Vector Maps incoming?

[verygreen]

I was looking at 17.44 firmware yesterday and discovered they added code to enable vector maps from Google Maps. Disabled by default.

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.

I just took a couple of screenshots to show you how much you cannot tell the difference between the two unless closely looking

Before enabling the vector maps, max zoom at some random location:

Now the same place with vector maps enabled, zoomed all the way in:

 

[deonb]

You might have to draw a red circle around the difference. I don’t see it...

 

[verygreen]

if you look closely enough you can see the zoom level on the bottom two pics is much more

 

[FarmerDave]

I was looking at 17.44 firmware yesterday and discovered they added code to enable vector maps from Google Maps. Disabled by default.

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.

I just took a couple of screenshots to show you how much you cannot tell the difference between the two unless closely looking

Before enabling the vector maps, max zoom at some random location:
View attachment 259572

Now the same place with vector maps enabled, zoomed all the way in:
View attachment 259574

View attachment 259573

How do you enable vector maps (don't have the update yet)?

 

[verygreen]

How do you enable vector maps (don't have the update yet)?

Need to have root or at the very least have internal car network access. Then just switch FEATURE_vectorMapTilesEnabled to true (it would reset every time the screen sleeps)

 

[J1mbo]

They'll need to do something about the size of the non-vector stuff. Impossible to read the road number for example.

 

[evster]

This is wonderful news! I really hate the current bitmap version with the tiles of grey blocks that makes it look lika a chess board while pinching/zooming in the map

With this update there is not that much need for updated gfx-processor and even old cars will feel like the UI is much snappier just because of the vectorized maps!

 

[Padelford]

I can hope that the vectorized Maps gets rid of the terrible grey outline font used in the night-time map display. I’ve complained about this since I got my MX.

 

[Blissedout]

I wonder if the new maps are any better at distinguishing traffic on the upper and lower levels of the George Washington Bridge, or any double decker bridges.

 

[verygreen]

Hm, not to spoil any surprises, but apparently the vector maps are activated by default on Tesla Truck (that's how they call the Semi internally apparently).

 

[MP3Mike]

Hm, not to spoil any surprises, but apparently the vector maps are activated by default on Tesla Truck (that's how they call the Semi internally apparently).

That is what it was called in the invite to the event this week too.

 

[Ulmo]

I was looking at 17.44 firmware yesterday and discovered they added code to enable vector maps from Google Maps. Disabled by default.

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.

I just took a couple of screenshots to show you how much you cannot tell the difference between the two unless closely looking

Before enabling the vector maps, max zoom at some random location:

Now the same place with vector maps enabled, zoomed all the way in:

Vector maps, fractal maps, etc. are always far better than pixelated maps. Pixelated pictures (such as satellite pictures) are a great way to obtain information from stuff like cameras, etc., but once that has been obtained, condensing it into pure information is far superior for computation and calculation. Of course, the fact that things change means that continuing to collect information (through "pixelated stuff" (like cameras)) is, well, mandatory.

GREAT NEWS!

 

[Ulmo]

I wonder if the new maps are any better at distinguishing traffic on the upper and lower levels of the George Washington Bridge, or any double decker bridges.

I've always been amazed and dismayed by how few (if any) navigation systems operate in 3 spatial dimensions (as well as the temporal dimension). I have many spots I go to which are 3 dimensionally logically simple, but 2 dimensionally impossible. (One of my favorite parking lots is underneath I-80; whenever I ask navigators for the route out of the parking lot, they tell me the MOST insane things.)

 

[larmor]

Fantastic, both magnitude and direction...

 

[Padelford]

Perhaps if Tesla starts using vector maps with 3D data, they can find a work-around for the AP failures I've experienced in a rising/falling/turning/exit freeway scenario. The AP software would know that the lane lines continue to the right or left at the top of a hill and augment the line track algorithm so that it can find the new lane lines quicker beyond the hill top.

 

[Padelford]

I was looking at 17.44 firmware yesterday and discovered they added code to enable vector maps from Google Maps. Disabled by default.

Just to be clear, when you say "Disabled by default", do you mean they implemented vector maps in 2017.44 AND didn't disable them? Or did they implement them AND disabled them by default?

 

[Ulmo]

Just to be clear, when you say "Disabled by default", do you mean they implemented vector maps in 2017.44 AND didn't disable them? Or did they implement them AND disabled them by default?

I believe he means that they are disabled in firmware code that is inaccessible to car owners (who haven't hacked into their cars). So, for instance, something like this code that owners cannot see nor change:

1. Vector-map-function-defition (bla bla bla)
2. Pixel-map-function-defition (bla bla bla)
3. Use-vector-map-variable: OFF
4. Map function: (If use-vector-map-variable is ON, then use vector-map-function, otherwise, use pixel-map-function.)

Note that the logic there doesn't use the vector map, AND the owner can't set it. (Just root can.) In other words, Tesla sent your cars a piece of program, then installed that piece of program, into your cars, and it is sitting there in your cars, but your cars literally cannot turn that program piece on, because there's no code path to it, and no way for anybody to get a code path to it; that would require a firmware upgrade.

 

[verygreen]

Perhaps if Tesla starts using vector maps with 3D data, they can find a work-around for the AP failures I've experienced in a rising/falling/turning/exit freeway scenario. The AP software would know that the lane lines continue to the right or left at the top of a hill and augment the line track algorithm so that it can find the new lane lines quicker beyond the hill top.

Nah, this stuff is just for display on the big screen, nothing to do with any navigation whatsoever, there are "adas maps" for that (they do curvature, not sure if they also do elevation).

Just to be clear, when you say "Disabled by default", do you mean they implemented vector maps in 2017.44 AND didn't disable them? Or did they implement them AND disabled them by default?

Like Ulmo said, they did implement them, but their use is controlled by a variable that's off unless you are in a Tesla Truck. You can switch the variable to on if you root the car or take the dash apart and plug into the internal network.

Perhaps they are just testing this code, or they plan to have it as a premium feature? I have no idea, but the variable to control it is called FEATURE_vectorMapTilesEnabled, other notable similar variables are: FEATURE_browserEnabled, FEATURE_homelinkEnabled, FEATURE_navigationEnabled, FEATURE_parkAssistEnabled, FEATURE_streamingRadioEnabled, ... things that are region or trim-level specific.

 

[brkaus]

Nah, this stuff is just for display on the big screen, nothing to do with any navigation whatsoever, there are "adas maps" for that (they do curvature, not sure if they also do elevation).

And poof - that other thread is gone? Or is it my imagination.

 

[verygreen]

And poof - that other thread is gone? Or is it my imagination.

Ah, sorry, wrong link from history. Should have been this one. Tesla Autopilot maps