Are GPS Speedometers Any Good?
Speedometers are meant to measure the speed of the vehicle accurately. In the early days, there used to be analogue speedometers, and then came the digital ones with higher accuracy. Today, we can classify speedometers into several types and categories. GPS speedometers are among the most popular ones for several reasons.
For starters GPS speedometers have higher accuracy than their conventional counterparts. Let’s go through the difference between conventional and GPS speedometers and their benefits.
What is a GPS Speedometer

Evident from its name, a GPS speedometer is a speedometer with Global Positioning System capabilities. To put it simply, a GPS speedometer can send and receive signals to communicate with satellites in space to measure a car’s speed. In order to understand how it works, it helps to learn about the conventional ones and their basic purpose.
What is a Conventional Speedometer
Speedometers allow drivers to keep an eye on how fast they are going in order to drive in the allowed speed limits to avoid fines. Usually, modern vehicles are equipped with electronic speedometers paired with either digital or analogue displays. The display adjusts in real-time about the car’s speed, mileage and travel distance.
How Does a GPS Speedometer Work

The working mechanism of GPS speedometers is totally different from conventional ones. Instead of measuring data from the transmission system, it measures the change in your vehicle’s geographic position at quick intervals to assess the vehicle’s speed.
Speed is a function of distance and time. GPS satellites calculate how fast a vehicle moves in real time using the vehicle’s position changes and time lapsed. It then continuously sends the data to the speedometer inside the car.
All this is possible with a high level of accuracy because GPS tracking capabilities are accurate. In other words, it has no problems locating your car from space, let alone tracking its movements as you drive down the road. Here are the common benefits of using car GPS tracking.
What are the Key Components of a GPS Speedometer
A GPS speedometer usually includes a heads-up display unit and a USB power cable. Those are the only two things required as every component is built neatly into the display unit.
To put it simply, a GPS speedometer is ready-to-use straight out of the box. In addition to cars, a GPS speedometer can be used on motorcycles, all-terrain vehicles (ATVs), motorcycles and trucks, among others.
What are the Benefits of GPS Speedometers
The many benefits of GPS speedometers include high accuracy, prevention from fines and unaffected car modifications. Let’s go through them in detail.
Higher accuracy: Conventional speedometers calculate your car’s speed based on the transmission’s output. While that is accurate, GPS speedometers are even more accurate as they measure the changes in your car’s geographic position.
Unaffected by car modifications: Certain modifications, such as a change in a car’s tire size, can often affect the performance and accuracy of a conventional speedometer.
For example, if the wheel size of a car increases, the conventional speedometer will show a lesser speed of the vehicle than the actual one. This is because the larger size of the wheel increases its circumference and causes it to travel more distance per revolution than the original one.
That said, GPS speedometers remain accurate and unaffected by the car’s modifications.
Prevents fines: GPS speedometers help drivers avoid fines because of overspeeding. GPS speedometers have higher accuracy and can also help you track the local speed limits in different areas. Based on your driving location, it also warns you when the speed limits change.
That is all about GPS speedometers. They are useful for vehicles where standard speedometers aren’t able to display accurate information. If you are looking for a used car for sale in the UAE, ensure it has a proper speedometer that measures the vehicle’s speed accurately.
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