How to update nav maps

[Cosmacelf]

If you notice something wrong or missing from the new navigation map system (that was rolled out in April 2018 to Model S/X and is installed in Model 3), you can fix it in a few minutes and have it appear on your Tesla nav within a day.

For instance, if you want to go to friend's house that is in a brand new subdivision but his house isn't in the nav yet, OR a new Busy Body Fitness just opened up, and you want directions to it, yet the system doesn't know about it yet OR you've got a big property and you notice that the nav doesn't quite really know where you house is exactly, read on...

The new Tesla nav is based on Open Street Map, which is like a wikipedia for geomaps. Anyone can get an edit account and make changes. I made a change yesterday to my neighborhood and it showed up in my Tesla today.

Go to OpenStreetMap and create an account. I'd recommend spending the 10 minutes or so going through their tutorial, it is fast and worth it. Enjoy!

 

[ponzu]

Is this correct? As an early (and lapsed) OSM user and contributor, I would be both excited and afraid if this is true.

Couldn't find many recent and/or credible news stories about this. This story from March Tesla’s new navigation system will roll out this weekend does not mention OSM. This one from a year ago mentions MapBox, which works on top of OSM. This Go Anywhere | Tesla is Google-based. I realize web map tool does not have to match the in-car nav, but I would feel more credulous if it was OSM.

Give us more details, please.

A screenshot of your updated nav screen (I don't have the car yet) showing MapBox or OSM copyright would be good. As would be a demo of adding something to OSM and seeing it appear in Tesla nav, kind of like what you describe.

I personally would have been more excited if they leveraged Waze map (not to mention traffic). I believe it has a lot more active contributors.

Still, if the news is accurate, I am looking forward to going back to my OSM contributing days and improving the map both for myself and others in the area.

 

[TexasEV]

This sounds scary if a change you entered showed up in the car nav shortly afterwards. Seems like this could cause all kinds of mischief. Do we really want to rely on a map change that some random person entered, that could be wrong either intentionally or unintentionally?

 

[ponzu]

The power of crowdsourcing. Something added incorrectly will be noticed and corrected. Perhaps by you. Perhaps by someone else. Overtime, more good edits and additions will be made (and not challenged) than bad, improving the accuracy and value of the map.

Waze allows users to mark street closures due to construction and events in real time. I wish OSM/Tesla had that.

Or rather, as I stated above, I wish Tesla went straight to Waze. Which is crowdsourced both for the geodata and the real time conditions.

But yes, I, too called this development, if true, scary. Scary doesn’t necessarily mean wrong. Just another degree of exciting.

 

[Cosmacelf]

Is this correct? As an early (and lapsed) OSM user and contributor, I would be both excited and afraid if this is true.

Couldn't find many recent and/or credible news stories about this. This story from March Tesla’s new navigation system will roll out this weekend does not mention OSM. This one from a year ago mentions MapBox, which works on top of OSM. This Go Anywhere | Tesla is Google-based. I realize web map tool does not have to match the in-car nav, but I would feel more credulous if it was OSM.

Give us more details, please.

A screenshot of your updated nav screen (I don't have the car yet) showing MapBox or OSM copyright would be good. As would be a demo of adding something to OSM and seeing it appear in Tesla nav, kind of like what you describe.

I personally would have been more excited if they leveraged Waze map (not to mention traffic). I believe it has a lot more active contributors.

Still, if the news is accurate, I am looking forward to going back to my OSM contributing days and improving the map both for myself and others in the area.

I don’t know what more I can say. I’m not going to go to the trouble of proving it to you. In my case, there was an adjacent street that wasn’t drawn correctly. It extended too far and the the Tesla nav thought I could drive onto it from my house. I corrected that street, and the day after, the Tesla nav no longer shows the adjacent street right beside my house.

It is easy for you to test it. If you don’t want to muck up the map, just find a business that you know is around town that can’t be located from the nav search box. Then go into Open Maps and add the business at the correct address.

 

[ponzu]

I don’t know what more I can say. I’m not going to go to the trouble of proving it to you. In my case, there was an adjacent street that wasn’t drawn correctly. It extended too far and the the Tesla nav thought I could drive onto it from my house. I corrected that street, and the day after, the Tesla nav no longer shows the adjacent street right beside my house.

It is easy for you to test it. If you don’t want to muck up the map, just find a business that you know is around town that can’t be located from the nav search box. Then go into Open Maps and add the business at the correct address.

I am not questionig how OSM works. But please understand that to someone familiar with OSM the news that Tesla adopted it as their nav platform is fairly incredible.

 

[Cosmacelf]

I am not questionig how OSM works. But please understand that to someone familiar with OSM the news that Tesla adopted it as their nav platform is fairly incredible.

Then please test it.

 

[ponzu]

I guess what I am saying is this should have been a much bigger deal, and so far it’s flying under the radar.

 

[ponzu]

Then please test it.

Don’t have the car yet. Can we see a shot of your nav screen please?

 

[Cosmacelf]

I guess what I am saying is this should have been a much bigger deal, and so far it’s flying under the radar.

With any luck, it’ll stay under the radar. Click bait idiots will screw up Open Maps just to say that they hacked Tesla. Hopefully Tesla has a QA step in there somewhere...

 

[ponzu]

Maybe MapBox is their QA. I read Tesla uses MapBox and MapBox uses OSM. I am not up to speed on what MapBox is or does. Hopefully, something good.

Otherwise, it’s like the other poster said. Scary.

 

[TexasEV]

With any luck, it’ll stay under the radar. Click bait idiots will screw up Open Maps just to say that they hacked Tesla. Hopefully Tesla has a QA step in there somewhere...

That was my concern about some random person changing a map. Crowdsourcing may eventually get a mistake fixed, but eventually isn’t good enough. I want a responsible person to be responsible for accuracy.

 

[Cosmacelf]

Aw crap, I take it all back. My nav is still messed up. I made a couple of assumptions and jumped to a conclusion. Please ignore this thread until and if I can figure out what’s going on.

 

[ponzu]

Way to cover up the biggest scoop of the year

 

[Cosmacelf]

Thanks

 

[ponzu]

Here Tesla releases new Waze-like crowdsourced traffic data with latest navigation update they say that Tesla's new nav system has Waze-like real time traffic feed from the fleet of other Teslas on the road. I don't know if that's enough data points for a reliable picture right now, but with the Model 3 ramp-up, at least in this area, you will soon not be able to swing a cat without hitting a Tesla.

MapBox and Valhalla are consistently mentioned, at least by Electrek. OSM is implied since both MapBox and Valhalla use it.

 

[bob_p]

Would be extremely valuable if Tesla could provide a way to fix the onboard maps - especially the speed limits (which are missing or incorrect in many areas).

At least the new NAV software is using a cloud server for routing - which should have relatively up-to-date maps, compared to the original NAV software that has been using maps at least 2 years old.

 

[ponzu]

If Tesla is using OSM for speed limit data, any one of us can update the speed limits from the OSM site (OSM.org). That’s what the original poster was suggesting. Tesla does not need to provide any additional tools. Though it may want to educate its users better.

I found a tool that I posted in the “Shadow braking” thread that shows primary road segments (such as freeways) with missing speed limit info.

 

[ponzu]

Tesla may also do well to provide a way to identify problem roads right from the nav screen.

Kind of like you have an “Send a report” icon in Waze that you can tap while driving when you see a pothole, street closure or get bad driving directions, and complete the details when you arrive at your destination or whenever time permits.

Incidentally, how does Tesla collect reports and suggestions such as this?

 

[Cosmacelf]

There is an email address that is listed in the nav update release notes, but I emailed them about my problem and all I got back was a generic “try rebooting your car”.