How does GPS technology work?

The GPS system involves more than software, of course, there are around 30 active satellites in orbit around the earth that broadcast very accurate time and location signals.
The software in the receiver (your GPS unit or phone) uses information from at least four satellites. Using the time information from a satellite, the receiver can determine how far away it is from that satellite, and the location of the satellite at the moment it transmitted the signal is also known. Combining the distance/location information from several satellites the GPS receiver can pinpoint its location.

The satellite information above, plus people actually drive around to draw the maps we see on our GPS and to take photos every three years or so and get street photos of locations and that’s what you see when you map a location. It’s not just all done by robots, software, and technology, real people help map the system. Maybe when we officially have self driving cars it will be fully automated.

This is kind of long but I tried to make it as simple as possible.

The term “GPS” is used two different ways.

Originally it referred to the Global Positioning System satellites first developed in the 1970s by the US military and made freely available to the public in the 1990s.

Today “GPS” is used loosely to mean all the ways a smartphone locates itself using signals from the satellites, cell towers, wifi hotspots, etc. Because each method has its drawbacks, your phone tries them all and comes up with a good answer.

I am writing now only about the first one, the satellites.

1) The satellites have super-accurate clocks and their precise positions are known.

2) Each satellite broadcasts a signal saying “Here is the exact time and my exact position”.

3) The receiver compares signals from four or more satellites.

4) The time they arrive differs with distance – the farther satellites time signal will look be a little bit behind the closer ones.

For example, if a satellite is 10,000 miles away it takes about 3.2 seconds for the signal to travel. 12,000 miles takes 3.9 seconds. Let’s say there’s a 3.8 and a 4.0 also.

5) Your phone (a little computer) can do the math and figure out the ONE place where you would be 3.2 seconds from satellite A, 3.9 seconds from satellite B, 3.8 seconds from satellite C and 4.0 seconds from satellite D.

6) Or imagine you are in a room with the satellites. You have a stick 3.2 meters long and a stick 3.9 meters long. And a couple more 4.0 meters and 3.8 meters.

There is exactly ONE place in the room where you can touch the four satellites with those sticks. Move just a little bit and you won’t be able to reach one or more.