Color navigation map?

[Rownder]

Anyone know if Tesla plans to have a ”color” map option (something thats basically been on every GPS since 2001?). The greyscale map is horrible. At one point I mistaked a lake or river for a bubble in my new screen protector . The full satellite imagery is nice to look around a play with in a new area, but is a little much for driving. Apple maps in CarPlay is nice. Google maps on the phone is nice. Waze is nice. My 15” gorgeous Tesla screen is black and white. Does anyone know why they decided to this?

 

[Jclboston]

Anyone know if Tesla plans to have a ”color” map option (something thats basically been on every GPS since 2001?). The greyscale map is horrible. At one point I mistaked a lake or river for a bubble in my new screen protector . The full satellite imagery is nice to look around a play with in a new area, but is a little much for driving. Apple maps in CarPlay is nice. Google maps on the phone is nice. Waze is nice. My 15” gorgeous Tesla screen is black and white. Does anyone know why they decided to this?

They should've just offered wireless Apple Carplay and Android Auto and just be done with it. They can keep the stock map for finding charging stations or something.

 

[cruiserlarry]

The grayscale map is very old technology. I am constantly amazed by the lack of sophistication for some of the user features on a car that portends to be so technologically advanced. Many vehicles use 3-D hi-res color maps which make it much easier to understand your location and movement quickly. The lo-res grayscale 2-D map is more difficult to use IMO - and on the S, Tesla uses a smaller 3-D rendition on the IC when navigating to a location, but leaves the prehistoric 2-D gray map on the center display...maybe that will change, along with other common features like bird's eye view camera rendition...one can hope.
Instead, we'll get a few more video games, but I try to remain optimistic lol

 

[jdcollins5]

Try the Google Satellite map. It is the only one I use.

 

[EVEnergy]

Turn on satellite view (I'm assuming you have premium connectivity).

 

[cruiserlarry]

I use the satellite view, but it's still 2-D imaging; I'm an avid off-roader, and all of the software / GPS systems we use run 3-D imaging, and it's much easier to understand where you are in relation to your surroundings, especially if you don't want to have to focus on the maps and distract from your actual driving. Add to that the voice alert latency on the maps, and it's easy to misjudge an offramp or fork in the road in unfamiliar territory. For a comparison, take a test drive in a Mercedes EQS, and you'll see a hugh center screen running hi-res 3-D mapping...you'll see what we're missing

 

[Rownder]

Satellite view awesome when you want to explore a map. It’s not gear for navigation imo. And the screen is a giant mess of green and brown.

I did a little searching here and Tesla actually used the standard Google color map up until 2018 then changed to greyscale for an unknown reason. Maybe Elon thinks grey is cooler but It blows my mind they don’t have an option to let the driver choose color or grey.

 

[BigNick]

Satellite view awesome when you want to explore a map. It’s not gear for navigation imo. And the screen is a giant mess of green and brown.

I did a little searching here and Tesla actually used the standard Google color map up until 2018 then changed to greyscale for an unknown reason. Maybe Elon thinks grey is cooler but It blows my mind they don’t have an option to let the driver choose color or grey.

Greyscale might mean less data transferred and lower data cost? I didn't like the loss of color on the maps myself.

 

[GtiMart]

Satellite is only available for premium data subscribers. I use it too, at night, because the new update made the basic map layer look worse at night. Roads are so dark gray that we can't see them. Only highways are light enough to be seen well. I've only started using satellite because the map got too dark recently. I hope they go back to a more reasonable color scheme. Even grayscale is okay for me at night, as long as I can see things properly.

EDIT: Yes, the default map should have less data to transfer than satellite imagery. Grayscale might make it a bit lighter but that depends on the compression algorithm. Even in color, something like the default Google Maps look is lighter to download than satellite imagery.

 

[Transformer]

According to Tesla to release updated maps soon the car downloads the map data in bulk over WiFi.

It has to be vector data to support continuous zooming and rotation, so a different color scheme doesn't save any resources. It's a design choice.

Maybe they concluded that gray scale is less distracting in the driver's peripheral vision. Still, contrast does matter.

 

[FastEddieB]

As a long time WAZE user, color is handy for superimposing traffic slowdowns and the like.

Also on my wish list, the ability to superimpose weather radar returns.

 

[muddie]

It has to be vector data to support continuous zooming and rotation, so a different color scheme doesn't save any resources. It's a design choice.

This 100%.
All GPS systems work the same. The data is all mathematical vector data as it is way smaller in files size than bitmap data and as per Transformer’s post vector data is much better for scaling and rotating for a myriad of reasons.
So the vector data usually comes from one of only about 3 sources for most navigation systems and the individual company determine how that data is displayed using there own colour and graphic themes. The data comes in with mathematical vector plot points to show exactly where the road or river or park or what ever is. And the software then decides what colour or outline or pattern to make that feature. And all of that software colourisation processing is done on the car’s computer post download thus making no difference to the size of the data needing to be downloaded.
So the monochrome nature of the Tesla navigation is 100% a design choice by the Tesla UI designers.

 

[FastEddieB]

So the monochrome nature of the Tesla navigation is 100% a design choice by the Tesla UI designers.

Reminded me of this:

Funny how tastes and styles evolve.

 

[SalisburySam]

Reminded me of this:

Funny how tastes and styles evolve.

…or devolve.

 

[PianoAl]

Think like a marketer:

The grayscale map makes the satellite map more desirable, and the satellite map costs money (premium connectivity required).

 

[jabloomf1230]

Reminded me of this:

Funny how tastes and styles evolve.

It's also funny how Apple battled legally with the Beatles (Apple Corps/Apple Box Productions) over the logo etc. until Apple bought all the trademarked material from the Beatles in 2007.

Apple Corps v Apple Computer - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[cruiserlarry]

I prefer to think like a consumer: You are shown, and subsequently pay for, hi-contrast color maps with excellent detail and visibility. You are later upgraded to low contrast gray-scale maps without any consent, input, or reasoning. Then, you are left with the option the pay again to get the functionality of something you have already purchased and been using. Angry / frustrated consumers are not the goal of any successful marketing campaign, unless you are a competitor's marketing company lol

 

[MickyLee3]

Anyone know if Tesla plans to have a ”color” map option (something thats basically been on every GPS since 2001?). The greyscale map is horrible. At one point I mistaked a lake or river for a bubble in my new screen protector . The full satellite imagery is nice to look around a play with in a new area, but is a little much for driving. Apple maps in CarPlay is nice. Google maps on the phone is nice. Waze is nice. My 15” gorgeous Tesla screen is black and white. Does anyone know why they decided to this?

The plan map puts some color on some roads, e.g. red or orange. I suspect that is some indication of traffic, but I can't find anything in the owner's manual that explains it and I haven't seen a map legend on the map. Does anyone know what these very subtle colors mean?

 

[SalisburySam]

The plan map puts some color on some roads, e.g. red or orange. I suspect that is some indication of traffic, but I can't find anything in the owner's manual that explains it and I haven't seen a map legend on the map. Does anyone know what these very subtle colors mean?

The maps lost their color a long time ago, sadly. The orange and red are traffic amounts: lots (orange), and slowdowns (red), and are a function of the online subscription if you have it. Those of us with older vehicles ordered on or before June 30, 2018 have lifetime service included. Without that subscription, today you have no color at all.

 

[heavyD]

Turn on satellite view (I'm assuming you have premium connectivity).

Personally in other cars with Carplay I always use the color maps over Google or Apple Maps satellite views as I find the satellite view too cluttered. I find colored maps are more simple and easy to use in comparison. I realize they use the crappy grayscale maps because they want you to subscribe to premium but the satellite view simply isn't worth paying extra money for as it's not that great.