BDS to provide comprehensive service platform to overseas users
China’s domestically developed BeiDou Navigation Satellite System (BDS) will provide highly precise and stable application-oriented inclusive service in the form of complete platforms for overseas users, rather than simple navigation services like the US GPS does, BDS application chief scientist Shi Chuang said on Thursday.
Shi, who was listed as the foremost developer for China’s high precision position network and in the transport field project, one of the 14 projects that won the 2018 State Science and Technology Progress Award on Tuesday, made the statement during an exclusive interview with the Global Times on Thursday.
Shi masterminded the founding of the theoretical concept of the network when the country started to develop the BDS-2 in 2004, and transformed it into practice after about a decade-long hard work.
Shi, who is also the director of the BDS application and industrialization experts panel, said his job was to “to deliver precision positioning application services to the users after the system, terminals and enhancement methods are established.”
According to latest data released by the China Satellite Navigation Office in December, the BDS-based transport application has flourished tremendously in the country, with more than 6 million commercial vehicles, 35,600 postal and delivery vehicles, 80,000 buses in 36 major cities, and 2,960 marine navigation facilities are using BDS services.
With the help of BDS, the country has established the world’s largest commercial vehicle monitoring system. As a result, the number of major road accidents and death tolls has dropped by 50 percent from 2011 to 2017.
Besides, BDS-enabling terminals have been installed by more than 70,000 fishing boats and law enforcement vessels across China. With the BDS-based maritime applications, more than 10,000 lives have been saved.
In the aviation domain, BDS service plays an important role for the country’s island and reef-based infrastructure building and operation, where GPS becomes unavailable, Shi said, noting that it is impossible to rely on GPS in the event of a major conflict of interest.