NAV: Don't center car position

[Todd Burch]

Pilots have a saying, part of which goes like this: "There is nothing more useless than the runway behind you"...

On the NAV display, there's nothing more useless than the road I just drove on. Although the NAV display is large and great--the triangle signifying the car's position should not be centered, IMHO. I would rather devote most of the screen real estate to the space in front of me (the miles yet undriven).

So I propose the following, Tesla developers:

1. When navigating a route, most of the screen real estate should be devoted to the route ahead of the car's path of travel. If the route travels east, for instance, put the triangle (car position) near the left side of the screen.

2. When not navigating a route, keep somewhere around 75% of the screen devoted to the area ahead of the car's current path of travel.

Thoughts?

 

[Doug_G]

Good thinking. Currently if you have route guidance up, the left hand quarter of the screen is covered up. This is a bit annoying when you are traveling West.

 

[rbergquist]

I agree with the concept. When I thought about it on my last road trip I was thinking 2/3 forward, 1/3 back. Either option would be preferable to 50/50.

 

[ZBB]

Agree completely...

 

[kendallpb]

Pilots have a saying, part of which goes like this: "There is nothing more useless than the runway behind you"...

On the NAV display, there's nothing more useless than the road I just drove on. Although the NAV display is large and great--the triangle signifying the car's position should not be centered, IMHO. I would rather devote most of the screen real estate to the space in front of me (the miles yet undriven).

So I propose the following, Tesla developers:

1. When navigating a route, most of the screen real estate should be devoted to the route ahead of the car's path of travel. If the route travels east, for instance, put the triangle (car position) near the left side of the screen.

2. When not navigating a route, keep somewhere around 75% of the screen devoted to the area ahead of the car's current path of travel.

Thoughts?

I like half or two-thirds of this idea. I'd supplement #1 with this: If the route makes a lot of turns or what amounts to a u-turn, take that into account. Don't snap back 'n forth as I go around a sharp curve--if something like that's coming up, probably the car should be a little more centered, or the edge of the route should be near the edge of the screen. (Er, taking into account the list of directions on the left that covers up part of the map!)

I'm a little less convinced regarding #2, just because of the unpredictability of an route that's not actually being navigated. It seems like there could be more opportunity for curves, odd paths, u-turns, etc. that the computer wouldn't know about. So in this case, maybe put the car closer to center than in #1.

But over all, it's a great concept! (Especially as an option, of course.)

 

[Musterion]

Pilots have a saying, part of which goes like this: "There is nothing more useless than the runway behind you"...

On the NAV display, there's nothing more useless than the road I just drove on. Although the NAV display is large and great--the triangle signifying the car's position should not be centered, IMHO. I would rather devote most of the screen real estate to the space in front of me (the miles yet undriven).

So I propose the following, Tesla developers:

1. When navigating a route, most of the screen real estate should be devoted to the route ahead of the car's path of travel. If the route travels east, for instance, put the triangle (car position) near the left side of the screen.

2. When not navigating a route, keep somewhere around 75% of the screen devoted to the area ahead of the car's current path of travel.

Thoughts?

It is a good idea but in the current implementation of "north up" (which I happen to like, but others don't) it would be very impractical to implement your suggestions. Think about driving on a windy road or even doing a normal turn -- the center of the display would be constantly shifting.

On the other hand, once the pending "heads up" orientation display is activated, your suggestion would make sense in combination with that, since then the position of the car would remain fixed on the big screen -- say 1/4 or 1/3 from the bottom of the screen.

And by the way, on a route navigation, the 3D view is basically doing what you suggest (all area in current path of travel shown).

 

[strider]

Just make it like the turn-by-turn next to the speedo where car direction is up (instead of North) and then put the car in the lower third of the screen. My standalone Garmin unit does this.

I think it would be nauseating and distracting to have the map jumping around at every turn if you enabled the OP's suggestion with the current "North-up" mode.

UPDATE: Musterion beat me to it. +1

 

[gregincal]

Just make it like the turn-by-turn next to the speedo where car direction is up (instead of North) and then put the car in the lower third of the screen. My standalone Garmin unit does this.

I think it would be nauseating and distracting to have the map jumping around at every turn if you enabled the OP's suggestion with the current "North-up" mode.

UPDATE: Musterion beat me to it. +1

No more nauseating and distracting than the "car direction is up" mode.

 

[HHHH]

Makes total sense to me.

 

[Todd Burch]

It is a good idea but in the current implementation of "north up" (which I happen to like, but others don't) it would be very impractical to implement your suggestions. Think about driving on a windy road or even doing a normal turn -- the center of the display would be constantly shifting.

On the other hand, once the pending "heads up" orientation display is activated, your suggestion would make sense in combination with that, since then the position of the car would remain fixed on the big screen -- say 1/4 or 1/3 from the bottom of the screen.

And by the way, on a route navigation, the 3D view is basically doing what you suggest (all area in current path of travel shown).

You'd have to put some smarts and filtering into it. You wouldn't want it to be continuously shifting, obviously. But it can be done, and yes it would be better if track were up instead of north.