TERN AI low -cost gps alternative actually works

We have all experienced at that time of frustration when GPS dysfunctions and lose an exit on the highway. The group at Tern aiwhich manufactures an alternative to low -cost GPS, says this is due to the fact that current technology is limited by its dependence on satellite positioning.

Tern AI says it has understood how to locate the location of a vehicle using only map information and existing sensor data of a vehicle. The company’s step: It is a cheap system that does not require additional expensive sensors.

At SXSW, Austin -based start showed exclusively for TechCrunch that it could “get a position from nothing”.

“Without triangulation, no satellites, no WiFi, nothing. We just understand where we are as we drive,” said Brett Harrison, co -founder and president, told TechCrunch while Cyrus Behroozi, a senior software developer on Tern, loaded the demo on his iphone. “This is really the game that changes because as we move away from the triangle, which restricts technology, we now have the ability to fully be this grid.”

Harrison says this discovery is important for a variety of reasons. From a commercial point of view, GPS-Based companies, including Ride-Hail applications to delivery companies-time, money and gas each time their drivers have to double due to defective GPS positioning.

Most importantly, our most critical systems, such as the air response to the destruction of precision agriculture, are based on GPS. Foreign opponents have already proven that they can GPS signals spoof GPSwhich could have a devastating impact on both the economy and national security.

The US has marked that it wants to prioritize alternatives to GPS. During his first term, President Donald Trump signed a executive order To reduce dependence on a single source of PNT services (installation, navigation and timetable) such as GPS. There are also Several other initiatives which immediate services and bodies such as the Ministry of Defense and the National Security Council to ensure the durable PNT by testing and integrating non -GPS technologies.

‘Deepseek came out and said it cost US $ 6 million to do what it got [OpenAI, Anthropic, and other AI companies] Billions to do, “Harrison said.” To get this dot to move on a map in real time in a vehicle, the government took billions of dollars and a few decades. We did it with less than $ 2 million. ”

Tern came out of Stealth in February 2024 and announced the $ 4.4 million seed a few months later. This is a quick recovery to achieve the type of placement I lived this week at SXSW.

Test of Tern’s system in Austin

To start the show, Behroozi connected 2019 Honda Civic on his phone via Bluetooth, allowing the TERN application to pull data from existing vehicle sensors. He noted that TERN’s technology can be integrated directly into vehicles, initially 2009 or more.

Usually, Tern puts the place by hand to accelerate things, but for our demo, the team wanted a “cold start”. Fehroozi turned off his phone’s location services, so the TERN smart system had only one temporary map of a 500 square mile threshold around Austin sensors and vehicles to work together.

As the car drove, the system took road data to work for “convergence”. It took about 10 minutes to reach the full convergence system from a cold start, but Harrison assured me that it usually takes about one to two minutes when it has a starting point. In addition, we were stuck in a small circulation that slowed things down, Behroozi added.

Harrison noted that the TERN system can also detect vehicles in garages, tunnels and mountains, which the GPS are struggling to do. Harrison would not explain exactly how, saying that the information is “privately owned”.

We spent a few more minutes after the full convergence was achieved and I watched as it watched our exact moves in a way that appeared as good and in some cases better than GPS. This became more apparent when we drove to the center of Austin, where my Google maps slaughtered me regularly throughout the week as I navigated urban roads scattered with tall buildings.

Harrison said that the TERN system is also safer in terms of privacy, because with GPS, “if one knows your identity, they can find you at any time.”

“Our system is a total closed loop,” he said. “At the moment, we are not emitting anything. She independently removes her own position [via on edge computing]So there are no external contact points. ”

Scale

“We created the company and the solution from the beginning to be scaled. If you look at this waymo car and all the material that is embedded, we don’t see that it goes to a Nissan Sentra anytime soon. It’s very expensive.” Harrison said, pointing to us in a robot.

‘At a manufacturer level, if [Tern] Applied to the entertainment system, it’s just a software Download, so extremely scalable. All new vehicles have the sensor data we need. Map data already exist with all providers today. So it’s very simple. ”

Tern’s potential future customers could be any of the automakers to mobile phone manufacturers, from Google to Uber. Harrison said the start is open to the development of the company and to acquire.

“The primary thing is to get this to the hands of the economy, with the increasing threats and the emergence of technology that does not realize its full potential due to the limits of triangularism,” Harrison said.

He noted that Tern is investigating the potential with the government. The start was a recent contract award from the US Ministry of Transport after a week after its technology demonstration along with nine other companies from around the world.

“We hope that we have done a good job to show the government what is possible now with American innovation,” Harrison said.