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Dev.to
Dev.to
7/19/2026
Teaching a phone to disbelieve its own GPS

Teaching a phone to disbelieve its own GPS

Short summary

A mileage-tracking team improved GPS trip accuracy from 50% to 95% by treating GPS as an unreliable witness rather than ground truth. They added physics-based impossibility checks to reject absurd readings, dead reckoning via IMU to bridge tunnel dropouts, and confidence-weighted sensor fusion (Kalman-style) so clean fixes dominate jittery ones. The core lesson: stop believing whoever spoke last and weigh every input by how trustworthy it is right now.

  • Physics-based speed checks eliminate impossible GPS jumps like 400 kmph at a red light
  • Dead reckoning with accelerometer data bridges tunnel and parking garage GPS gaps
  • Confidence-weighted sensor fusion (Kalman filter mindset) replaced naive last-reading trust, boosting accuracy to 95%

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