Musk Says ‘Major Navigation Overhaul’ Coming in 2018

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said today that a “major navigation overhaul” is coming to Tesla vehicles in 2018.

Retweeting a TMC post, Musk teased “some cool software updates.”

https://twitter.com/x/status/943867218776899584

Pressed for more information, he said, “Major navigation overhaul coming in early 2018. Will be light-years ahead of current system, but we are testing it rigorously before rolling out.”

https://twitter.com/x/status/943878616454127616

Some updates in Tesla’s software code have hinted at an update to the maps system. TMC member and Tesla hacker verygreen discovered several interesting developments in Tesla’s software related to maps. For instance, code included in the 2017.44 software update enabled “vector maps.” He noted, “The looks are mostly the same, but it allows you to zoom quite a bit more and friends that tried it in-motion report much smoother operation + higher detailed maps on the big screen.”

What would you like to see in a maps update?

 

[Uncle Paul]

No good deed goes unpunished.

For me, this latest Easter Egg was a welcome delight in a world filled with anxiety.

A wonderful and unexpected Christmas (or other holiday) gift from Tesla.

Made me smile.

Thank you Tesla.

 

[AnxietyRanger]

No good deed goes unpunished.

I think this was a good marketing deed. No complaints.

 

[BinaryField]

Your Tesla shouldn’t confuse a tunnel with a road above the tunnel - the lost GPS signal should be enough to verify you’re inside the tunnel. Read about Dead Reckoning in the M8L spec/paper

u-blox has a whole trove of cool papers relevant to the unit and also GPS in general. In case it isn't too obvious from the main product page, it's located here: Product Resources. Look for: ADR: Intelligent solutions for modern urban navigation.

Related to the comment, I don't think that the u-blox module is responsible for running the road navigation engine. In such a situation, the most I would imagine that it does is output that it is in dead reckoning mode - along with a position estimate, of course. (Anyone interested can confirm this from the product documents linked above. I haven't looked myself.) It would then be the platform developer's responsibility to interpret that information when trying to resolve which road level the vehicle is on. It's clear that the software knows about tunnels, but has anybody else seen it resolve multi-level roads? Is it set up to do that? I think this is the problem that @DavideG is referring to.

 

[Unpilot]

No good deed goes unpunished.

For me, this latest Easter Egg was a welcome delight in a world filled with anxiety.

A wonderful and unexpected Christmas (or other holiday) gift from Tesla.

Made me smile.

Thank you Tesla.

Amen...I agree!

Lets see my VW Passat has not had a update since 2005..when I bought it.
My 2014 volt seem to be the same since I bought it.

I get a grin when I turn on the blinkers...and love the Santa.

 

[AnxietyRanger]

Amen...I agree!

Lets see my VW Passat has not had a update since 2005..when I bought it.
My 2014 volt seem to be the same since I bought it.

I get a grin when I turn on the blinkers...and love the Santa.

Well, in fairness to some of the critics, Tesla has also sold many cars on promises of future software updates (indeed sold actual software upgrades too like EAP and FSD) and is behind schedule on those promises. So it is a bit different to compare Tesla's software update dos or donts, and those of other makers who never promised any such updates.

 

[lunitiks]

Short little clip about the Ublox M8L. Kind of cool

 

[scaesare]

I think this was a good marketing deed.

As was, according to some folks here, unlocking extra range for victims during the hurricane evacuation events earlier this year. And clearly the Powerpacks sent to Puerto Rico were entirely do to hubris and selfish corporate motivation.

If such humanitarian efforts and fun diversions alike are The New Advertising, then I'll take it every day of the week over yet another inane TV commercial or some sales-speak ad copy spewed out by a corporate marketing droid.

 

[AnxietyRanger]

And clearly the Powerpacks sent to Puerto Rico were entirely do to hubris and selfish corporate motivation.

Were the Powerpacks sold or gifted?

 

[scaesare]

Were the Powerpacks sold or gifted?

I knew I should have bet on that being your response.

 

[AnxietyRanger]

I knew I should have bet on that being your response.

You did not answer. Were the Powerpacks sold or gifted?

Makes a massive difference in the nature of the transaction.

 

[scaesare]

You did not answer. Were the Powerpacks sold or gifted?

Makes a massive difference in the nature of the transaction.

1) I'm not obligated to answer whatever questions you may have, despite your insistence.

B) Nor am I required to do research you should be capable of doing.

III) Both of the above hold particularly true given the 99.82% chance you'll find the glass-half full view regardless of the answer

four) I specifically used the wording in my previous statement on purpose.

 

[NerdUno]

It appears that Tesla provided a few PowerPacks to get one hospital up and running. The rest may be part of a long-term loan between Tesla and Puerto Rico.

Tesla power pack? In San Juan Puerto Rico FedEx ramp. • r/teslamotors

 

[jbcarioca]

u-blox has a whole trove of cool papers relevant to the unit and also GPS in general. In case it isn't too obvious from the main product page, it's located here: Product Resources. Look for: ADR: Intelligent solutions for modern urban navigation.

Related to the comment, I don't think that the u-blox module is responsible for running the road navigation engine. In such a situation, the most I would imagine that it does is output that it is in dead reckoning mode - along with a position estimate, of course. (Anyone interested can confirm this from the product documents linked above. I haven't looked myself.) It would then be the platform developer's responsibility to interpret that information when trying to resolve which road level the vehicle is on. It's clear that the software knows about tunnels, but has anybody else seen it resolve multi-level roads? Is it set up to do that? I think this is the problem that @DavideG is referring to.

Without question I am unconvinced about technical capabilities of those who do not know that the "centuries old concept" they all call "dead reckoning" is actually "ded reckoning" because "ded" is an abbreviation for "deductive". sailors who failed to do it well might well become dead. When I taught aircraft navigation I would have flunked anybody who did not get this correct and understand why.

Anyway, the most advanced deployments of this principle usually are referred to as "inertial navigation" rather than ded reckoning because they use a variety of techniques and data sources to minimise the inherent progressive errors of deductive reckoning. u-blox themselves refer to that, while still using the primitive term.

As I understand the current state of practice "thick data" tends to be used in high risk and or high density situations, "thin data" when the former is impractical. Both of those can usually go very far towards compensating for issues of poor or intermittent GPS reception. I note that Waze uses Google's mapping coupled with huge amounts of data to make deductive reckoning very accurate in tunnels, shopping centres and densely populated urban areas.

Frankly I am quite impressed with how u-blox and others have advanced both precise and accurate position awareness. They even do staged degrading that makes huge progress in avoiding total intermittent outages.

Anyway, I agree with you that u-blox would not typically run road navigation engines. Those all depend on fixed known data, so need not draw any probabalistic inferences. The u-blox solutions and others like them cleverly deal with probable reality when known position and known data surrounding the position are not adequate.

 

[lunitiks]

Thank you @jbcarioca, love your opinion on this matter

 

[AnxietyRanger]

I'm not obligated to answer whatever questions you may have, despite your insistence.

Of course not. But how can we assess the nature of your claim regarding Tesla's Puerto Rico involvement without the answer?

If Tesla gave the Powerpacks to Puerto Rico as gift, it would be more charity than public relations. If they instead mostly just redirected sales to Puerto Rico, then it would seem more like a public relations exercise and a sales opportunity IMO.

 

[scaesare]

Of course not. But how can we assess the nature of your claim regarding Tesla's Puerto Rico involvement without the answer?

If Tesla gave the Powerpacks to Puerto Rico as gift, it would be more charity than public relations. If they instead mostly just redirected sales to Puerto Rico, then it would seem more like a public relations exercise and a sales opportunity IMO.

To which claim are you referring?

 

[AnxietyRanger]

To which claim are you referring?

This sarcastic comment to me:

And clearly the Powerpacks sent to Puerto Rico were entirely do to hubris and selfish corporate motivation.

 

[scaesare]

This sarcastic comment to me:

Then if you negate the sarcasm, then I'm stating that that the shipments to PR were not necessarily entirely motivated by hubris and selfish corporate motivation.

Given that allows for some range of possible motivation, then when you find your answer regarding PR, you can assign whatever weight you want to the various factors motivating their decision.

However, that will only be your swag... but based on your track record, I'm sure you'll be looking for the bright side.

 

[PhatCat]

Without question I am unconvinced about technical capabilities of those who do not know that the "centuries old concept" they all call "dead reckoning" is actually "ded reckoning" because "ded" is an abbreviation for "deductive". sailors who failed to do it well might well become dead. When I taught aircraft navigation I would have flunked anybody who did not get this correct and understand why..

This piqued my curiosity so i did some internet searching and quickly came upon the following post by someone who did extensive research on the etymology of dead/ded reckoning.

Is “dead reckoning” short for “deduced reckoning”?

Bottom line? First known citation of "dead reckoning" was in the Oxford English Dictionary of 1613. The first entry was in OED in 1708. Neither mentions "deduced". The earliest known reference to "ded reckoning" was 1931. It became popular in Marine and Air Navigation manuals in WWII.

But what do the Brits know about English anyway? To quote the author:

"Some feel compelled to “correct” people who write “dead” and not “ded.” Obviously I don’t believe they should, but it might come as a surprise to some to learn that neither does the FAA or the Coast Guard. A search of their websites finds zero references to “ded” or “ded.” or “deduced” reckoning, but quite a few references to “dead reckoning.”"

 

[AnxietyRanger]

I'm stating that that the shipments to PR were not necessarily entirely motivated by hubris and selfish corporate motivation.

Yes, of course you were. Which was the sarcastic comment. No?

Assessing motivation requires knowing whether Tesla gifted the packs of sold them.