Tern AI wants to reduce reliance on GPS with low-cost navigation alternative

Published on TechCrunch by Rebecca Bellan 11:27 AM PDT • June 12, 2024

The most critical systems of our modern world rely on GPS, from aviation and road networks to emergency and disaster response, from precision farming and power grids to weather forecasting and military defense. That dependence is becoming a problem.

“We’ve got an increased threat from foreign adversaries who have shown capabilities to jam, to destroy, to spoof the signals of GPS, which is scary,” Shaun Moore, CEO and co-founder of Tern AI, a startup that wants to provide an alternative to GPS, told TechCrunch. “The economic impact in the United States, if that were to happen, would be catastrophic.”

Moore, who sold his last company Trueface to Pangiam in 2021, said Tern AI’s goal is to “remove the bull’s-eye that’s on the back of GPS right now.”

Tern AI came out of stealth in February and just raised a $4.4 million seed round from Scout Ventures, Shadow Capital, Bravo Victor VC and Veteran Fund. The startup has come up with a so-called Independently Derived Positioning System (IDPS) that can recognize the position of a vehicle or person without relying on satellite signal. That means no threat of jamming, construction or dead zones getting in the way of a precise position.

“We can do GPS’s job without having to call to space and say, ‘Where am I?’” said Moore.

The current system works by having GPS receivers in cars or phones pick up signals from satellites orbiting Earth. The signals contain satellite information and the precise time that the signals are sent. The GPS receivers then use the time it took for each signal to travel to calculate the distance to each satellite. By triangulating the distances, the receiver can determine its exact position, which is then displayed on apps like Google Maps or Waze.

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