Musk Says ‘Major Navigation Overhaul’ Coming in 2018

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said today that a “major navigation overhaul” is coming to Tesla vehicles in 2018.

Retweeting a TMC post, Musk teased “some cool software updates.”

https://twitter.com/x/status/943867218776899584

Pressed for more information, he said, “Major navigation overhaul coming in early 2018. Will be light-years ahead of current system, but we are testing it rigorously before rolling out.”

https://twitter.com/x/status/943878616454127616

Some updates in Tesla’s software code have hinted at an update to the maps system. TMC member and Tesla hacker verygreen discovered several interesting developments in Tesla’s software related to maps. For instance, code included in the 2017.44 software update enabled “vector maps.” He noted, “The looks are mostly the same, but it allows you to zoom quite a bit more and friends that tried it in-motion report much smoother operation + higher detailed maps on the big screen.”

What would you like to see in a maps update?

 

[lunitiks]

One small additional requirement: that the Navigation System does not get lost in long tunnels by assuming one is actually on the pass road above, thereby producing continuos senseless voice commands. Most 99 Sollar / Euros Nav Systems can do that, I do not understand why Tesla wouldn’t.

Your Tesla shouldn’t confuse a tunnel with a road above the tunnel - the lost GPS signal should be enough to verify you’re inside the tunnel. Read about Dead Reckoning in the M8L spec/paper

 

[HankLloydRight]

Whenever I go into a tunnel, I get this cool "tunnel" nav card in the instrument cluster.

 

[Drone Flyer]

How about getting rid of the Easter egg additions completely and concentrate solely on things we need such as Waypoints! Did I say Waypoints? Yes, I said Waypoints and a faster browser!
I would also like to see Waypoints added! Lol!
Bigger buttons on the phone dial would be nice too!
These are practical things we need. I just wish the junior programmers would mature enough to give us what's needed instead of trivial Easter eggs!
Speaking of Easter Eggs, Merry Christmas!

 

[HankLloydRight]

Yes... and JUST FIX THE MEDIA PLAYER ALREADY!

The time it took to draw, render, animate, and program this one easter egg (not to mention negotiate copyright licenses for the music), they could have knocked out a dozen glaring bugs in software that's actually broken.

 

[bonnie]

How about getting rid of the Easter egg additions completely and concentrate solely on things we need such as Waypoints! Did I say Waypoints? Yes, I said Waypoints and a faster browser!
I would also like to see Waypoints added! Lol!
Bigger buttons on the phone dial would be nice too!
These are practical things we need. I just wish the junior programmers would mature enough to give us what's needed instead of trivial Easter eggs!
Speaking of Easter Eggs, Merry Christmas!

It probably was junior programmers who did the Easter eggs. That's a great way to get them to demonstrate they know their way around the software before becoming team members. (The buttons are too small on the phone dial? Really??)

If a major rewrite of the software is going on, we're likely to see very little at the UI level until the rewrite is done (and 'done' means more than just coded ... tested, final validation). And then major improvements can be rolled out rather quickly on top of a stable platform.

I don't understand why some people think that effort for an Easter Egg is equivalent to anything else. Programming that stuff really is a 'welcome to Tesla now show us what you can do' kind of assignment. Years ago (like before 'world wide web years ago') to join the systems staff at CU Boulder, I had to program a Make Make script (props to those of you who go back that far). Did we need another Make Make script? Nope. Was it useful to the sys staff? Nope. But it demonstrated a level of competency.

 

[Drone Flyer]

It probably was junior programmers who did the Easter eggs. That's a great way to get them to demonstrate they know their way around the software before becoming team members. (The buttons are too small on the phone dial? Really??)

If a major rewrite of the software is going on, we're likely to see very little at the UI level until the rewrite is done (and 'done' means more than just coded ... tested, final validation). And then major improvements can be rolled out rather quickly on top of a stable platform.

I don't understand why some people think that effort for an Easter Egg is equivalent to anything else. Programming that stuff really is a 'welcome to Tesla now show us what you can do' kind of assignment. Years ago (like before 'world wide web years ago') to join the systems staff at CU Boulder, I had to program a Make Make script (props to those of you who go back that far). Did we need another Make Make script? Nope. Was it useful to the sys staff? Nope. But it demonstrated a level of competency.

Bonnie,
Yes, the phone buttons are too small! Have you tried pushing them while driving? Suppose you are on hold and you have to press 1 for this or 2 for that? Good luck!
Yes, the phone buttons need to be about two inches square in order for this to work perfectly. I know, voice activation helps, but you can't voice activate an extension.

 

[bonnie]

Bonnie,
Yes, the phone buttons are too small! Have you tried pushing them while driving? Suppose you are on hold and you have to press 1 for this or 2 for that? Good luck!
Yes, the phone buttons need to be about two inches square in order for this to work perfectly. I know, voice activation helps, but you can't voice activate an extension.

I've never had a problem.

 

[AnxietyRanger]

I would say both "sides" have a point. In reality the easter eggs may not directly be at the cost of anything else, but had similar effort been directed at, say, media player, it probably would have gotten fixed by now too.

The management obviously loves the Easter Eggs for the PR value, so they probably are mini-projects of their own, no longer just fun little coffee break thingies...

The UI has had a lot of stuff broken since 7.0 (2015 was it?) and all the effort that went into the Easter Eggs, had it gone to the UI instead, it all probably would have been fixed by now.

But I get it, it is not that simple.

 

[Drone Flyer]

I've never had a problem.

I'm talking highway speeds. The Tesla is not a Rolls Royce, it shakes and moves while on the highway.
There is just no way you can accurately hit the right button while driving unless by luck!
Tesla imho, really needs to evaluate this and make BIG buttons for dialing, in much the same way phones from Toys R Us are designed with big dial pads!

 

[AnxietyRanger]

After all, let's be honest: these are no longer Easter Eggs.

Easter Eggs are hidden secrets implemented by software developers as inside jokes or purely for fun. Many remain undiscovered for ages.

With Tesla the Easter Eggs have evolved into openly available features - and obviously intended as PR events.

Nothing wrong with that. But they aren't Easter Eggs in the traditional sense. They are stuff for people to gush over on TMC, Electrek, Engadget etc.

Heck, this update even got timed for Christmas for the Eater Egg. That speaks volumes of project planning.

 

[lunitiks]

Who says the easter eggs are done by ‘junior’ programmers?

They sure aren’t ‘junior’ announcements (ref. tweets by Elon, headline at Electrek) or a ‘junior’ annoyance (sound overriding everything else - no way to turn down volume). This time they even made an easter egg inside an easter egg!

Was the web browser also made by ‘junior’ programmers?

—- What they did with Easy Entry (buckle activated) is such a minor, minor little thing, but it makes a world of difference in practice. I bet that took a week or less to program, and was a piece of cake to do. Why not put their ‘juniors’ to do similar minor little upgrades, or an effing APP upgrade to let me remotely switch on rear window defroster, seat and steering wheel heater?

 

[BinaryField]

Easier: how about getting someone to write even some bad change notes for each release?

 

[AnxietyRanger]

Tesla lives - or at least they seem to feel that way - on constant hype and hubris.

These "Easter Eggs" add to hype and hubris.

 

[AnxietyRanger]

Easier: how about getting someone to write even some bad change notes for each release?

The changes are mostly bug fixes and performance changes (to worse at times), Tesla obviously remains intentionally secretive on those.

 

[lunitiks]

Easier: how about getting someone to write even some bad change notes for each release?

Mic drop

 

[bonnie]

Who says the easter eggs are done by ‘junior’ programmers?

They sure aren’t ‘junior’ announcements (ref. tweets by Elon, headline at Electrek) or a ‘junior’ annoyance (sound overriding everything else - no way to turn down volume). This time they even made an easter egg inside an easter egg!

Was the web browser also made by ‘junior’ programmers?

—- What they did with Easy Entry (buckle activated) is such a minor, minor little thing, but it makes a world of difference in practice. I bet that took a week or less to program, and was a piece of cake to do. Why not put their ‘juniors’ to do similar minor little upgrades, or an effing APP upgrade to let me remotely switch on rear window defroster, seat and steering wheel heater?

I'm absolutely sure you understood that I was surmising, based on past experience. I didn't mean to upset you. Apologies.

 

[AnxietyRanger]

Why not put their ‘juniors’ to do similar minor little upgrades, or an effing APP upgrade to let me remotely switch on rear window defroster, seat and steering wheel heater?

That is a good suggestion, thank you @lunitiks.

I would appreciate that more on a snowy Christmas morning than a Santa on my screen, for sure, but makers and users in California may disagree.

 

[skitown]

Tesla lives - or at least they seem to feel that way - on constant hype and hubris.

These "Easter Eggs" add to hype and hubris.

I'd have to disagree. Insinuating Tesla "lives" on "hype" (or feels that way) is laughable when you compare them to the rest of the ICE industry who needed to shovel $47 billion into advertising in 2015 to hype their offerings.

Volkswagen Group leads automotive spending on advertising

 

[AnxietyRanger]

I'd have to disagree. Insinuating Tesla "lives" on "hype" (or feels that way) is laughable when you compare them to the rest of the ICE industry who needed to shovel $47 billion into advertising in 2015 to hype their offerings.

Volkswagen Group leads automotive spending on advertising

Well, "lives" is not obviously to be taken literally.

But what I meant to insinuate - well, what I meant to say - is that Tesla seems to feel it important to market through constant events like this. A Christmas Easter Egg timed, planned and tweeted to take the social media by storm - that type of stuff. It is not a coincidence, nor is it just engineers having fun likely, as the original Easter Egg was...

 

[Kant.Ing]

Regarding the in car navigation system, if they want to fix bugs by doing this 'overhaul', go ahead. But if they want to be another Google Map currently we have, forget it. The only navigation system Tesla needs to do is FSD or for FSD.