WHAT DO THE GREEK MATHEMATICIANArchimedes of Syracuse, the American statesman and polymath Benjamin Franklin, and the Mormon pioneer William Clayton all have in common? They each invented an odometer — a mechanical device for measuring distance. Whether we be military engineers, mail-route mappers, wagon masters, or just automobile drivers, we often want to know not just where we are but how far we have come.
The odometer was likely first invented by Archimides during the First Punic War when Syracuse got in the way of Rome during its battle with Carthage. A Greek origin is fitting as the word odometer derives from the Greek words hodós, meaning "path" or "way" andmétron, meaning "measure."
The device was reinvented many times over the years but its use was not widespread until the development of the automobile, and now virtually every vehicle sports one. Mechanical odometers gave way to electronic ones but the distance traveled was and is still determined by counting wheel revolutions. But just how accurate are the odometers in our modern vehicles? Not very, it seems. The odometer reading is affected by tire pressure, tire slip, and incorrect calibration. And while in many countries there is no regulation covering odometer accuracy, the Society of Automotive Engineers' voluntary standard and that of the European Commission is only plus or minus 4 percent, or as much as a 4-kilometer error in every 100 kilometers.
Does this matter? Well, in effort to reduce the cost to the general tax payer of maintaining roads or reducing conjestion, many administrations have implemented "road pricing," where a flat charge is levied for using a particular stretch of road or for entering a city center. But some administrations are charging per kilometer of travel with data coming from an odometer recording. Automobile insurance companies have also implemented plans where the premium is based on the distance traveled by the vehicle ("pay as you drive"). To fairly implement such schemes, governments should require more accurate odometers in vehicles. Could an odometer based on GNSS be a solution?
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