. Just do not rely exclusively on your phone for GPS. I get that is easy. But a stand alone GPS receiver has features that smart phones will never have. Why not get the best of both worlds? Oh yeah, Garmin makes the best GPS receivers. Magellan are cheap and a pain.

[@FlameRat_YehLon]

And it's like most recently released phones support multiple satellite systems. For example BeiDou. So I don't think it's possible to have everything go wrong all at once, since they are all likely out of phase with each other when coming to the rollover.

[@juliussokolowski4293]

As some one who deals with GPS for a living I have to say - a very good high level briefing. But, there is always a but... The history is a bit skewed. The connection to Transit could be down-played a bit. Transit had little impact on GPS and an upgraded Transit was actually a competitor to GPS. Timation on the other hand was important to GPS since it proved the viability of atomic clocks in space. The conceptual fathers of GPS were Jim Woodford and Hiroshi Nakamura at the Aerospace Corporation and I think they should have been mentioned, they had much more impact on GPS than Guier, Weiffenbach or McClure of APL ever had. They made a comprehensive (and "defining" in the words of Brad Parkinson, the first project manager of GPS) study of how navigation from space could be done and one of the proposed solutions was what became GPS. I know that Transit was the first system and that the whole thing with Guier and Weiffenbach tracking sputnik and McClure coming up with the idea of reversing the process makes for a nice story. But except for it being a satellite navigation system it has little to do with GPS. Also the downing of KAL007 might have been important to the GPS on a political level, but that was a way to detailed treatment of the incident for a video with the title "How Does GPS Actually Work...".

[@MeepMeep88]

For those who already know what GPS is.. skip to 11:20 for the title of the video

[@kennyk5150]

Legend.

[@katb1145]

Thanks for this. I was wondering when this guy was going to get to the point.

[@themikead99]

I really dont understand how this issue was overlooked. The unix epoch was January 1st, 1970 and they use a 32 bit binary to store their time keeping value. This means there wont be any issues until 2038. However using a smaller number of bits quickly accelerates those rollover times, causing issues like this when the likely scenario is overflow where a bit is carried over into a position it should not be, causing unintended effects throughout the system when it isnt designed to compensate for this. However this would easily be fixed if they had forethought and just used a larger number of bits. If you were to use a 64 bit value you could keep time for 292 billion years and it would take very little storage on modern systems. On a 32 bit machine it would just use two 32 bit values and would take about 8 bytes of storage.

[@enda320]

A lot of mid 2000's Mercedes have hit a similar issue, 24 weeks ago on 21 October, they jumped forward by 2 hours, and displayed the date as 21st October 76 (1976 or 2076). This appears to be a programming error where the expected 1024 week GPS rollover was set at 1000 weeks

[@Altobrun]

If people are curious about GPS, GNSS, or satellite geodesy I recommend looking into geomatics and geomatics engineering as a discipline. Pretty unknown field for how much work they do. Another neat video on the geodest: kzbin.info/www/bejne/fWq7qWx8aa-ppLM

[@yazanmowed]

What about GLONAS and/or GALILEO?

[@BiHiviyaAzadiye]

Gps devices suck, I got a Garmin Lmt60 smart drive.. Let alone it doesn't include new buildings ( not even very new but abt 6~8 years old even after update ) but it even does not know buildings/maps with +60 years old age !

[@Kenxclout]

Girl my GPS stopped working 😔 I need directions to your heart..

[@testicularoxide5055]

Hahaha, smoother than whipped cream there...

[@shenghan9385]

Go find a hooker on the street and ask for directions. She has been a fixture in the area for long enough to know every corner of the city.

[@GreatSageSunWukong]

Just up past the poodle of vomit I just spewed after reading your puke inducing comment

[@MAGGOT_VOMIT]

*She say, "Ask Benjamin Franklin and his friend........Benjamin Franklin".*

[@Kenxclout]

Alfredo Tirado It works like a charm! It makes women laugh and if you make a woman laugh you are halfway there!

[@TechsYouCantLiveWithout]

You made this video just so you could insert TomTom promotion

[@rixnatl]

So, today is April 6th.... Have we seen news headlines about any problems with GPS today?

[@yosefmacgruber1920]

I just tested my purchased-2009 Garmin, and it couldn't acquire any satellites. It was showing 2 red bars for the signal strength, and no error message other than trouble acquiring satellites. Is this what is wrong with it, and how can I fix it? Shame on Garmin for sabotaging their software to terminate in 2019. Surely they had to know that those devices would still be in use a decade later. I have never updated any software on it, and I think it would need a microSD card in it to possibly accept any map update, as it only has 1 GB. Or do I just need to buy a new one? I can access all of my Favorite locations, but transferring the data over would be such a huge chore. Is there a free firmware update, and would it leave all of my user data intact?

[@dojokonojo]

Hah, jokes on you guys, I don't use my GPS to navigate! Now if only people would stop yelling at me for missing the turn and taking the wrong road.

[@TrekkieBrie]

Y2K pt 2, "The Epoch" in theaters this April!

[@mountbikejeff]

I watch a lot of your content and this video stands out as one of the highest quality explanations you have done. I was already well educated on GPS technology and this is an amazing explanation.

[@nickgehr6916]

Why many gps device about to stop working? They need a raise

[@Volodimar]

Because their orbits degrading over time? So they need a raise! Very clever pun! P.S. My IQ is over 9000.

[@HashtagGamingVideos]

Why would people still use Tom Tom if there's Google maps which works much better and is free

[@lacorbeau]

was watching this video when an email notif popped up... TomTom wants me to update my device. THE GOVT IS TRACKING US ;P

[@bradypostma5167]

lacorbeau - TomTom is not the government.

[@AtariBorn]

Tom Tom sucks. Google has even put Garmin to shame, an actual reputable company.

[@peterjansen4826]

1024, so only 10 bits for that integer. Couldn't they have used a few bits extra? Every bit extra gives 2 times as long.

[@Slicerwizard]

Or, you know, devices could just handle the rollover properly.

[@NeoMK]

50 baud bro

[@peterjansen4826]

​@@NeoMK I was afraid of that, bro. ;) Yes, then even 1 bit extra is difficult.

[@kaylaandjimbryant8258]

umm.. the ionosphere is EXTREMELY unlikely to cause any effect at all on the GPS signal at 20cm wavelength. if any atmospheric effects occur, it is likely to be in the troposphere by way of temperature inversions causing a tropospheric duct to occur. for all practical purposes, ionospheric effects are negligible once you reach upper HF, and even in the best of solar activity (and about twice a year for the E layer in the vicinity of 50-150 MHz or so), the lower end of VHF. although ionospheric propagation effects are known at higher frequencies, some claiming as high as 432 MHz or so, those are so rare as to make them newsworthy. GPS is in the vicinity of 1500 MHz, and although I haven't kept up for a while, I'd lay odds there are still no confirmed ionospheric effects at 23cm (1240-1300 MHz), making it even less likely at GPS frequencies. on the other hand, tropospheric ducting is known as high as 10.25 GHz or so (including rather stable ducts across the Caribbean in that band almost all the time, if you are transmitting and receiving a few feet above the water), the troposphere, in which we live, is well known for these ducts caused by temperature inversions, STARTING in the VHF range well into X band (and above?), and is entirely controlled by terrestrial weather. this should never be confused with ionospheric propagation which for all practical purposes ends where VHF begins, except in the above stated cases. L Band "microwave" UHF behaves quite differently from HF (shortwave).

[@mikedydiver]

#todayifoundout thanks the gps update was great especially here we are doing our best to keep track of new diving destinations for tourists coming to have a great holiday.

[@Mikej1592]

My GPS has turned sentient and doesn't want me to unplug it.

[@Adam-wl8wn]

Really good video, I like nearly all of your videos but this one stands out for me.

[@Kari-tu3fs]

GPS system..... is redundant. Global Positioning System system

[@JeremyWS]

Interesting. So nothings gonna change at all then. Ok got you. lol

[@snowpython]

You should check out the computer epoch issue in 2032

[@privatesector0422]

You look like Vsauce. Nice fake CGI satellite...

[@PongoXBongo]

He's British Michael. ;)

[@wingsuiter2392]

FYI flight level 350 is stated as "Three, Five, Zero" not three hundred and fifty.

[@smorrow]

Vertebral column

[@AkashYadavOriginal]

Today I figured out this was an ad for TomTom.

[@MAGGOT_VOMIT]

*We'll still have to buy a crack rock and ask RAY RAY.*

[@johndo3930]

lol GPS stops working I love my gps but if I think back I was in the military in the early 80s no Gps we used to read maps and determined our position from the contour lines on the chart and terrain around us . Gps is a lot easier lol but the world functioned just as well if not better.

And at one time we would wash our clothes in a stream, and the world was just as screwed up as it is now.

[@francoislacombe9071]

The human talent for complicating their lives never ceases to amaze me.

[@bolasblancas420]

Are you an extraterrestrial or something?

[@Treviisolion]

All in the name of laziness.

[@Trainwheel_Time]

Oh yes... a technological advances are right? Like that computer or smartphone you're typing nonsense from right now. Grow up.

[@ThePremiumChicken]

Wait, how can all this work if the a Earth is flat? 😜

[@richardbidinger2577]

I had no idea there was so much to GPS systems. Incredible video.

[@MarianKeller]

There is a lot more to GPS than what you saw in the video. This video didn't even scratch the surface.

[@MAGGOT_VOMIT]

*We're just trying to guide Pussie Smellitt (Jussie Smollett) off the nearest Cliff or Bridge.*

[@stimpy_thecat]

Read the Wikipedia article on GPS. It goes into much greater detail than this video. GPS is veeerrrry complex, to the point where it can be used as confirmation of Einstein's theory of relativity.

[@sinistermoon]

Thanks for the info, Moby.

[@everythingpony]

Wait so is this why my GPS devices from 2011 and older are starting to not find satellites?

[@focusfrenzy9759]

your issue may be break down of a capacitor in the device effecting the reception strength.

[@amojak]

@@everythingpony duh they pick up satellites, buildings block them :D

[@kindlin]

Is it April 6th yet? Then no.

[@andrewxc1335]

7:47 - "Jesus did walk on water, so why not you...?"

[@Erin-Thor]

So, how do I tell if the GPS I use in my old car is affected by this issue? Symptoms? How do I tell?

[@sleeptyper]

Look at it in april 7th, heh. If it still works like it used to, good.

[@michaelrichter4941]

It will start to function like Apple maps.

[@Erin-Thor]

Michael Richter & Sleeptyler - LOL! First, I LIKE Apple® maps, LOL! Second, You know Apple uses Google maps by license, right? Third... so if like my old gps, it tells me I’m driving on dirt and to "Find the nearest road" when I’m driving on a new road, or if it sends me over a bridge under construction... I’ll know then huh? LMAO! Y’all are like no help at all!

[@puncheex2]

Go to the manufacturer's website and look up what they have to say about it. If they don't say anything, get a new device.

[@andiward7068]

Keep your firmware updated

[@caryrichardson43]

Flight levels are expressed as single digits, i.e. "Flight level three five zero".

[@NeoMK]

Requesting FL tree fiddy comeback..

[@ArchangelExile]

Next, do a video in how magnets work.

[@Pdro-gw7lu]

Fucking miracles. Goddamn scientists

[@shanidar]

They use "magnetism". Video would be over in 0.7 seconds.

[@rubenoldenburg9668]

If im on the moon, where would my location be on Google Maps using GPS?

[@RhodeIslandWildlife]

Dear Simon. I love nearly all of your work, but for the love of God PLEASE reign in whom ever wrote this piece.

[@ZRTMWA]

We had to update the firmware in our Trimble GPS survey receivers at work

[@jamesscott1974]

Why cannot the clock in my car be synced with the satellites? 1st world problem having to adjust one minute per month

[@Llian_C]

It would be improper to sync your car clock to a satellite, it needs to spend half the year 1 hour out due to BST.

[@robertnocerajr3985]

Satellites flying in outer space are fake.. that is why..

[@drbadzer]

In my BMW I can’t actually set the time, it is automatically synced with satellites using the GPS transmitter. I even have a Citizen Satellite Wave watch that has its time synced with a satellite. Seiko and Casio also have watches with similar technology, but they’re usually expensive.

[@yaroslavpanych2067]

Dude, again! It is pronounced as Spootnik like in 'look', literal translation is Satelite. It is second video you messing it. Even if you have nobody familiar in Russian, you just could as google translate to read it correctly.

[@PixelatedH2O]

It may be wrong, but it doesn't change the overall information.

[@JCO2002]

Shouldn't be a problem if you're using a Garmin.

[@lockergr]

JCO2002 How do you know? Mine is from 2009.

[@JCO2002]

@@lockergr I checked the Garmin website :-) They don't anticipate any issues. I'm using a GPSmap 76CSx. Don't know when it first came out, but yours from 2009 really isn't that old re software. The rollover problem was taken care of years before that. RS Stewart - Jamaican Caves Organisation

[@lockergr]

JCO2002 thank you for your response, it is much appreciated!

[@JCO2002]

@@lockergr No problem, you're welcome. But let's both check our GPSr's on April 7 to be sure :-)

[@THE-HammerMan]

Garmin sucks rocks. Tom Tom is 10 times better, and Tom Tom sucks the donkey rod! Rand McNally-- nothing better or more user friendly. BTW: You can have the Garmin my boss gave me for free! I tossed it out the window onto the shoulder between Boston & Providence, RI. [That piece of shit won't ever screw me over again!]

[@Sumiyeco_boutique]

Saying GPS system is like saying ATM machine.

[@MindinViolet]

And I eat my breakfast food before going to my work job in the CBD district.

[@SuperPukebucket]

I like how you got a sponsor for a video and you didn't really plug their product other than to tell it's owners to update their firmware. Truly the most advanced update notification

[@jburnscna]

My dad switched flights just before boarding flight 007, crazy

[@mikhailangel3258]

Lucky

[@percynjpn4615]

Like a fox. . .

[@thomasturner6980]

GPS has left the chat Google maps has joined the chat

[@Stoppskylten]

What good is Google maps without GPS though? oO

[@davidmoran4471]

@@Stoppskylten they use personal cell phone info

[@Stoppskylten]

@@davidmoran4471 Wouldn't want to drive around anywhere based on that rough and spotty triangulation alone though..

[@DraconaiMac]

Dear god man........... you posed a problem and an answer in the title but took 11 minutes and 23 seconds to get there?

[@FaerieDust]

I know, isn't it awesome? So much info ♥️

[@J4rj4r81nx]

Wait... there was an answer in the title?

[@gicking3898]

Imagine this. People under 35 yo panicking because their car GPS stops working and they **gasp** have to use a real paper map or street directory. 😆

[@efuller6770]

Lmao... hey man... I'm 34 and fine with it lmao... it's true though sadly. Trying to teach skills to a younger generation who doesn't get why they would need them. Even a lot of my peers don't understand maps or roads laid out on a grid system that doesn't exist within first or third or twenty third, crossed by trees and dead presidents :/

[@PongoXBongo]

Maps are great for pre-planned trips and/or the long-haul middle bits (freeways, main roads, etc.), but GPS is much handier for unplanned trips and/or the short-haul beginning and ending bits (ramps, parking, side roads, etc.).

[@DL-cb3re]

The epoch date in unix is 1 January 1970.

[@smorrow]

cool story bro

[@JohnBowring3D]

I enjoyed this extended TomTom ad that sold me the y2k bug horseshit again. Thanks, I will definitely buy TomTom products now, this was all totally convincing facts.

[@zublacus]

My Father in-law worked at Rockwell, and was in the parking lot when they first tested it. Pretty cool that such a ground breaking technology was tested by a bunch of engineers in the parking lot.

[@NeoMK]

Ah, the ol' Rockwell Retro Encabulator huh? Genius!

[@NeoMK]

kzbin.info/www/bejne/iImtfJeeZrCNZtk

[@coolnegative]

If smell and taste are connected, why does cheese that smells rancid, actually taste good? I want to know!

[@sail4life]

Ever read "The Emperor's New Clothes?"...

[@coolnegative]

@@sail4life if your referring to the fable........not in many.....MANY...decades.

[@simeon136]

People say GPS when they more often than not mean GNSS.

[@tangydiesel1886]

Correct. GPS, U.S. Glonass, Russia Galileo, EU BeiDuo, China GNSS, all of these systems.

[@simeon136]

Exactly.

[@bobbyharper8710]

The great United States of America is truly a marvel.

[@clemstevenson]

007 was a bus route, used by Ian Fleming.

[@originalbluebuddha]

I took that exact flight on that exact plane one week earlier. That makes me a "survivor" of KAL Flight 007 according to today's media definition of survivor.

[@ChakatNightspark]

Garmin is Better anyways