Why does my phone gps know which way I’m facing when driving, but when walking it always thinks I’m walking backwards?
In: Technology
On its own, GPS doesn’t know that, it only works for positioning. It can only guess when you start moving, then it could make the assumption that you’re facing the direction you’re moving in.
Pretty much every device made today has a magnetometer that acts as a compass, and that’s what gives the direction, separately from GPS. It’s an entirely separate thing that has nothing to do with the GPS/GLONASS/Galileo satellites. Magnetometers are not entirely reliable though, and need calibration and can be confused by magnetic fields.
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