Not for me. I've had it circle destinations, take longer routes, and take me in the wrong direction a high percentage of the time. Definitely NOT energy saving.
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Blastphemy
Member
It's shocking to me that the thing that should be easiest to do right in this day and age - software and GUI - has somehow become the thing Tesla does worst! Competent programmers are a dime a dozen. To think that Tesla can't even program a navigation and audio system to function as well as a Ford Fusion just blows my mind.
I'm sure that Tesla could very easily match the navigation in a Ford Fusion by implementing/buying the same navigation system that has been in development for decades.
The issue is that Tesla want to distinguish themselves from everyone else. So, they end up writing stuff from scratch and trying to put their unique finger-print on their implementation. This means that initial implementations are lacking basic functionality until they get a chance to catch up.
Put another way, Ford Fusion navigation is at version 19.6. Tesla Navigation is only at version 2.8.
--Update--
Maybe it would have been better if Tesla acquired someone else's navigation solution until their solution was more fully baked, but I think that has bitten Tesla in the past. They tried it with the Roadster (would have been cheaper and quicker to build from scratch) and MobilEye.
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Wow. I just saw this thread. I am a new owner too. When I brought the car in for wind noise I mentioned that the navigation system is based on google. However google on my phone showed a shorter rout every time. The service center told me to take off the traffic guidance. I explained that my phone is basing it on traffic as well. They seem to stutter on some issues.
It's not based on Google. It's based on Garmin/Navigon (which are only updated every couple of years) and overlayed on Google Maps on the 17" screen.
LovelyCarrot
Member
One thing to check - I had to explicitly turn on the "Traffic based routing" in the Settings...Apps...Navigation screen. It was off by default.
I have much better success keeping it turned off. It's very inaccurate in traffic routing and gives you absolutely no indication that it rerouted you when it does.
Softwizard
Member
So the point of all this is a 6 figure car with the Navigation system with 1990 technology. Its really very sad. Some folks actually try to use the Navigation system but are left using the iphone instead. Yes it works but it shouldn't have too be used on a high end car.
I beg to (partially) differ on this. We have been re-routed a number of times, with a message popping up that says the route was changed to save XX minutes. Whether or not the route gets changed sometimes without such a notice, i cannot tell for sure.
And just to allay the fears of the newbies reading this thread, I would say that personally the navigation system has mostly been OK for me. I readily agree that once in awhile it chooses a different route from what I would, and as noted above it does readily change the route on the fly if you choose to proceed differently. (It is always interesting to see how much the projected arrival time changes if I deliberately force a different route. Often the change is small, meaning that the choice between the system's route and mine was a "close call." And once in awhile, I look at Google maps before I leave to see what routes and times it suggests; usually the Nav system is close even if it chooses one similar to one of Google's alternates.)
As a tip, it might be helpful to set the minimum time savings to 15 minutes or more, to avoid routings that are more circuitous.
The times when I have felt that the suggested route was not a good one were cases during heavy afternoon traffic when volumes and speeds deteriorate substantially over time. What I think must happen is that the calculated best route turns out not to look sensible or not to work well because the traffic gets so much worse that what seemed like a faster route to the algorithm turns out not to be.
I try to keep in mind that there is no way I can when I would have arrived using a different route from the one I took. So maybe the Nav system was correct even when it looked as if it wasn't....
I would suggest that new users use the navigation system on local trips they are very familiar with, to see what it does when you are not really dependent on it, so you can learn its quirks and be better prepared to assess its reliability for when you need to rely on it.
People (especially new people) trust what you read here so you won't be disappointed. If you really need to have confidence that you're getting the correct turn-by-turn directions use one of the phone apps you have confidence in (Google Maps, Apple Maps, Waze). The Tesla Nav system, according to Tesla Service people themselves and many people here is one of the most common complaints by new users. Hopefully they will finally fix it in 8.1.
One Problem is, the definition of a traffic congestion. I've seen it several times that some red lights on the main street of a village with medium traffic ist interpreted as congestion and the Nav recommended a long detour. Even when driving through is no Problem and not much of a delay.
The second Problem is the bad or old maps in Europe. The Nav can't realise when a road is not drivable, when a curvy road is more time consuming than a longer but straigther road.
But the Nav is not as bad as ist sounds and I did reach my destination every time.
There is just a tiny problem with that. You can pretty much count the companies that have good global map data for car routing with the fingers on one hand. And if you look at the pricing, well the German car manufacturers recently brought HERE maps for 3 billion. Nothing Tesla can afford in any way at this point.
I have contributed to OpenStreetMap and making your own maps is not easy. Getting the streets names right, the lanes, the turn restrictions it's a lot and not something you can just do with a bit of fleet learning.
My guess it that the big issue for Tesla is licensing costs. When the car manufacturers charge your hundred Dollars or more for new map data then sure they are making a nice profit on this, but you are also paying a nice chunk of money for the the data and the license. Tesla has more than 150000 cars on the road, $100 then suddenly comes with a several million dollar bill.
My guess is that Tesla at this point still likes the impression and selling point of free supercharging (yes I know included in the price and other stuff, too), free internet and free maps as well as free OTA updates.
dhcp
Member
Simply using Waze for the maps integration would be the cat's meow.
I'd imagine Google would happily license it for near-free in exchange for their ability to track user data as they do with the smartphone versions.
If there was monetization of the map product for existing users (is: we had to pay a monthly subscription fee) I could see Tesla pouring money into development but just trying to appease existing customers probably keeps it on the back burner.
I'd imagine Google would happily license it for near-free in exchange for their ability to track user data as they do with the smartphone versions.
If there was monetization of the map product for existing users (is: we had to pay a monthly subscription fee) I could see Tesla pouring money into development but just trying to appease existing customers probably keeps it on the back burner.
Other car manufacturers have figured this out. My Lexus, MB, Porsche all had accurate and full featured navigation. Nav is an essential driving tool and when they go mass market with the Model 3 this will be even more of a pain point than it is now.
Just wanted to state that when I had my X in for service last August, they didn't have any loaners and I got a sporty MB rental. The Navigation experience is so bad in MB that when my dad got his in September, he was forced to resort to setting up his phone for doing navigation and completely ignore the MB navigation system.
I don't mind the Tesla navigation system, it's almost as good as an aftermarket Garmin and I expect Tesla to improve navigation over time.
I have owned many Garmin products (e.g. Nuvi 770, Nuvi 3790T, Edge 500, Edge 800, etc.) but my latest automotive one is the Nuvi 2589LMT. I agree that their UI is simple, elegant and very effective. IMHO the Garmin Navigation is currently only slightly better than the built-in Tesla solution.
However, the Tesla solution is better is some regards:
- *much* bigger display make it easier to see
- display is more responsive (eg. pinch to zoom, scrolling, etc.)
- Google like search provides better search results when finding locations, especially names of businesses/places
- Tesla recalculates routes instantly, compared to the Garmin products taking 5-10 seconds (depending on complexity)
- I find the maps are updated (automatically) more often than Garmin's manually available updates every 3-4 months
- Tesla voice navigation sounds more natural than Garmin's
- Bluetooth phone connectivity is horrendous in Garmin products, Tesla works much better
Over time I've been getting used to the Tesla UI and I'm nearly at the point where I find the Garmin solution less desirable. And I expect that Tesla navigation will continue to improve over time.
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