Where Are We? - GPS Declassified: From Smart Bombs to Smartphones - page 154

Described as a smartphone combined with a tactical radio, it uses gps track-
ing to enable a platoon or squad leader to monitor his soldiers' positions on a
display attached to his radio. 41
Municipal transit systems began installing automatic vehicle location (avl)
devices on buses in the early 1990s. Trimble Navigation introduced its Transit-
Trak turnkey system on ten demonstration buses shuttling attendees to Inter-
national Public Transit Expo '90 in Houston. 42 The next year Dallas Area Rapid
Transit outfitted 1,600 buses with Washington-based Marcor's Hummingbird
trackers, numerically the largest nonmilitary gps contract awarded to that
point and estimated at more than $1 million. 43 Qualcomm, the eventual world
leader in avl devices, had equipped more than a half-million vehicles owned
by 1,500 trucking companies by 2004. 44 By 2010 more than two-thirds of all
commercial surface vehicle fleet operators in the United States were estimated
to have adopted gps tracking, yielding total economic benefits exceeding $10
billion annually through fuel, labor, and capital savings. 45 at&t used a phrase
from a children's fable to succinctly explain the benefits of fleet tracking in a
2012 commercial. Following an image of a convoy of seven trucks hauling con-
struction equipment down a rural Texas highway, a worker attaches a magnetic
gps tracker to a truck, saying, “This is the bell on the cat.” 46 Similarly, 40 per-
cent of rail systems and 75 percent of ferryboat operators had adopted gps by
the end of the decade. 47
As with other information technology products, prices have dropped along
with size and weight, making gps tracking increasingly affordable and practi-
cal not only for smaller fleets but also for valuable assets, for pets, and for peo-
ple. Trackers weighing less than an ounce and about the size of remote-entry
key fobs for automobiles have become loss-prevention tools for items ranging
from lat-panel televisions to bank bags. Cambridge, Massachusetts, police
caught a bank robber eight minutes after the crime by tracking him to the pub-
lic bus he was riding. In his pocket they found the stolen $3,600 and a gps
tracker the teller had hidden in the bundles. 48 A Wellington, Florida, commu-
nity center, fed up with thieves stealing figurines from a nativity scene, attached
a gps tracker to baby Jesus. When it disappeared, police followed the signal
and made an arrest. 49 Qualcomm subsidiary Snaptracs offers Tagg, a light-
weight, battery-operated tracker that attaches to a pet's collar and sells for
$99.95 plus a $7.95 monthly service fee. 50 When pets move beyond a zone or
“geo-fence” defined by the owner, Tagg sends a text message or e-mail alert.
People-tracking equipment revenues increased 352 percent between 2005