Satellites in space moved by 33 feet and that caused serious issues for GPS on Earth with self-driving cars at huge risk
Published on Sep 13, 2026 at 8:35 PM (UTC+4)
by Henry Kelsall
Last updated on Sep 13, 2026 at 8:35 PM (UTC+4)
Edited by
Alessandro Renesis
Researchers have become alarmed after satellites in space moved off by 33 feet, causing serious issues for GPS on Earth, which was enough to crash self-driving cars.
In November 2025, scientists warned of a huge solar storm that was set to collide with Earth.
This would wreak havoc on communications satellites and radio signals, and it appears that it has done so.
A paper published in the Geophysical Research Letters journal shows that satellites have recently experienced severe disruption.
What scientists have found happened to the satellites
The story of the paper broke on the website Futurism.
According to the journal, a team of scientists found that global navigation satellite systems experienced “significant positioning errors” during the storm.
This was estimated to be over 33 feet during the storm.
That was ‘large enough to disrupt precision agriculture and autonomous transportation industries,’ said the journal.
It prompted major worries for those on Earth.
A shift of that nature could cause a lot of issues, especially when it came to self-driving cars.
It also led to worries about what the impacts could be on human activity thanks to the disruption it could cause.
Issues of this nature with satellites could have caused self-driving cars to lose signal or even crash.
Understanding space phenomena is incredibly important
The report expanded on what the storm incident could lead to.
“The results underscore the importance of accurate understanding of various space weather phenomena to enhance our predictive capabilities through coordinated observations and physics‐based modeling,” it said.
There were some ‘significant positioning errors at mid-latitudes,’ according to the researchers.
GPS equipment on tractors and other farm equipment could have been massively affected by the storm.
Thankfully, the farming season had concluded when it hit.
However, it’s not the first time that a storm has caused possible problems for farmers.
A previous superstorm massively impacted farmers
In May 2024, another superstorm hit and impacted satellites orbiting the Earth.
This time, it did cause massive problems for farmers, costing up to half a billion dollars in damages.
The paper on the November storm says that, had it hit during the farming season, its impact could have been huge.
In fact, it may have caused huge and significant economic losses for the American farming industry.
The major worry with the November storm was the impact it could have had on self-driving cars.
Had they veered off course or shut down completely, it’s likely accidents could have occurred.
Henry joined the Supercar Blondie team in February 2025, and since then has covered a wide array of topics ranging from EVs, American barn finds, and the odd Cold War jet. He’s combined his passion for cars with his keen interest in motorsport and his side hustle as a volunteer steam locomotive fireman at a heritage steam railway.
