​​More than ever, we rely on technologies that can determine o | Tech Updates and News

​​More than ever, we rely on technologies that can determine our location or pinpoint an object’s position. Precision agriculture, drone delivery, logistics, ride-hailing, and air travel all depend on highly accurate position detection from space. Now a series of deployments and upgrades to satellites in orbit and systems down below are boosting their accuracy from several meters to a few centimeters.

That could mean your phone knows not only which street you’re walking or biking down, but what side of the street you’re on. Even now, a shift in the dirt about the size of the tip of a sharp pencil in landslide-prone regions in China can be spotted from more than 21,000 kilometers above. And someday, that kind of resolution could make it possible for self-driving cars or delivery robots to safely navigate streets and sidewalks.