ABSTRACT
“Telematics is an interdisciplinary field that encompasses telecommunications, vehicular technologies, electrical engineering, and computer science. Older cars used to breakdown and you had to thumb a lift or hope for help at the side of the road. Modern cars now have sufficient electronics to limp home, i.e., modern cars can have as many as 40 electronic control units on board. The circle of error is at least 4 m, i.e., either side of a road or the field next door; this matters if you are looking at a map online and it appears the driver is in the field or on the wrong side of the road. Older systems might calculate distances as the crow flies, i.e., in straight lines; needless to say, these did not last too long or were quickly updated. Modern systems take the data and match it to the road on a map; so it is pretty good but not the same as the odometer.
