Dear ModalAI Community,
We are fully aware that many of our customers have been affected by very poor GNSS performance on the Starling 2 and Starling 2 Max vehicles. We really appreciate everyone's patience and trying to work through the issues and we apologize that it took so long to provide a formal analysis of the issue.
Our team has posted an initial document which captures the results out testing of GNSS performance on Starling 2 and Starling 2 Max vehicles.
Due to the number of components which have at least some effect on GNSS performance, the reported performance results varied across the vehicles due to slight changes in the configuration, such as which components were present / enabled, how many cameras were installed and what resolution / fps they were running and so on.
The actual test results for individual components and plots and videos will be added soon, as the work is still ongoing. Please sign up to receive updates from this thread, if interested in staying up-to-date.
Please note that most of the cameras on these vehicles had quite severe effect on the GNSS signal. In some cases, the solution is as simple as disabling the camera (like TOF, which mostly not usable outdoors, but was till running and causing interference). One big item remains is the IMX412 camera(s), which is core component of outdoor video streaming, but causes significant interference (up to 15dB loss!). We will be working on testing the camera settings to reduce this interference (as soon as possible).
The Starling 2 and Starling 2 Max vehicles are no longer advertised as GNSS-capable, although they may still ship with GNSS receivers installed (you can request it, if needed). A new GNSS receiver mast has been designed for the Starling 2 Max V3 (late fall of 2025) and is available in CAD (easy to 3D print).
Nevertheless, we believe that it is possible to make substantial improvements in GNSS performance without significant mechanical changes.
We hope the details provided in the document, as well as the ways of testing different components, will allow our customers to tailor modifications to their specific application.
We will be considering these findings for our future designs, however the current Starling 2 and Starling 2 Max vehicle design will remain mostly unchanged in the near future.
Those who are interested in improving GNSS performance in their existing vehicles are strongly encouraged to read through the document and implement the suggestions. Feel free to ask specific questions about anything related to this topic in this thread.
As the document is updated, we will share any major findings in this thread as well.
https://docs.modalai.com/emi-mitigation-for-gnss/