Glossary
Motorsports telemetry glossary
Plain definitions of the telemetry, lap timing, and data analysis terms you will meet in Podium and in racing data generally.
- Telemetry
- Data measured on the car and sent somewhere else to be watched or stored: speed, position, engine temperatures, pressures, throttle, brake, and so on.
- Real-time telemetry
- Telemetry that leaves the car as it is measured, so the pits, a coach, or a fan sees it within seconds. Podium streams real-time telemetry over cellular or WiFi.
- Data logger
- A device that records telemetry on the car, usually to an SD card. RaceCapture is a data logger; it also streams the same data live to Podium.
- Data acquisition system
- The full set of sensors, logger, and software that captures a car's data. AiM, MoTeC, VBOX, ECUMaster, and RaceCapture are data acquisition systems. PodiumConnect adds live streaming to the ones you already own.
- Lap timing
- Measuring the time taken for each lap, triggered each time the car crosses the start/finish line. Podium times laps from GPS position, so no trackside beacon is needed.
- Predictive lap timing
- A live estimate of the lap you are on, made by comparing your position now with your best lap at the same point. It shows whether you are up or down before the lap ends.
- Lap delta
- The time difference between the current lap and a reference lap at the same point on the track. Negative means faster than the reference.
- Best lap
- The fastest complete lap in a session. Podium uses it as the reference for predictive timing and lap delta.
- Sector
- A segment of a lap between two points on the track. Sector times show where in the lap time is gained or lost. Podium supports named sector schemes per track.
- Start/finish line
- The point on the track where a lap begins and ends. Podium stores it per venue so lap timing works the same for everyone at that track.
- Track map
- An outline of the circuit drawn from GPS data. Podium shows your line on the map and can color it by any channel, such as speed or throttle, to make a heat map.
- Racing line
- The path a car takes around the track. Comparing racing lines between laps or drivers shows where a faster line is available.
- Heat map
- A track map colored by the value of a channel at each point, for example red where speed is high and blue where it is low. It shows at a glance where you brake, coast, and accelerate.
- Time delta chart
- A chart of lap delta against distance around the track. Where the line rises, time is being lost compared with the reference lap; where it falls, time is being gained.
- Session
- One continuous run on track: a practice, qualifying, a race, or a stint. In Podium a session belongs to an event and contains its laps.
- Event
- A day or weekend at a venue, holding one or more sessions from one or more cars. Podium events can be shared publicly, with a team, or kept private.
- Venue
- A track or course. Podium keeps the track map, start/finish line, and sector scheme for each venue, and publishes a public leaderboard for it.
- Stint
- One driver's turn at the wheel in an endurance race, between pit stops. Endurance teams use stints to compare drivers and plan fuel and tire changes.
- Pit wall
- Where the crew stands during a race. Pit-wall telemetry means the crew watches the car's live data there, so they can call the driver in before a problem becomes a failure.
- Leaderboard
- A ranked list of the fastest laps at a venue. Podium publishes public leaderboards built from laps that drivers have chosen to share.
- Analysis workspace
- A saved analysis in Podium: the laps, channels, and charts you were comparing, kept so you can return to it or share it. The free plan keeps three; Podium Pro has no limit.
- Dashboard
- A screen of gauges and charts showing live or recorded data. Podium dashboards can be customized, saved as presets, and shared.
- Channel
- One measured value over time, such as engine RPM, coolant temperature, or GPS speed. Everything you chart in Podium is a channel.
- CAN bus
- The digital network inside a modern car and race car that carries data between the ECU, dashboard, and sensors. RaceCapture and PodiumConnect read telemetry from the CAN bus.
- CAN preset
- A ready-made mapping that tells a device how to read a particular ECU or data system over CAN bus. Podium and RaceCapture ship presets for Link, MoTeC, Haltech, AEM, Holley, and many more.
- ECU
- Engine control unit: the computer that runs the engine. It broadcasts RPM, temperatures, pressures, throttle, and other channels over the CAN bus.
- GPS / GNSS
- Satellite positioning. GNSS is the general term covering GPS, Galileo, GLONASS, and BeiDou. Podium uses position for lap timing, track maps, and speed.
- IMU
- Inertial measurement unit: an accelerometer and gyroscope that measure the forces on the car, such as braking, cornering, and yaw.
- TPMS
- Tire pressure monitoring system. Sensors in or on the wheels report tire pressure and temperature, which can be streamed live to the pits.
- Tire temperature sensor
- An infrared sensor aimed at the tire surface that reports temperature across the tread, used to judge camber, pressure, and how hard each tire is working.
- RaceCapture
- Autosport Labs' line of standalone data loggers and telemetry systems, with GPS, CAN bus, and motion sensing. RaceCapture devices stream to Podium.
- PodiumConnect
- An Autosport Labs device that adds live telemetry to an existing AiM, MoTeC, ECUMaster, VBOX, AEM, or Holley data system by reading it and streaming it to Podium.
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