arxivcs.AIcs.CV2026-07-20
Do Maps Still Matter for Machines: Revisiting the Role of Choropleth Maps in Foundation Model Spatial Understanding
Zhiwei Wei, Yonghe Sun, Zhenjia Liu, Wenjia Xu, Chao He, Weihua Dong, et al.
Spatial understanding is crucial for foundation models (FMs), and maps have long helped humans organize and reason about geographic information. This study examines whether choropleth maps remain useful for machine spatial understanding when models can directly process structured…