GPS Is Free; Your Ride Is Not

I read the terms, and the satellite found me for free: GPS supplies the location; ride-hailing and delivery apps charge for the convenience built around it. Nobody is charging me for a coordinate. I’m paying for a ride or dinner to show up where that coordinate says I am.

That’s the platform toll booth: a broadly available public signal helps make the service possible, then a private app sells the useful layer on top. Fair enough, drivers and deliveries aren’t free. But the distinction matters when the bill lands in my lap. The satellite locates dinner perfectly; the app charges extra to rescue it from my own address.