OpenTrafficMap

(opentrafficmap.org)

219 points | by moooo99 11 hours ago

10 comments

  • RobotToaster 1 hour ago
    • fy20 44 minutes ago
      How does the hardware work? It seems like there isn't any radio hardware other than the ESP, so that can natively receive the ITS-G5 messages? Why not just use an ESP board with native ethernet then?
      • rompic 37 minutes ago
        They are doing it with the standard WIFI receiver. Currently they are sending the Wireshark dumps to a backend for processing.

        According to their presentation they are working on a rust firmware to do everything on the board.

  • mlaretallack 10 hours ago
    Found out about this today, up until now 802.11p hardware is very expensive, and so you cannot easily do anything with V2x messages like CAM or SPAT, but the fact this was done with sub £20 hardware is really interesting.
    • rompic 38 minutes ago
      Fully agree. That's the most interesting thing about this.
  • modinfo 4 hours ago
    It will be nice if we everybody could just add own receivers, then it will be quickly cover more cities. But still nice project.
    • modinfo 1 hour ago
      Ahh, it send automatically to website! "mqtts://cits1.opentrafficmap.org"
  • xd1936 10 hours ago
    I haven't seen a theme on OSM data look this modern and fresh before. Beautiful color palette and iconography!
  • solarpunk 10 hours ago
    Cool, but it there's no links for more info, and it doesn't seem to work in the USA at all.
    • uyzstvqs 7 hours ago
      The site is definitely lacking. It's half in German, half in English.

      The concept is that there is this protocol called ITS-G5, which is a European profile of 802.11p. Vehicles and traffic infrastructure can transmit telemetry on 5 GHz. Other vehicles and traffic infrastructure can use it for situational awareness.

      This website collects that data using local receivers and aggregates it onto a map, similar to what website like ADSB-Exchange do with ADS-B.

      What is concerning is that vehicles appear to broadcast a MAC address. Does this mean that ITS-G5, 802.11p, and C-ITS could be used for persistent tracking?

      • softgrow 6 hours ago
        Reading the translation of the talk, public transport vehicles have a persistent MAC but for private cars the MAC address changes every 15 minutes.
        • rompic 35 minutes ago
          As discussed in the video they are not resetting the packet sequence number though, making it easy to match them with the other data transmitted.
        • ufocia 6 hours ago
          That still doesn't seem very private.
      • antman 2 hours ago
        What about the traffic lights on the map do they also have transmitters?
      • alexpotato 7 hours ago
        This should be a top level comment as it has a ton of useful info and can be voted to the top.
      • firesteelrain 4 hours ago
        Did they re invent APRS?
    • moooo99 10 hours ago
      The project was shared as part of a talk at Graz Linux Tage. You can find it here, unfortunately it is only available in German

      https://media.ccc.de/v/glt26-688-c-its-mit-einem-esp32-ampel...

      • localhostinger 38 minutes ago
        Happy to see this popping up here, I watched the Linux Tage talk last week. The demo just kept getting better and better, to a point where the audience just interruptively cheers and claps away. I know nothing about the contents, but this warmed my heart. True hacker project!
      • RobotToaster 9 hours ago
        Is there a link to the hardware they mention in the description?
        • Maxious 1 hour ago
          They built their own circuit board but the core module that does the 802.11p is just a ESP32-C5
          • RobotToaster 1 hour ago
            Yes, I understand that. The translation makes it sound like they have published the software and design, or are somehow making boards available.

            >To improve coverage, we need your support! We have built a board with *ESP32-C5* and *PoE* that allows you to capture *C-ITS* packages yourself, and provide us for our face-up card, or process it yourself.

            Edit: found it, https://codeberg.org/opentrafficmap

      • refulgentis 7 hours ago
        Pastebin here containing AI-generated English translation, LGTM: https://pastebin.com/fK5Atwzg
    • felixguendling 10 hours ago
      It's based on Car2X/Vehicle2X data that's sent unencrypted and can be received with chips you can order from China.
      • rootusrootus 10 hours ago
        Will be interesting to see how it fares when it does come to the US. It seems like there are some cars that already have the tech installed. But the US is allegedly more interested in the cellular version, which I am guessing is not as easy to pick up with a simple receiver?

        My gut feeling is that this seems like one of those things likely to face a lot of backlash when it becomes widely known.

        • felixguendling 10 hours ago
          I guess we only find out if some people order those chips and check if there is some data. From my understanding the idea is the same like maps showing air planes or ships (for ships it’s AIS). So without volunteers/pioneers who participate we won’t know. It seems like traffic lights and trams also can send data.
    • walrus01 10 hours ago
      If I had a dollar for every time I've seen an American on the Internet assume that anything published in the English language must be US-centric...
      • bravoetch 10 hours ago
        You still wouldn't have nearly as many dollars if you subtracted the times those people were correct in that assumption. Personally I assumed the site would be global. It doesn't have any info though, so I rely on finding out somewhere else I guess.
        • lucideer 8 hours ago
          > Personally I assumed the site would be global

          The only reason you would assume a site would be global is if your definition of "global" is "works in the US" & you never bother to check for support of other countries. I live in the anglosphere outside of the US & I encounter more than enough US-only web projects for that not be to a default assumption I hold.

          Most sites are not global - it's very odd to assume they would be.

          • BigToach 6 hours ago
            Another reason could be that calling this OpenTrafficMap gives an impression that it is similar to OpenStreetMap, which is global.
      • hamdingers 9 hours ago
        It seems pretty weird to use all English words in the domain for a service that offers no English translations and operates in no English speaking countries.
        • moooo99 9 hours ago
          The map is based on international standards and technically it does not restrict locations to German speaking countries.

          The authors of this project also shared that they intend on publishing more around this project. This seems to be mostly an early demo that was intended for the live event.

        • walrus01 9 hours ago
          The Germans and Danes and Swedes and Norwegians I see on the Internet developing and publishing software often have a better grasp of the English language than many born in the USA Americans.
          • ufocia 6 hours ago
            That's true for Scandinavians, Germans are not as gut.
          • bobomonkey 9 hours ago
            [flagged]
      • perching_aix 10 hours ago
        Is expecting something to work in the US the same as expecting it to be US-centric?
      • rootusrootus 10 hours ago
        Conversely, if I had a penny for every time someone complained about Americans... ;-)
        • dawnerd 1 hour ago
          That's one way to get rid of our (US) pennies now that they're useless!
      • amazingamazing 10 hours ago
        This is an American site to be fair. Mapbox is also an American company.
      • ufocia 6 hours ago
        It does have an English name, so why the surprise?
      • estimator7292 8 hours ago
        OpenStreetMaps works in the US and much of the rest of the world.

        It's entirely reasonable to expect that a project with an extremely similar name would also work in most of the world, which just happens to include the USA.

      • exegete 10 hours ago
        I mean I don’t anyone thought this was in the US since the UI is not in English. Maybe it’s more of, this neat, wish we had it here?
  • poorman 8 hours ago
    I wonder if this could be used to track location of the vehicle
  • Cider9986 10 hours ago
    >WebSocket getrennt

    Hug of death? Nothing loads.

  • calin2k 10 hours ago
    [dead]