# GPS were repurposed from the military
It's hard to imagine our life driving without the help of GPS. The GPS project was not a technology that was not originally intended for consumers when it was initiated.
The project started from the US military to help track the solders who needed resupply in the field. Even though 24 satellites were launched for this tracking purposes, there were still numerous times where the project was about to be cancelled as it couldn't deliver its promise.
# References
How Innovation Works (p. 262).
[...] It began to look like a failure. Eventually, the military decided that it was good enough to rely upon. [...]