No GPS Maps without LTE or 3G Signal?

[Stanwood Steve]

I contacted Customer Support relative to an issue I had recently when I lost the cellular signal to the car (not all areas in my region are covered by LTE or 3G). I was in an unfamiliar area and found myself driving somewhat blind without any map visible on my screen (neither Google map view or standard map view). It was just a white screen with a red arrow in the center - no roads were shown). I was thinking this could be an issue for me if I'm driving on vacation in remote areas where there is no cellular signal. Seems hard to believe that a basic map version wouldn't be resident on the car's computer, so I contacted Customer Support to ask about it. This was their reply:

"Thank You for contacting Tesla Service Support! I apologize for any inconvenience this delayed response has caused.
We are very sorry that you had this experience with navigation, unfortunately that is the way our navigation is designed. If due to any reasons LTE, 3G signals disappear, our navigation will stop routing. I am going to file your concern with your permission to our engineers in Fremont so that they would be aware of this inconveniences.

Please let me know if you have any other questions or concerns, I will be more than happy to assist you."

Kind regards,

Vladimir T. | Tesla Support
12832 Frontrunner Blvd., Draper, UT 84020
www.tesla.com/support

Is this your understanding (that the car doesn't have basic maps in its computer?) I was thinking that since it updated maps via WiFi, it must have them on-board. Thoughts?

 

[iluvmacs]

Welcome to one of Tesla's biggest oversights in their cars. It blows my mind.

He did state one thing incorrectly though: it won't stop routing. If you have a destination set, it will continue to give you directions and show the blue guidance line, but you will not see any map. Furthermore, you can actually still even enter a destination when there is no connectivity -- you do, however, have to enter a full complete address rather than let it search/auto-complete for you. It will figure out the route, and direct you, but again, not show any maps, so it's still half-blind.

 

[Rsdavis9]

It would be nice if they had the option to download maps for my trip. Google maps does this I believe.

 

[ewoodrick]

It would be nice if they had the option to download maps for my trip. Google maps does this I believe.

Sure, your phone is quite capable of doing that, so do it. People always need to think of backup solutions.

 

[StealthP3D]

Our ski cabin is in an area that has no cellular service of any kind for many miles in any direction. When I first started driving my Model 3 there it would only show a basic (non-satellite) map with very little detail. Over time the map became more detailed and satellite view started working. There is still no cellular service but I have uninterrupted satellite view now every time I visit. My conclusion is that it is capable of holding maps in memory but I have no idea how it determines which ones to save. It will also show satellite maps in areas of no cellular coverage if you are able to pull over and connect to wi-fi.

 

[kengchang]

Set your destination before hand to minimize this issue.

 

[BrokerDon]

Sure, your phone is quite capable of doing that, so do it. People always need to think of backup solutions.

We drove 19,000 miles from SoCal, coast to coast across Canada and the northern U.S., and back to SoCal last summer in our Mercedes Sprinter RV primarily using Google Maps on our iPad to navigate. We HAD to download Google Maps for our route ahead since we frequently lost LTE coverage, usually in the most remote "off the grid" areas. We also used the iOS CoPilot app for back-up navigation when (not if) Google Maps missed roads or suggested a really illogical route.

Good luck expecting Tesla to add the ability to download Google Maps to our Teslas since:

1. the map downloads are large files
2. our Teslas are they're already memory limited
3. the iOS Google Maps downloads need to be refreshed / redownloaded manually every ~ 45 days. Tesla users rarely RTFM let alone manually do anything including simple stuff like checking their tire pressures.

Great idea but it has some serious headwinds to implement.

 

[coueyab]

Good luck expecting Tesla to add the ability to download Google Maps to our Teslas since:

1. the map downloads are large files
2. our Teslas are they're already memory limited
3. the iOS Google Maps downloads need to be refreshed / redownloaded manually every ~ 45 days. Tesla users rarely RTFM let alone manually do anything including simple stuff like checking their tire pressures.

Great idea but it has some serious headwinds to implement.

Actually this seems easy to solve as many owners already have large USB drives plugged in that the maps could save to if the car doesn't have the space... although a few custom downloaded areas does not equate to a lot of data. You won't have everything downloaded but you could plan for your trip and download what you need.