Hivemapper Hardware Update

We published "How It Works" on April 5 where we shared the tokenomics of the Hivemapper Network and our milestones for launching the network. 

Because we are building high quality devices to be used reliably around the world, we have defined a rigorous global testing and hardware validation process.

As part of this process, we discovered a hardware issue that we will be improving to ensure quality at global scale, and we are  adjusting our timeline accordingly.

In this blog post, we'll share more details about the hardware issue, shipment delay, and new network phases. Throughout this post, we’re excited to share some images and videos showing the assembly and production of the Hivemapper Dashcam.

To be clear and avoid any misinformation, the hardware issue we discovered during our testing and hardware validation process is not a supply chain issue or manufacturing issue. We have sufficient supply and manufacturing capacity.

An imager is the hardware component that converts light signals into digital data. We discovered an abundance of EMI (electromagnetic interference) coming from the IMX 477 high quality imager that is causing interference with our GNSS module.

For some of our testers, this was resulting in long lock times to begin collecting location data, which is not acceptable for our use case. We are improving shielding and implementing other EMI mitigation techniques to ensure we acquire and maintain a high accuracy GNSS lock.

Due to this hardware issue we are not able to ship pre-ordered Hivemapper Dashcams per the timelines we originally published on April 5th. We appreciate your support and will commit to updating you bi-monthly until this issue is resolved and we start shipping pre-ordered dashcams. While there is a slight delay, we’re still shipping all pre-orders on a “first to pre-order, first to ship” basis, which means keeping your place in the queue is still very beneficial to receive the dashcam sooner.

We’ve made some updates to the Hivemapper Network Phases as outlined in the table below. During the Testnet phase, we’ll ship a batch of dashcams based on “first to pre-order, first to ship.” Everyone in the Testnet phase will be able to map, annotate, and QA globally but will only be able to earn test tokens. During the Hivemapper Network (Beta) phase, contributors will be able to map, annotate, and QA, and earn HONEY token rewards globally. At the beginning of the Hivemapper Network (Beta) phase, there will be a 35 Region Boost subphase. During this subphase, the 35 metro regions defined in this interactive map will receive extra rewards.

We will launch the Hivemapper Foundation in mid-September and it will be based in the Cayman Islands. The Hivemapper Foundation will turn on HONEY token rewards at the Hivemapper Network (Beta) Launch.

We will be updating you on our progress in resolving this hardware issue every two weeks. We are innovating a blockchain-based mapping network and can’t wait to share it with you. We are grateful that you have joined us on this journey and are understanding of the ups-and-downs along the way.

We’re excited to share a couple videos of the Hivemapper Dashcam prototype in our manufacturing facility in Pittsburgh, PA.