Fire trucks in New York Harbor? No, just faulty GPS units
New York City recently invested in custom-made GPS technology for city fire trucks and emergency vehicles. But two audits released last Wednesday reveal that the tracking units--which were implemented at an expensive cost to taxpayers--provided faulty locations that displayed the vehicles sunk at the bottom of Long Island Sound or New York Harbor.
The office of city Comptroller John Liu published the audits and found that the system "does not track or display the location of FDNY vehicles in “real time” and, in some instances, displays vehicles inaccurately or not at all." The office questioned whether the technology was worth the financial investment, which as of February 2011, was approximately $39 million. They also found, however, that the system lacked funding and recommended that the city put further resources into the program to ensure that the technology was functioning properly.
This isn't the first time New York has run into problems with technology. The audits were released shortly after a statement from Mayor Bloomberg's Administration that it had mismanaged other major technology projects in the city: CityTime, the payroll system, and Nycaps, the automated personnel system.
[via NYT]
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