Routing Through Canada

[RHinCT]

I don't have a Tesla yet, though I may order within a week or so, but I know the first long trip once I get one will be from Connecticut to Michigan. I tried planning the supercharger route on the Tesla site. It took me through Canada. I tried EV Trip Planner. It took me through Canada. I tried A Better Routeplanner. It took me through Canada.

The border with Canada is CLOSED.

Is there a supercharger route planner that won't do that? If I buy a Tesla with the car's planner do the same thing?

Yes, I can add a stop in Toledo (for example) and get a Canada-free route. I was hoping for something simpler.

Thanks!

 

[srs5694]

I live in Rhode Island, so I just checked, and my Model 3's in-car navigation also routed through Canada when I told it to take me to Detroit. So does Google Maps, which I believe Tesla uses for its behind-the-scenes data. If I had to guess, I'd say that most car navigation systems would do the same thing. Yes, it'd be nice if they were smart enough to know not to take you across a closed border. At least they aren't (AFAIK) taking you onto an airport runway, as has been known to happen.

I think you'll just have to use the workaround of setting a waypoint somewhere appropriate in the US. Note that the Tesla's in-car navigation doesn't support waypoints (or didn't the last time I checked), but A Better Routeplanner does.

 

[RTPEV]

Well, yes, it would be nice if these trip planners did account for the closed border, but I'm willing to give them a bit of slack considering the COVID-19 restrictions are somewhat unique. I suppose it would be reasonable to expect a setting to disallow border crossings like it can to avoid toll roads and ferries, but again, this would be a fairly unique situation. Depending on where in CT and MI you are starting from/going to, under normal circumstances you would absolutely want to navigate through Canada to save hours worth of time.

You can always set "avoid" Superchargers in ABRP, and while I suspect this would work, it's not the easiest solution as you would have to set this for many Superchargers until you got a Canada free route. The solution to simply add a waypoint in Toledo, OH seems simplest and very straightforward. I wonder why you think that is difficult.

If this were me (and to get to your final question about whether the in-car nav would allow you to avoid Canada), this would be my workflow:

I am a big ABRP fan, so that is my preferred/primary routeplanner. The car's built in route planner is quite good as well, but I actually trust ABRP's more as it gives more relevant information, actually seems more accurate, and allows me to easily select alternative charging stops. So I always start with an ABRP plan and run it on the car's browser. Once I see the next charging stop, I will "share" it with my car (or just manually navigate to that Supercharger using voice commands) so that the car's navigation also displays the route and will pre-condition the battery as necessary. So normally the car doesn't have any idea what my final destination is (when I'm one or two Supercharger stops from home or final destination I may eventually put that into the car).

In your case, even if you wanted to use the car's nav system, and you knew you would be going through Toledo, you could just ask the car to navigate to Toledo until you got to a certain point (Wilkes-Barre, PA maybe?) where it would certainly not route you through Canada, and then use your actual final destination.

 

[Rocky_H]

Yes, I can add a stop in Toledo (for example) and get a Canada-free route. I was hoping for something simpler.

In your case, even if you wanted to use the car's nav system, and you knew you would be going through Toledo, you could just ask the car to navigate to Toledo until you got to a certain point (Wilkes-Barre, PA maybe?) where it would certainly not route you through Canada, and then use your actual final destination.

That is pretty simple. How much more simple do you need? If you pick one place a couple thousand miles away, yeah, it's going to pick one route, and if you don't like it, you'll have to force it on the path you want a bit by picking somewhere more specific that's closer. It's not bad. I usually navigate directly to the Supercharger one or two ahead anyway, because I don't like the car's tendency on very long route planning to sometimes to try to go with a parameter of fewest stops above all else, which sometimes does stupid things like trying to tell me to charge to nearly 100% and drive down to 4% in order to skip over a Supercharger stop, which is ridiculous.

So I have my general idea of what interstate route I'll be on and just pick the next couple of hops ahead.

 

[RHinCT]

Google Maps takes into consideration things like exits closed for construction. Taking into account closed borders, closed for a year, seems basic to me.

On my standard trip to visit in southern NJ from CT I cross the Hudson at the Tappan Zee bridge, and then 287 to the Garden State down to the NJ Turnpike. This keeps me away from NYC, which every mapping program takes me through. With Google Maps on a PC I can let it give me the route through NYC, then drag the line to the Tappan Zee bridge and magically I have the route I want.

But I found that in ABRP I can create a waypoint on the Tappan Zee Bridge, westbound. After that it routed me as I hoped. Score ten points for ABRP!

 

[srs5694]

Google Maps takes into consideration things like exits closed for construction. Taking into account closed borders, closed for a year, seems basic to me.

I'm speculating here, but it occurs to me that Google, et al., may not be forbidding routes through Canada because there are exceptions to the closed-border rule. Canadians returning home, for instance, can still cross the border, as I understand it. If Google were to close the border virtually, then such people would not be able to use Google Maps to plan their return trips (or they'd need to jump through extra hoops to do so).

That said, the number of people inappropriately affected in each scenario (US citizens being sent on an impossible route vs. Canadians being told they can't drive home) would likely render it more sensible to put the restrictions in place, but it's possible that this was Google, et al.'s, logic.

 

[Gasaraki]

That is pretty simple. How much more simple do you need? If you pick one place a couple thousand miles away, yeah, it's going to pick one route, and if you don't like it, you'll have to force it on the path you want a bit by picking somewhere more specific that's closer. It's not bad. I usually navigate directly to the Supercharger one or two ahead anyway, because I don't like the car's tendency on very long route planning to sometimes to try to go with a parameter of fewest stops above all else, which sometimes does stupid things like trying to tell me to charge to nearly 100% and drive down to 4% in order to skip over a Supercharger stop, which is ridiculous.

So I have my general idea of what interstate route I'll be on and just pick the next couple of hops ahead.

Imagine these people back in the day when you actually had to know how to read a paper map. They would die in the suburbs somewhere.

 

[Geezzer]

I have free unlimited supercharging on my MX registered in Michigan. Does any one know if I can expect to also have free unlimited supercharging if I travel into and thru Canada?