How the Rebelle Rally is bringing live data to their analog proving ground
By: Brynne Henn
For the third year in a row, the Rebelle Rally is using Mapbox to map the journey of the week-long, all-woman, off-road, navigation rally through 2,000 km of California and Nevada. The completely offline rally asks women from all walks of life to make there way across sand dunes, boulders, and trails using only paper maps, compasses, and grit.
New this year, Tami Mitchell, Rebelle Rally developer, used Mapbox’s Asset Tracking Solution to build a data visualization platform that tracks real-time vehicle performance and feedback as the cars are put through their paces. Now, they’re not only able to see where cars are on the course, but what is happening inside the vehicle.
The beta version of the Rebelle Visualization Platform is in use in seven cars for the entirety of this year’s rally. It’s tracking the Mistubishi Eclipse, Jeep Rubicon JL, Honda Passport, Nissan Armada, and two Rolls Royce Cullinans.
Rebelle Rally was designed as a proving ground for vehicles and competitors. Unlike other races with tuned or modified cars, Rebelles run street-legal cars, trucks, and SUVs. The course allows automotive OEMs to test vehicles in the extreme driving environments and elements that they were designed to handle. Manufacturers gain insight into where their products succeed, and what changes they need to build the best-in-class vehicle.
In the past rallies, OEMs were only able to get anecdotal feedback on how cars performed on a course. Now, a few manufacturers will get to see exactly how their vehicle is performing at every step of the race. Emily Miller, Rebelle Rally founder, says, “It’s not just asset tracking, it’s asset performance tracking.”
It’s exciting to be a part of giving auto OEMs the data they need to build best in class and highly performant vehicles. We can’t wait until the end of the rally to hear the results and see how Rebelle expands this platform to even more auto companies. To watch the rally live, follow the narrative map or catch their live stream. Interested in learning more about Mapbox Automotive? Reach out to our team.
Brynne Henn - Head of Content Marketing - Mapbox | LinkedIn
Tracking vehicle performance in real time was originally published in Points of interest on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.