Irate Japanese Car Drivers Hit By GPS Bug

Updated 1:10 AM ET August 22, 1999TOKYO (Reuters) - A steady stream of irate customers called Japanese car navigation makers Sunday after their automotive directional devices failed due to a computer flaw.

The screens on some car navigation systems went blank while others froze up as a computer bug struck Global Positioning System (GPS) devices, electronics company Pioneer Electronic Corp said. Pioneer, one of several car navigation system makers battling the bug, had received several hundred phone calls since the problem started at 9 a.m., a spokeswoman said.

About 450 Pioneer workers manned telephone lines and staffed service centers over the weekend to help customers with the GPS problem, she said.

Some 95,000 car navigation units sold in Japan may be unable to cope with an internal date change in the system, the Ministry of International Trade and Industry said.

Four Japanese manufacturers of GPS systems have completed updating only about 170,000 of the estimated 260,000 units sold in Japan since 1996 and believed to be still in operation.

Japanese drivers are heavily reliant on the navigational devices because most streets in urban centers such as Tokyo are unnamed and follow curving paths laid out among a tangle of property lines.

Japan's Maritime Safety Agency has received reports that ships with older GPS systems are in or near territorial waters but has not received any distress calls as of Sunday noon, a spokesman said.

At midnight GMT, the 24 satellites of the Global Positioning System, which provide navigational data from 17,700 kilometers (11,000 miles) out in space, switched their timing system back to zero.

The rollover is because the system, which uses radio signals from satellites to provide navigation data, was designed to ignore calendar dates but keep precise time measured in seconds and weeks.

Only 1,024 weeks were allotted from January 6, 1980, before the system is reset to zero.

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Ray

-- Ray (ray@totacc.com), August 22, 1999

Answers

Kinda ironic, with the state of traffic jams in Japan they now will have time to consult a REAL PAPER MAP as they trundle along at 1.5 mph...

arf arf

-- andy (2000EOD@prodigy.net), August 22, 1999.

I think Japan will be toast any hour now. What about the riots? It only took one pcp addled wife beating son of a gun to spark a riot in LA a few years ago, Wasn't it traffic Jams in the Trigger Effect that were causing civil unrest?, It only takes Da Bulls a few winning seasons to bring about riots in Chicago.

I'M glad I'm not in Japan today.

-- No riots (in@my.town), August 22, 1999.

Irate Japanese Car Drivers Hit By GPS Bug

-- (G@P.S), August 22, 1999.

Just a couple of points:

#1 -- How did the reporter know that the customers were irate? It is very, extremely, unbelieveably, highly unusal for a Japanese customer to be "irate." Usually, almost always, almost without exception, it's foreigners in Japan that become "irate."

#2 -- The Pioneer reset problem was a known screw up and the company tried contacting all its customers and advertised extensively to advise customers that new system software was available and free. As shocking as this sounds...some people didn't do it, didn't understand it, didn't get the word or ignored it. I think I mentioned the Pioneer situation about 3 or 4 weeks ago.

#3 -- "Japanese drivers are heavily reliant on the navigational devices..."

Car navigation are just expensive toys to Japanese drivers. I didn't know Dan Quayle was a reporter for Reuters...

"heavily reliant." Give me a break.

-- PNG (Peter Gauthier) (png@gol.com), August 22, 1999.

Mixed reports on Y2K-like test for global positioning system

-- (G@P.S), August 22, 1999.

August 18, 1999

Global positioning glitch threatens Japan's urban navigators

TOKYO -- (AP) -- It's enough to unsettle any Japanese driver: In the thicket of Tokyo's chaotic maze of nameless streets and alleys, the electronic navigator breaks down.

That could happen to nearly 100,000 Japanese drivers this weekend, when Global Positioning System satellites reset their timing mechanisms -- and throw unprepared receivers out of whack.

GPS is used by airlines, ships and businesses around the world, but in no place outside Japan do as many people -- an estimated 2 million -- rely on it to simply get across town.

The change will occur in Japan on Sunday at 9 a.m. local time, when the device's timing system -- set to run 1,024 weeks starting on Jan. 5, 1980 -- rolls over and starts a new sequence.

Japanese officials don't expect any problems on planes or ships, which use more recent navigating systems, have updated older models or rely on several other methods to determine their locations.

But car navigators are another story.

The Ministry of International Industry and Trade has urged the top navigator producers in Japan to get the word out to owners of pre- 1997 systems that they need to reset their gadgets.

The results so far have been mixed. Of the estimated 260,000 older models still in use, the ministry says about 95,000 still have not been adjusted.

Officials aren't fearing any pileups on Tokyo highways. But for the legions of Japanese drivers who haven't looked at a conventional map for years, the satellite glitch could be jarring.

``The car navigation system just won't turn on, or it'll take time to turn on,'' said Hidehiko Shimizu, spokesman for Pioneer, the producer with the highest number of unadjusted older models still in use: 55,000.

Car navigators might sound like a luxury in most places. But in Tokyo and other Japanese cities -- where address systems are complex and grid layouts are unheard of -- they can be a necessity.

Drivers typically plug in the address of where they want to go, and the navigator charts several possible routes. A triangle that moves along a map on a screen mounted on the dashboard shows the driver's location.

Navigator producers are getting in touch with Japanese customers by alerting retailers, putting out newspaper ads and posting warnings on their Web pages about the change.

Another major producer, Hitachi, said its customers can update the system by inserting a special CD-ROM. Setsuko Minamikawa, a spokeswoman, said 45 percent of their 6,500 older models have been upgraded.

The Hitachi model won't turn off entirely -- but it might not give very accurate directions either.

``You might think you're driving on the road next to the one you're driving on,'' Minamikawa said. ``It'll be a little off.''

Link

-- (G@P.S), August 22, 1999.

Hey Peter, is it true that Tokyo does not have the street names posted on each corner?

-- Pollies Will Picnic (during@a.tornado), August 22, 1999.

PNG:

Thanks. We now know what Dan is doing.

Best,

Z

-- Z1X4Y7 (Z1X4Y7@aol.com), August 22, 1999.

Question:

Who else has tried to drive in Tokyo and understands the problem.

Best,

Z

-- Z1X4Y7 (Z1X4Y7@aol.com), August 22, 1999.