A year 2000-like problem will affect thousands of GPS around the world this weekend due to a limitation present in the systems since the global positioning system was created. It's an error that already happened in 1.999, and it will appear again this weekend for one simple reason: mathematics.
Resetting the week number in GPS
When in 1980 the first GPS, manufacturers were forced to use a 10-bit system due to memory limitations that existed at the time. This handicap directly affects the way in which the system is able to calculate dates, since the calculations would only allow it to cover a finite period of 1024 weeks (19,7 years). What does this mean? Well, when it exceeds that time, the system remains in limbo. Or rather, go back to the beginning. It is what is known as the Week Number Rollover Event.
On the night of August 21-22, 1999 it happened, and this weekend the same thing will happen again. But what exactly happens? If a system is running at the time of the date reset, the job will likely return errors immediately and navigation will be lost. If you try to use the unit the next day, the location might work fine, but the ETA calculation will return completely nonsensical values. Although the most normal thing is that it is not possible to establish a connection with the satellites, etc. That is, the GPS will stop working correctly.
But the worst cases will not be found in personal browsing. GPS systems are used to geolocate and define the variables of many more complex systems, so a mistake in maintenance in important systems could cause serious problems. To give you an idea, power stations can communicate with each other and be synchronized with the help of GPS systems. If this timing, the performance could be fatal.
How to know if my GPS is affected by the week number reset problem?
If you have a GPS device designed from 2010, your drive is most likely safe from this problem. The reason is none other than the use of the IS-GPS-200E specification, a version released in June 2010 that corrected the date calculation problem. However, some older models could be outside of this new certification, and that's where the problems appear.
The best solution is to contact the manufacturer of your GPS and check if your unit is updated with the latest patch available. This should fix all the problems. The bad news will be in those vehicles that have old navigation systems, since it will be difficult (if not impossible) for the manufacturer to offer support for said problem.
In the case of TomTom, the manufacturer has enabled a website for you to enter the serial number of your GPS and inform you if you need to perform a software update to correct the problem. The download is free and you should be able to install it without problems in a matter of minutes.
Check if your TomTom navigation device is affected
Renault For its part, it has also published a website in which it indicates the affected systems (R-Link Evolution and Carminat Tomtom) and recommends updating before April 6 to avoid problems.
Check if your Renault system is affected