Commitment can’t easily be measured in units. Distance, however, can. On the relatively small but global team that Hammerhead assembled to develop Karoo, no member of the entourage pushed farther out of their comfort zone, in pursuit of delivering the best product possible, than Robert Martinez, Hammerhead’s VP of Hardware.

Born and raised in New Hampshire, Robert’s undergraduate education took him to Yale to study mechanical engineering. While there he was also on the rowing team, and thus, a teammate of Hammerhead’s future co-founder and CEO, Piet Morgan. The two competed through several successful seasons together before graduating, but at the time, neither had any idea that their paths would become thoroughly intertwined again, years down the road.

Robert graduated from college ready to jump into a career, but found himself as many of his generation did: freshly entering a job economy that was lukewarm at best. He eventually took a entry-level position at a data center in California, but knew that data science ultimately wasn’t for him.

In 2010, he approached venerated computer scientist and entrepreneur Trevor Blackwell. Trevor invited Robert to visit his new venture, AnyBots, a burgeoning company in the process of developing wheeled telepresence robots that used internet connectivity to physically represent absent parties. The implications were tremendous: Doctors could oversee surgeries, mechanics could inspect machines, the physically handicapped could be enabled to travel virtually, and dangerous situations could be traversed by surrogate devices, rather than humans. Robert was intrigued, enough so that he took on an unpaid internship until AnyBots could create a formal position for him as a robotics engineer.

Unbeknownst to him, the engineering of these robots would provide a comprehensive foundation of experience that would deeply inform his work at Hammerhead later. Hardware considerations like weight, power consumption, heat management, design for manufacture and assembly, and more were critical to master. Robert also learned endless lessons in the balancing of marketing, timing, sourcing, vision, compromise, and other vital managerial and political skills.

Feeling spurred to take on his own venture, Robert eventually left AnyBots and partnered with a college friend to found SupplyBetter, an organization that paired hardware startups with ideal suppliers and manufacturers. The work was rewarding, but demanding, and Robert was exposed to deep, systemic challenges in integrating young companies with vendors — yet more experience that would be pertinent in due time.

By now, Robert was living in the San Francisco Bay area, in what could only be described as an unconventional arrangement. He and about a dozen others were living on an enormous, permanently docked cargo ship that had been converted into a floating residential experiment. It had its advantages — a strong sense of community, a relative escape from the hectic city — and uniquely, the opportunity to tackle various engineering projects all over the craft. One such challenge Robert took on was building the davit for the ship’s two 13-foot inflatable dinghies (one of which was called #sorryrob). Robert did work on both, and used them for travel around the bay, making for some very non-traditional commutes.

Back to His Roots

After three years in vendor relationship management, Robert dearly missed the hands-on engineering work he got to only taste living on the ship. He made a list of companies for whom he’d like to try working. Seeking some advice, he reached out to Laurence Wattrus, co-founder of Hammerhead, who’d become a client of SupplyBetter a year earlier.

Robert was only vaguely aware of Hammerhead’s focus as a company, as a result of a few conversations he’d had with Laurence and Piet. “Piet originally called to ask me about CAD tools and some other hardware-related questions,” recalls Robert. “I didn’t really know the specifics, but I always knew he was up to something.”

Once on the phone, Laurence made it clear to Robert: “I’m not giving you any advice. I want you to come work for us.”

Robert accepted the role as VP of Hardware at the time that Hammerhead’s development of Karoo was really picking up steam. A deft hand was needed to sort out a wide variety of new vendor relationships. He began making trips to Shenzhen, China, the world’s foremost hub of mobile device manufacturing, where the company planned to produce the device. After only a few weeks on the job, Robert’s prior experience quickly informed him of the reality of Hammerhead’s situation: someone needed to be present in Shenzhen to make this all work properly, not just coordinating remotely and visiting only occasionally.

On one of his early trips to Shenzhen, Robert’s then-fiancé, Elyse, had come to visit him. The two had become engaged only weeks after Robert was offered the position at Hammerhead, and determining their near-term plans together was still an active topic of conversation. Elyse joked with Robert that they should just move to China to make his job easier. Two months later, in August of 2016, they were living in Shenzhen.

“I wouldn’t necessarily recommend moving to a completely foreign country with no personal connections and no ability to speak the language, two months after getting engaged,” quips Robert. “Every day was an adventure, whether you wanted one or not.”

But neither he nor Elyse, nor their dog (and unofficial company mascot) Griz, regret their bold move. Their lives are richer for it, and Hammerhead has unquestionably benefited enormously from Robert’s — and Elyse’s — willingness to upend their lives.

Setting the Stage to Change Cycling Tech

Once on the ground in China, Robert simultaneously accelerated and refined the processes that were shaping Karoo’s hardware story. He streamlined vendor selection, negotiated contracts, identified various component manufacturing partners, and helped design and engineer Karoo itself. He found Hammerhead’s collective vision and its daunting quest to develop something genuinely revolutionary invigorating.

“It can take years to modify existing supply chains and vendor relationships to create a new product– often called technical debt — which is directly tied to the success of your product,” says Robert. “We don’t have those confinements. We’re starting from scratch. We can be nimble, but there’s also a lot of risk.”

Mitigating that risk was a major focus for the hardware team, and it paid off. By the time production of the device itself was underway, beginning in the winter of 2017, a remarkable piece of hardware had come to life. Karoo’s initial run defect rate was extraordinarily low — an unprecedented success for a relatively tiny company taking on a significant challenge like reimagining what a cycling computer should be.

Like everyone at Hammerhead, maintaining a connection to nature is important to Robert. When asked about cycling, he admits he doesn’t have the time or access to do as much as he’d like in Shenzhen. But as a former collegiate athlete, he understands the importance of the mission that Karoo is serving.

“Training and racing performance are being influenced by how well we can integrate sensors on the market, whose costs keep decreasing,” says Robert, referring to the myriad of products on the market these days, which no manufacturer has properly achieved seamless integration yet into the cycling experience. “It’s a fundamentally exciting time to be an engineer in the industry right now.”

And it is an exciting time to be a cyclist, too, thanks in large part to the work of those like Robert.

Hello All,

Karoo’s latest software version – our third this month – is now available for your device. We’ve made some notable UI improvements, and also added a time-to-destination data field.

You can read more of the details here:

Karoo Software Build Version: 1.5.216.3

Release Date: Aug 30, 2018

Introductions and Enhancements

• Added time-to-destination data field.
• During pause or autopause events, live sensor data can now still be displayed.
• Lap button can now be hit to record a lap event even while paused.
• User is now prompted to confirm deletion of activities from device.

Bug Fixes

• Elevation calibration now accepts negative values.
• Default Map and Main page sets were sometimes removable from page set list, but unrecoverable post-removal. This has been addressed.
• Email address field is now case sensitive.

Dashboard Software Build Version: V0.9.21

• “Support” button would hide elevation button when viewing map of activity or shared route. This has been addressed.

Of course, please contact us if you have any questions or concerns, at support@hammerhead.io. We’d also love to hear what you think of the changes!

Cheers,

<H>

The promise of superior GPS navigation is one that many riders have heard from the various brands that offer cycling computers. As cyclists ourselves, our assessment was that no one had yet properly delivered on this promise, which in large part, inspired our development of Karoo.

One basic question we had to ask was: what would “superior” navigation actually be? Does it mean navigational instructions are faultless, and that rerouting is instant? Does it mean the map design is the easiest to read? Does it mean the most intuitive and flexible route planning? Does it mean bike shops, cafés, and other relevant destinations are indicated on the map? If it all just “works” properly and gets us from one place to another, do the little details even matter?

Yes. Superior cycling navigation would wholly encompass all of these things. Laying out our approach to Karoo, and how we solve each of these problems, is something we’d like to do in time. But today, we want to simply showcase how the device renders the instructions for you when you’re using it for navigation — because this alone is a surprisingly intricate process.

Navigating Navigation

Karoo, and virtually any other device that provides navigational instructions, uses third-party, cloud-based software for things like mapping data, creating routes, and other functions. Why third-party? Several reasons. Developing our own software for these functions is technically possible, but would take far longer to do properly than would be economically feasible. It would make little sense, given that companies which specialize in these sorts of programs have (nearly) perfected them over many years and iterations.

Some devices on the market use static, native data, which is easier from an architecture standpoint, but not always optimal for the user, because it’s not as efficient to update or integrate into other systems, such as non-native apps. Third-party programs are sometimes simply better and more efficient for these purposes.

Karoo’s Routes app relies on two of these third-party programs. They are sourced from two different vendors, because no single vendor was able to supply the variety of data and functions that our design for Karoo requires: fully integrated cycling navigation, training, and data management.

One of these programs is the mapping data client. The data client provides Karoo with “tiles” of mapping info. Each tile presents a tiny patch of the world, and each has dozens of points of data, usually called “layers” — elevation, terrain type, address info, whether there is a route on that tile, info about that route (directionality, type, etc.), how that tile is connected to others, and many more. Karoo takes all this raw data and, thanks to much design work, renders it in the colors, lines, and symbols you see on the screen.

The second program that Karoo’s Routes app uses is the routing client. The routing client takes location points provided by the user and figures out how to connect the two (or three, or four, or dozens). In a flurry of calculations, the routing client analyzes the many thousands of tiles that are implicated between the points, and determines the best route to connect them. This route optimization is a process that must be tailored to each product. Karoo’s has been designed specifically over many months to route the user based on either road or off-road cycling mapping data (which is still relatively limited globally, but constantly growing).

The client/service relationship is far from plug-and-play. The adjoining and tailoring of compatible systems to one another takes months of dialogue and refinement. Many questions must be asked along the way, from the deeply technical to the nuanced and almost philosophical.

For example, how should road or trail grade be factored into routing or re-routing? Should Karoo avoid very steep terrain, even if it’s technically on the best route? If a steep grade is an option, should it preface this option as such for the user? If so, where do we draw the line between “standard” steepness and “severe” steepness? Do we risk insulting a customer by implying a route may be too steep for them? Should we allow them to determine for themselves what grade, and for what distance that grade, is considered “severe?” Can we quantify and systemize this? What would that matrix look like? What would the UI look like? Should we create road and off-road grade matrices? Etc…

And these musings are limited to one topic: route grade. There are hundreds of others to consider. Answers to each question impact what we ask of our designers, data, and routing clients. They, in turn, respond with what’s technically possible or practical.

And from a programming standpoint, the process of creating the navigation experience on Karoo is different for routes created on the device, routes created on the Dashboard, and routes created on other services and then imported onto Karoo. Each route type is coded differently, and provides Karoo with variations in the types of data it needs to create a route. Implementing different route types may seem to involve indistinguishable processes from the user’s standpoint, but internally, Karoo may be doing very different tasks to render each. This is why some routes seem to generate with no issue, whereas other seemingly similar rides can occasionally generate error messages.

Karoo’s ability to render a consistent navigation experience for routes derived from virtually any source is an ambitious and unprecedented goal, even beyond the realm of cycling. It has presented a myriad of challenges for our team, but progress is constantly being made. The result – a seamless user experience – is always ever-closer to full realization.

The Margin(s) of Error

Of course, there are many junctions within this process in which something can go wrong.

One example of this that impacted some Karoo users recently was a persistent error message reading simply “Waiting for instruction.” In the case of this issue, one particular step in Karoo’s routing process was the source of the device’s struggles.

Historically, when prompted to generate turn-by-turn (TbT) instructions, the routing client comes back with either an affirmative message or a negative message — the affirmative message being the typical “green light” that instructions can and will be generated, while the negative message would indicate that some sort of failure has occurred (invalid address, no internet connection, route provided by mapping client doesn’t correspond with routing client data, etc.).

Karoo’s issue was occurring specifically here. In response to some routing requests, rather than receiving an affirmative or negative message back from the routing client, Karoo was getting… nothing. Not a negative message, which Karoo could then render in the form of an error message that would explain the problem, but simply digital silence. With no response at all from the routing client, Karoo could only wait — hence, the “Waiting for instruction” message.

Identifying the origin of bugs in navigation rendering can be an especially time-consuming process. Often, it requires two large phases: Scrutinizing our work, and scrutinizing the work of our third-party program providers. Our ever-improving software QA (quality assurance) processes and our newly formed Advanced Testing Group help with the former, while the latter can only be addressed with copious communication, diligence, and patience. Our partners are, after all, making changes to their systems as often as we are. In short, there are many moving targets — and there are no “undo” buttons.

Blazing a New Trail

The scope of the challenge of revolutionizing bicycle navigation is hard to overstate. Even juggernauts within the world of cycling tech have yet to master a comprehensive integration of routing, training, social connectivity, and optimized hardware.

Hammerhead’s goal is to prove that it is possible. Through thoughtful design, appropriate feedback, and constant refinement, the way we all imagine it should work, will work.

And thanks to the support of our community, we’re making it happen.

Thank you for reading along. More to come.

Cheers,

<H>

Hello All,

This week, a pair of useful new data fields – prioritized in response to community feedback – has been added to Karoo’s latest software package. In it, we’re also pleased to patch to a critical bug that’s been impacting offline map downloads for a number of users.

More details are here:

Karoo Software Build Version: 1.5.191.3

Release Date: Aug 16, 2018

Introductions and Enhancements:

• Distance-to-next-turn data field added.
• Total-distance-remaining-on-ride data field added.
• Messaging in Routes app changed from “Turn-by-Turn Not Available” to “Breadcrumb Navigation” when in the event of a TbT rendering issue (where TbT instructions will not appear but route trace is indicated).

Bug Fixes:

• Reliability of offline map downloading has been notably improved. Users should see a sharp reduction in related failures that have persisted through the last several sprints.

Features and Bug Fixes Still in Progress:

• Encouraging testing was completed around new ANT+ algorithms which serves as a foundation for expanding our support of ANT+ devices. While several sprints away, users can look forward to power meter calibration, battery level data, and more coming from this work.
• We are working to keep the data field display active while a ride is paused. For example, this allows a rider to see his/her heart rate while at a rest stop. Also, power data will also continue to be shown if a rider manually pauses but continues to ride.
• Introducing functionality so that the Lap button now records a lap event if pressed while Karoo is paused. This covers cases like when a rider pauses for a rest stop and Karoo auto-pauses before the rider presses the Lap button.

Dashboard Software Build Version: 0.9.20

• Fixes made to direct routes imported from GPSies and Komoot.

Any concerns, questions, or comments? Please feel free to reach out to us at support@hammerhead.io.

Cheers,

<H>

Q: I’m still having trouble downloading offline maps. I’ve had this issue for a while, and you’ve said you’ve been working on it for a while. What’s the current status of this?

A: The software team has continued to chip away at this issue, and we’ve made some substantial progress recently. One persistent bug impacting this was related to the communication between Karoo and our 3rd-party mapping partners. We pinpointed a bug that was causing downloads to be interrupted, so working with them, we’ve implemented a software mechanism that restarts the download where it had failed, as opposed to stalling and abandoning the download, which was what it had done previously, resulting in the download errors. This is a short-term, but significant, fix for this issue. The next software release will deploy this mechanism and should greatly reduce the occurrence of offline map download failures for our users.

Q: It’s been a few weeks since you promised a new website “in a few weeks.” When will the new one be up?

A: The new website will be rolling out in three phases, and the first phase is complete. You can see the new Karoo product page live right now! The next two phases will be more thorough revisions of other sections of the website, which will launch in the next 3–4 weeks. The new website will showcase existing features and display designs, as well as a preview of some of the data visualizations and other features we’re working on.

Q: Will the fully-realized new website include an updated software development timeline?

A: Yes.

Q: What else can we expect with the new website?

A: Lots. Our initial site slowly grew and morphed as both our product and our customer base did. It eventually turned into something quite substantial, but its mission became awkwardly split between informing new customers and serving existing ones, so it didn’t do either as well as it could have. With the new site, we’re aiming for easier navigation, easier purchasing, clearer resources, and more succinct answers your questions about Karoo, whether you’ve been with us since the beginning, or you’re just visiting for the first time. As we’ve mentioned, it won’t happen all at once, but good things are coming over the next 3–4 weeks.

Q: Is Karoo truly water-resistant? I’ve seen some images from users of water seeping under the screen and messing up the display.

A: Yes, Karoo is absolutely water-resistant — to the IP67 standard, which means officially that it can be submerged in water at a depth of one meter for up to 30 minutes with no intrusion of liquid into the unit, including under the screen. We’ve also conducted MIL-STD testing under 810G guidelines (also referred to as MILSPEC), subjecting Karoo to over four hours of intense deluge (heavy, heavy rain) while operating, all without failure. Of the many, many thousands of Karoos being ridden, raced, toured, submerged, and generally battered all over the planet, the number of reports we’ve received of water intrusion impacting display quality as a result of product defect is in the single digits. We’re working closely with these few users affected to understand the cause of the problem, but we’re confident that the issue is not one which should cause concern among the vast majority of Karoo users.

Q: So Karoo is okay for mountain biking, cyclocross, gravel riding, etc.?

A: Absolutely. Our current customer base is largely road cyclists, but Karoo is something we designed with off-road ruggedness and trail navigation in mind since the beginning. In fact, Hammerhead as an organization is heavily populated with avid mountain and gravel riders. We’ve designed Karoo to serve our own needs as well as those of the global cycling community, wherever they ride.

Q: It’s been reported that device manufacturers are going to be charged to utilize Strava Live Segments. How will this impact the Karoo cost or experience you’ve promised?

A: We’re currently in discussions with Strava on this topic and others. We’ve worked with Strava since 2015 on projects like Karoo upload integration and Live Segments implementation. Their business is growing, as is ours, and while we don’t yet know the structure of this evolving partnership, we’re confident that we’ll be able to maintain our healthy relationship, and we promise that we’ll share any pertinent news with our community as it develops.

Q: If I order Karoo today, how long can I expect until it arrives?

A: Karoo orders are shipping on demand, with the vast majority shipping within days, if not hours, of your purchase. Delivery times vary around the world, and inventory and output levels are still relatively limited, but our ongoing improvements in manufacturing and logistics management mean that we’re moving units faster and more efficiently now, and we’ll keep getting better.

Q: Will Hammerhead sponsor me and/or my long-distance ride or cycling event?

A: We are honored that you’ve asked us to be a part of your cycling passion! Right now we don’t have any formal sponsorship programs in place, but we are constantly discussing these and are very excited to get them off the ground as soon as possible.

Q: When can I get Hammerhead stickers, t-shirts, water bottles, socks, etc,?

A: We’re working on that, too. We’re excited that you want some Hammerhead swag, and we’re spending lots of our “free” time bringing some things to the merch table. We’ll share it all with our community when we’re ready, and we promise that some very cool stuff is coming before the end of the summer.

Cheers, and thank you for following along.

<H>

Hello All,

While Karoo software version 1.5.158.3 – out now – doesn’t introduce any notable new features, it ushers in a number of small refinements that address some consistent issues reported by certain segments of our community. More importantly, however, is that greater focus is currently being placed on Karoo improvements and features that will manifest over the next several release cycles. We don’t want to get ahead of ourselves and provide specifics just yet, but the end of summer and approach of fall will bring some exciting stuff.

So, Karoo’s expansion is limited on this release — but the Dashboard is a different story. We’ve made two notable changes that we think will lead to a significantly enhanced user experience: a new Chrome extension, called Karoo Route Grab, for easy route-importing from third-party sites, and a full integration of our Feedback Portal to our customer service systems.

Read more about it all here:

Karoo Software Build Version: 1.5.158.3

Release Date: August 2nd, 2018

Introductions and Enhancements:

• No notable feature introductions or enhancements at this time.

Bug Fixes:

• Further refined messaging to riders at the start of a route when turn-by-turn directions are being prepared. The inaccurate “Waiting for GPS…” message is removed.
• FIT file formatting has been refined to better handle pause events. Data is no longer logged and stored in the FIT file when the ride is paused.
• The “NO GPS SIGNAL” status bar indicator is no longer being wrongly shown on the launch screen after a ride.

Features and Bug Fixes Still in Progress:

• A central issue has been identified and largely resolved related to intermittent offline map download failures. This is currently in validation testing and is expected to be included in the next release.
• Work is ongoing to enable sensor data to remain active when a ride is paused, as well as to allow a single lap to be set while paused. Testing of this has not been completed but should be by next release.
• We are refining a “Distance to Destination” data field and should have this added to an imminent release.

Dashboard Software Build Version: 0.9.19

• Karoo Route Grab: a new Chrome extension which can be clicked while viewing routes on third-party websites to effortlessly import those routes to your routes list and onto Karoo. Supported platforms include Strava, Garmin Connect, Komoot, GPSies, Trailforks, and many more
• The Karoo Feedback Portal is now fully integrated with our other customer service support systems. Submitting feedback via the Dashboard automatically creates a support ticket and users can expect responses in many instances.

As always, your questions and concerns are welcomed. Please reach out to us at support@hammerhead.io at any time. We’d love to hear what you think of Route Grab, too!

Cheers,

<H>

Q: I recently had to send in my Karoo for exchange. Why do you have to wait until you receive my old one before sending me a new one?

A: This is a practical measure, and very common practice within many sects of the retail industry. It unfortunately would be too easy for a customer to claim that they have a defective unit, request a replacement, and then make off with two fully functioning devices. We also like to have the initial unit on-hand first to verify claims of defect before sending out a new one.

Q: I can only chose metric or imperial systems for all data fields. Can I customize my device to display the specific system/units I want for specific data fields (temperature, distance, etc.)?

A: Not yet, but we’re working on it. Expect a few more release cycles before we’re able to prioritize this change, however.

Q: Can I still join the Karoo Advanced Testing Group?

A: No. Currently, we’ve closed admission into the group. We have 60 riders globally providing advanced testing and feedback on Karoo’s features before they’re released to the public. We are only two cycles (four weeks) into the ATG process, however, and will certainly grow the group in the future if we feel it pertinent once we’ve established a stable and scalable system here. We’ll let you know when this happens.

Q: My bracket foot broke!

A: We’re sorry to hear that! We’ve acknowledged an issue with a small percentage of the original bracket feet supplied with some Karoos. We’ve engineered and produced and new one, and you can get one sent to you for free. Please click here to learn more.

Q: Auto-pause still seems to throw off my data at times. Are you fixing this?

A: Yes. Look for several small improvements to Karoo’s auto-pause functionality being implemented over the next four weeks (two releases).

Q: When are you going to introduce a route-based upcoming elevation data field or visualization?

A: Perhaps several weeks from now at earliest, but more likely in a few months. This is an exciting feature we’re eager to roll out, but some others are more pressing currently.

Q: Speaking of elevation, my Karoo’s software is up-to-date, but my elevation data is still quite off sometimes. Why?

A: We’ve received limited reports of elevation data being off, be it by only a small amount or by enormous and obvious error. We are looking into both.

In the cases of slight variations compared to, for example, Strava, it’s important to keep in mind that platform-to-platform, and even ride-to-ride, there are different variables and algorithms used to calculate elevation. None are ever definitively “correct,” but some are certainly more accurate than others. We are constantly analyzing and adjusting Karoo’s elevation calculation processes to be better, and this will continue until we are the benchmark.

In the cases of large, erroneous elevation reports (off by thousands of meters, for example), we are actively looking into what could be causing this for the few riders that are reporting this consistently (around 30–40 users globally). We’ll report back on our findings when we are confident in our diagnosis and solution.

Q: Are you still minding the Karoo Feedback Portal?

A: Yes — and in fact, we’re integrating the Feedback Portal directly into our customer service pipeline. Now you can click the Support button at the bottom-right of the Dashboard to search our support resources or contact us. The feedback that the community has provided to us via the Feedback Portal has been very valuable in shaping the device’s development, so please do continue to let us know what you think of Karoo!

Cheers,

<H>

Hello All,

Over the month of July, the software team has continued chipping away at a family of issues surrounding turn-by-turn instruction reliability. The new software build version, 1.5.143.3, should see marked improvement for those Karoo users still impacted by these. Some troubles with the accuracy of manually calibrated elevation have also been addressed.

New to the device are more granular navigational instructions when approaching new prompts, such as turns, as well as some small UX improvements and improved reporting reliability and accuracy of average-based data fields. We’re excited to also announce the successful integration of Komoot, one of Europe’s most popular routing and mapping platforms, to Dashboard build version 0.9.18.

Finally, the successful launch of the Karoo Advanced Testing Group allowed the software team to monitor this new software package ahead of its public release, ensuring smoother deployment and a far lower risk of new bugs sneaking aboard the device.

Details are here:

Karoo Software Build Version: 1.5.143.3

Release Date: July 19, 2018

Introductions and Enhancements:

• The distance to turns in turn-by-turn instructions are now updated more frequently to show tenths of a mile/kilometer to the turn when within 10mi/10km, and to show distances in feet or meters when finally approaching the turn.
• Period-based average data fields are now showing average values while the initial window period is filling. Previously no value was shown until the first period had passed. Once the initial window period has passed, the value shown is a rolling item based on the continuing period size.
• Karoo now prompts the user if the user selects a route from the routes app that has not been made available offline or that does not have turn-by-turn directions available. (Selecting a map previously would result in “Waiting for instruction…” being shown indefinitely to the user on the map view). Now the user can choose to continue after seeing an error prompt. If turn-by-turn directions are not available, only the map will be shown (without turn-by-turn instructions) and the “Waiting for instruction…” message is not shown. The entire screen is used for the map, which the user can use to navigate.

Bug Fixes:

• An issue has been fixed where auto-calibration of the elevation could fail after elevation data was entered manually.
• Additional refinements were made to the turn-by-turn initialization sequence to remove repeating “Waiting for GPS…” and similar messages that could be displayed when starting a route that ends at the same location as the start. This was the case even when a GPS signal was present. . New messages like “Preparing route for ride” and “Continue ride” have replaced “Waiting for GPS…”

Bug Fixes in Progress:

• The “Waiting for GPS…” message and similar ones can still show on the red message bar before the first turn-by-turn message is received for some users. This message is not synced with the actual presence or absence of a GPS signal.

Dashboard Software Build Version: 0.9.18

Release Date: July 19, 2018

Changes:

• Fixed an issue where autofill for Chrome on iOS for username and password was disabling the login button.
• Komoot added to the list of route sources that can be instantly imported by URL.

We hope v1.5.143.3 makes your Karoo, and your riding, just that much better as summer rolls on (at least for our customers in the northern hemisphere). As always, please do let us know if you encounter any issues with your Karoo, at support@hammerhead.io.

Cheers,

<H>

Hello All,

July’s first software update for Karoo is light on feature introductions or substantial bug fixes, but for good reason: much focus from the software team over this past sprint went into longer-term improvements and planning, including substantial firmware revisions and the rebuilding of our mapping data library, mentioned in the Q&A blog post last week.

Significant time was also spent developing a wholly new (to Hammerhead) process of software validation: our Advanced Testing Group. Want to learn more about how we want to engage our community to make Karoo better, faster? Stay tuned for a blog post tomorrow morning, EDT.

Below are the changes made to Karoo with our most recent update, v1.5.111.3. Of note are changes we’ve made to the section now called “Bug Fixes in Progress.” Rather than listing medium- and long-term challenges the team is facing, we’ll be using this section to highlight bugs we’re targeting for the upcoming sprint. Simultaneously, we’re working on a new platform onto which we’ll be migrating an ongoing log of both small and large bug fixes –rather than publishing them here in the blog – which will be updated more frequently.

Karoo Software Build Version: 1.5.111.3

Release Date: July 5, 2018

Introductions and Enhancements:

• 3G radio is now disabled by default if a SIM card is not detected at startup. This should provide notable battery life improvements for many users.
• Added mechanism to startup procedure that recovers file system corruption in the data partition, should one occur. This is a rare but fatal issue that has impacted a very small number of Karoos, but should no longer be an issue after this update.

Bug Fixes:

• Resolved issues where Karoo could become slow or stalled and data could stop updating for the user. These fixes were associated specifically with the use of the lap button and changing routes mid-ride.

Bug Fixes in Progress:

• Reports of failure of turn-by-turn instructions have fallen drastically between our past two software updates, but still occur with some regularity for a remaining minority of our user pool. We are still implementing a few adjustments to our software to resolve the issue for those outstanding users and plan currently to have done so by next release.
• Out-and-back routes causing navigation starting errors. Working on refining routing logic to resolve this.
• Elevation calculation logic being refined for greater overall ride accuracy and fewer outlier values.
• Average value calculation fixes being implemented for various window lengths (3s, 5s, 20min, etc.) for power, cadence, and other data.

Dashboard: No updates at this time.

Cheers,

<H>

Hello All,

Hammerhead’s growth over the last several months has been accompanied by numerous changes we’ve been making to how we do things. Our software team’s processes in particular have undergone rigorous scrutiny, and while the team has added several key positions, the demands on Karoo from our growing customer base still currently outpace our ability to develop the product to the standards it deserves.

In order to live up to those standards, Hammerhead has begun taking steps towards developing an external team of Karoo’s most engaged users within the community to help us with product testing. We’d like to survey our active customer pool to identify 20 users for the initial trial of this project, which we’re calling the Advanced Testing Group. These users will be selected on the bases of location, riding type, technical familiarity with Karoo, and overall proven willingness to engage Hammerhead. They will be the first to see new software releases, by approximately one week or more, and will be asked to test new features out on rides, so we can better refine and stabilize Karoo’s features and functions before releasing them globally.

How can you “apply” to join this group? Just answer a few basic questions here (edit: link removed 7/9/2018), and we’ll get back to you within the next few days.

Thanks very much for your interest. We’re looking forward to hearing from you.

Cheers,

<H>

(Edit, 7/9/2018: We’ve received a huge number of responses from our community. We’re very grateful for the interest! We’ve closed the application form for now, and will be reaching out with our responses soon.)