navigation- Tesla navigation poor safer to use mobile phone with google maps

[hpartsch]

EAP/FSD will likely rely on the Tesla navigation software for routing. EAP is supposed to automatically change highways. FSD needs to know where it is going.


Technically, Tesla should be able to provide up-to-date map data, but to do that will require some major changes to the current navigation software - and hopefully Tesla is already working on that.

NOTE that in the FSD demo video, the console display is not showing a navigation route... The demo is not using the navigation software for routing...

Hopefully, they are working on it... I think that before my Tesla time the Tesla service center in Bellevue was in a different location. Anyways, my Tesla didn't know this on that last two tries and took me to the wrong/old location. That being said it took me a second time to remember it was wrong -- so I can't completely blame the computer . When the navigation improves substantially -- that's when I'll feel more confident in the self driving concept.

 

[jdobro]

Have most MS owners given up on the Tesla nav system? It's just awful. Wrong arrival time, incorrect routing, missing traffic issues. Seems like an easy fix to provide direct access to Waze or Google maps. Just frustrating.

 

[Kant.Ing]

I only use it when hopping Superchargers. For all other tasks, I use Google Maps in my Android phone.

 

[TaoJones]

I use Nav for trip routing across legs from SC to SC, watching carefully to ensure that it doesn’t automagically route me in reverse without so much as a courtesy reacharound. It happens. Would be nice if an alert popped up to advise of the arbitrary SC/destination change while en route,

Contemporaneously, Waze runs on my iPhone and is in view at all times.

Also, for a multi-leg/trip journey (e.g., coast to coast with a detour here and/or there), I’ll often have (iOS) Google Maps running in the background for an overall view end to end - mostly for time more than distance.

Waze has the added benefit of speed trap alerts. It’s been quite helpful countless times, and works well as a backup to a hard-wired radar/laser detector.

 

[FlyingCookie]

I love how my car will take me off the interstate, across the street, and right back onto the interstate... with absolutely no traffic anywhere in sight.

 

[jjh1234]

No gps unit or app is perfect. I’ve been screwed by all of them over the years, just at different locations.

 

[nowtleft]

The nav system is ridiculous - I cam back from Mancehster at 11pm last week and the route was correct but said 90 minutes (normally takes an hour). As I followed the route the time came down to match the 1 hour actual as I drove - how is this meant to help us navigate and does it affect supercharger recommendations on trips if it thinks it is further than it really is?
How can Tesla make the Roadster 2 but not manage to use a sat nav system correctly? Perhaps they are so busy playing with tech they forget to make current tech that works in other cars work?

 

[nowtleft]

No gps unit or app is perfect. I’ve been screwed by all of them over the years, just at different locations.

TomTom works fine!

 

[nowtleft]

I love how my car will take me off the interstate, across the street, and right back onto the interstate... with absolutely no traffic anywhere in sight.

Mine takes me off at a layby and back on again 300 yards later - I really do NOT want to stick a TomTom on my windscreen in my super hitech car but I will do soon as the Google system is not only bizarre but dangerous.

 

[Xenius]

I have it on for trips, because I know even if derpy it WILL get me where I'm going. However, I typically run google maps next to it and will follow it over tesla nav every time. Waze instead of google maps when I want to drive a little more.. quickly.

 

[bob_p]

There have been reports Tesla is working on a new navigation app, which may be running in the Model 3's and in S/X cars in some countries.

If true, then we just need to be a patient and wait for Tesla to release the new app to all cars - and then we can start a new round of comments about how that software falls short. (Maybe this will be included in the 9.0 release - which should be coming out soon...)

Looking into my crystal ball... Tesla will eventually shift to using a cloud-based routing app - which would do the routing on a cloud server using the most up-to-date data available (real-time, or close to real-time), and still provide the on-board navigation routing as a fallback when the car is offline, at least until the cloud server is available.

A huge advantage of the cloud approach is that it will be much easier to keep the cloud servers running using accurate data (maps, traffic, road conditions, weather, ...) than trying to keep the data up-to-date in all of the cars.

Until we get a better navigation app, I will continue to use the onboard navigation - though use it only as an advisor and ignore the routing when I suspect the software has made a poor choice.

 

[spooky981]

I wish car manufacturers would stop trying to be unique and just license Google Maps in their vehicles. There isn't a proprietary navigation system out there even half as good as Maps.

 

[nowtleft]

I wish car manufacturers would stop trying to be unique and just license Google Maps in their vehicles. There isn't a proprietary navigation system out there even half as good as Maps.

TomTom is infinately better than Google Maps.

 

[ron8853]

Our experience in the Phoenix area is the Tesla navigation has easily the best real time traffic data. Waze seems about 10 minutes behind and thus becomes a less efficient tool for high traffic times/routes.

 

[FlyingCookie]

I wish car manufacturers would stop trying to be unique and just license Google Maps in their vehicles. There isn't a proprietary navigation system out there even half as good as Maps.

Tesla can't do this, as they're using elevation data from Garmin (TomTom?) to do the energy predictions.

But still, somehow, half the time when I take a route it doesn't want me to, I get where i'm going sooner, I use less energy, and I feel less like I was beating my head against the unbreakable Semi windshield...

 

[jjh1234]

TomTom works fine!

Tom tom is not so good in the US. Its' Tele Atlas maps are more Europe based. Garmin is the opposite. They use Navteq, which is US based.

 

[jelloslug]

Have most MS owners given up on the Tesla nav system? It's just awful. Wrong arrival time, incorrect routing, missing traffic issues. Seems like an easy fix to provide direct access to Waze or Google maps. Just frustrating.

I have never seen any of those problems.

 

[BobbyKings]

This one is amazingly good for the Tesla. Always up to date, supercharger integration and (with login) planning from home and supercharger routing based on actual state of charge. Foto pop ups for directions. No spoken instructions as the only limitation.

A Better Routeplanner

 

[calisnow]

Have most MS owners given up on the Tesla nav system? It's just awful. Wrong arrival time, incorrect routing, missing traffic issues. Seems like an easy fix to provide direct access to Waze or Google maps. Just frustrating.

I still use it but if I have a time critical trip, or a long trip with non-obvious route options I will double check with Google maps nav on my phone.

 

[kavyboy]

I use the nav all the time, and rarely have a of problem. I'll do a quick review of the route first just to make sure it seems sane. For local roads, it sometimes chooses an odd route, but I just go the way I think I should go and it corrects itself en route. Often when it switches to "my" route, it's immediately all-around better (faster, short, less power).

For long trips, SC to SC, it's been nearly flawless. However, in those cases I check first Google maps to find the optimal route if SC stops were not involved. Then I check with both A Better Route Planner and EV Trip Planner to see how they compare to optimal. Those two sites often show different routes, both of which are worse than I can do myself. The in-car nav usually agrees with what I think is the best route.