Earlier this year I was reviewing a press release from a truck manufacturer that announced the arrival of a navigation system that would be fitted as standard to all new models in 2022. This is great news for Fleet Managers because technology often takes a long while to reach the truck market. However, I found myself writing about telematics which made me think, what’s the difference?
The term telematics is used for any kind of navigation or tracking system in vehicles but are the names interchangeable? I turned to Wikipedia for a definition (because my kids tell me it’s now considered a reliable academic source) and found out there are some significant differences.
Telematics
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 computerisation of society. It referred to the transfer of information over telecommunications and was a portmanteau blending 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.[1]
Vehicle Navigation
An automotive navigation system is part of the automobile controls or a third party add-on used to find direction in an automobile. It typically uses a satellite navigation device to get its position data which is then correlated to a position on a road. When directions are needed routing can be calculated. On the fly traffic information (road closures, congestion) can be used to adjust the route.
Asset Tracking
Asset tracking refers to the method of tracking physical assets, either by scanning barcode labels attached to the assets or by using tags using GPS, BLE, LoRa, or RFID which broadcast their location.
