Vehicle telematics

Telematics is an interdisciplinary field that encompasses telecommunications, vehicular technologies, road transportation, road safety, electrical engineering (sensors, instrumentation, wireless communications, etc.), and computer science (multimedia, Internet, etc.). Telematics can involve any of the following:

In contrast, telemetry involves the transmission of measurements from the location of origin to the location of computing and consumption, especially without effecting control on the remote objects. Though typically applied in the testing of flight objects, telemetry has multiple other uses.

Telematics is a translation of the French word télématique which was first coined by Simon Nora and Alain Minc in a 1978 report to the French government on the computerization of society. It referred to the transfer of information over telecommunications and was a merging of the French words télécommunications ("telecommunications") and informatique ("computing science"). The original broad meaning of telematics continues to be used in academic fields but in commerce it now generally means vehicle telematics.

Telematics —

Vehicle telematics can help improve the efficiency of an organization. Practical applications include;

Vehicle tracking is monitoring the location, movements, status and behaviour of a vehicle or fleet of vehicles. This is achieved through a combination of a GPS(GNSS) receiver and an electronic device (usually comprising a GSM GPRS modem or SMS sender) installed in each vehicle, communicating with the user (dispatching, emergency or co-ordinating unit) and PC-based or web-based software. The data is turned into information by management reporting tools in conjunction with a visual display on computerised mapping software. Vehicle tracking systems may also use odometry or dead reckoning as an alternative or complementary means of navigation.

GPS tracking is usually accurate to around 10–20 metres, but the European Space Agency has developed the EGNOS technology to provide accuracy to 1.5 metres.

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