This seemingly-small discrepancy hasn’t had much of an impact yet because GPS was only accurate to five metres, which was not enough to matter.
But technologies are emerging that require pinpoint accuracy which would be completely thrown out unless it is corrected.
A self-driving car directed by GPS could cause a crash as even a couple of metres would put it in the wrong lane, Geoscience Australia’s Dan Jaksa said.
‘All countries experience errors in their previously mapped positions caused by tectonic motion and are required to update their positioning reference system from time-to-time,’ he said.
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