Australia is officially shifting its longitude and latitude to fix a discrepancy with global satellite navigation systems, reports CNET.
This announcement comes from Geoscience Australia, which plans to update the country’s national coordinate system to bring it in line with international data.
The reason Australia is slightly out of whack with global systems is that the country moves about 7 centimetres (2.75 inches) per year due to the shifting of tectonic plates.
Since 1994, when the data was last recorded, that’s added up to a misalignment of about a metre and a half.
While that might not seem like much, various new technology requires location data to be pinpoint accurate. Self-driving cars, for example, must have infinitesimally precise location data to avoid accidents. Drones used for package delivery and driverless farming vehicles also require spot-on information.
As a result, Australia is changing from “down-under”, to “down-under and across-a-bit”.
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Hardly a ridiculous reason, it’s a natural occurrence made worse by an old co-ordinate update.