The Flopple Maps Car

### History

The Flopple Maps Car Is a near top-of-the-line model 2022 BMW X5. It started It's life as pretty much every other X5 would. The car was produced In a BMW factory before being shipped off to a sales lot to be sold. In February 2022, the car was purchased by a still young Flop Industries to be used as a fleet vehicle to move more important staff around. This Is exactly what It did until July of 2022.

Flopple was a tech company that had been around for quite some time. In May 2022, It was acquired and placed under the Flop Industries corporate umbrella. It was decided that the company would remain a tech company but would begin branching out into the automotive sphere as well as making massive improvements to the (at the time) very sucky Flopple Maps which would be used as the navigation system In future vehicles.

In July of 2022, the decision was made to give the car to the company, It had acquired 271,986 miles (437,719 kilometers.) Some parts were definately starting to wear. The decision was then made to remove all of the cars worn, lethargic gasoline, internal combustion engine parts with what was the electric platform that the Beam electric sports sedan would eventually ship with as a sort of proof of concept. Over the next 2 weeks, this Is what the engineers In Flopple's automotive division would dedicate all of their time to. By the time It was complete, the conversion was almost seamless. The car had been equipped with 2 electric motors producing a combined 650 horsepower and a large enough battery to supply the car with up to 650 miles (1046 kilometers) of range. The car could charge from 10 to 100 percent In just 16 minutes.

Following It's conversion, the car was often taken to track events to test and fine tune certain aspects. However, Flopple still needed to improve their maps and satellite mapping was proving to be tedious and expensive. They also needed a means of testing self driving which was going to be a feature on the upcoming Beam. That Is when someone had a brilliant idea. That same X5 was once again chosen for the task. The car was equipped with a series of sensors, cameras, and scanners including 2 LiDAR units from Flop Industries mounted on the front and the back of the car. It was then equipped with a 195,000 USD mast allowing the car to take 360 degree photos as well as more detailed 3D map of It's surroundings. The mast could be raised or lowered depending on what was needed. The car was then loaded with a version of the self driving system. Every engineer and designer that had worked on the project signed their name on the car before the car was clear coated.

On August 1st, 2022, The Flopple Maps Car embarked on It's maiden voyage with the goal of mapping every road In the United States and Canada. As of far, It alone has mapped 1/5th of the roads In the United States or roughly 820,000 miles (1,319,662 kilometers.) Despite It having surpassed 1 million miles, the car still requires very little maintenance only occasionally needing tires or windshield washer fluid or even more rarely, the brakes replaced.

Since the vehicles maiden voyage, It has become a tradition to honk at the car to thank It for It's continued service.

### The followers

It Is worth noting that the car has gained a cult like following. Entire social media pages and accounts dedicated to the car, where It Is, It's current status, etc. It Is common for people to pose for pictures, rub the roof of the car, or In one instance, draw a small image of the car below It's right hand headlight (while vandalism, It's still there because It's highly detailed and looks cool.) The followers appear to see It as less of a robot carrying out It's duty but as more of a living thing. Large groups of people celebrate It's arrival and walk with It through their towns as It makes It's way through.

### Charging

It would be reasonable to assume that the car returns back to the mapping facility every night however, this would be highly inefficient. Instead, the car usually carries one passenger to charge It at Tesla Superchargers. The car plots these stops In It's mapping run and stops at them automatically.

### Incidents

The car thankfully has had very few incidents In It's very long driving history. The most notable of which was In late October when the car struck some debris on the road resulting In parts of It's front suspension being damaged. The car pulled off to the side of the road, retracted the mast, and put itself In sleep mode. Thankfully, some members of the cars cult following went to check on It and upon discovering the damage decided to camp out around It until the service vehicle arrived, likely protecting It from thieves and keeping It safe.

### Future

Some assumed that with the release of the Beam electric sports sedan, the vehicle would be retired. However, this Is simply not the case. While Beam vehicles can and do add to the map, the X5 Is still by far the most efficient and consistent way to expend the map not only for the Beam but also for all future vehicles. The car will likely continue to be improved upon for years to come and will hopefully continue to be a reliable and essential part of the Flopple Maps fleet.