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Using the Nav to get to the SoDo Service Center - Not a good idea?

Was I just lucky?

  • I've seen that, too.

    Votes: 3 75.0%
  • It said what?!?!?

    Votes: 1 25.0%

  • Total voters
    4
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ibdb

Any excuse for a road trip
Apr 29, 2015
435
258
Puyallup, WA
Had our 1 year service appointment today. Plugged the Seattle Service Center into the Nav (it did pull up the correct address) and began our trek northward. The route was bizarre from the very start, but only got more and more nonsensical as we got closer to our destination. The Nav kept insisting that I get off of I-5 and take 405 to I-90. It kept insisting that I-90 was the preferred approach, and that I should head for I-90 east until I could take a U-turn and take I-90 back west again, right up until I hit the light at 6th and Brougham, which you might recognize as exactly where the service center is.

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As we sat at the light, the Nav wanted me to take a 13+ mile route, during morning rush hour traffic, to get across the street.

Tesla's suggestion was to turn off the traffic aware routing and see if that fixed things. What I want to know is if anyone else has had that kind of routing when approaching the SoDo Service center from parts south of the I-5/I-405 split in Tukwila? It might not even need to be that far south, given how close we were and still got those directions.
 
...and LA is not only Lower Alabama but also a city in California.

Nav does some weird things. Here in Northern Virginia, when going to Dulles (IAD) the route often takes you around to the back side of the airport. Then down a single lane service road that ends in a locked chain linked gate! I took it once just to see if it was a shortcut.

Additionally, it would be nice to have options that can be set such as toll/no toll roads and shortest distance/ shortest drive time before you depart. Although the last can almost be set when you exercise the option to reroute if delay takes more than XX minutes. This has saved me numerous times as I have it set for 15 minutes in our almost constant rush hours.
 
To answer the original post... Yes, I have seen the exact same issue with routing to the service center, or other addresses in that area. The Nav in the Tesla is totally crazy when it comes to that area. I don't know why. I had to shut it down and use my iPhone instead.
 
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Reactions: ibdb
Had the same problem with the Lexus navigation when we were heading over for delivery of the Tesla
I have never had one issue with our 6 year old Lexus. None, zero, zip. I could trust it to get us from point A to B and I had route choices, waypoints and traffic notifications. That's 6-8 year old technology. Really hope 8.0 gets here soon.
 
I believe the nav thinks that the service center is literally on the I-90 offramp. Thus the strange routing. Drop a pin just to the north and you'll be OK.
That would make sense, except that turning off the traffic aware option did result in a correct route when I tried again later. Something about the traffic aware data was turning an otherwise sensible route into a complete mess. Even if it had been trying to direct me to the I-90 ramp, there were a lot of ways to do it in less than 13 miles.

That particular morning I remember there being so many things about the suggested routing that were just flat out wrong and unlike any other time I'd traveled those same roads. It was, by far, the worst nav experience I'd ever had -- in any car, and using any program.
 
That would make sense, except that turning off the traffic aware option did result in a correct route when I tried again later. Something about the traffic aware data was turning an otherwise sensible route into a complete mess. Even if it had been trying to direct me to the I-90 ramp, there were a lot of ways to do it in less than 13 miles.

That particular morning I remember there being so many things about the suggested routing that were just flat out wrong and unlike any other time I'd traveled those same roads. It was, by far, the worst nav experience I'd ever had -- in any car, and using any program.
I guess you haven't used the Tesla Nav that much! I've experienced this same bug, but it doesn't register in the top 10 of stupid routes the nav has tried to put me on. It's just awful software for 2017 or even 2012 when the Model S was brand new. No other way to put it.

FWIW I never toggled the traffic aware data and I've had both good directions and bad directions when going to/from the Seattle service center, so I'm not sure your guess about the traffic aware data causing the problem is correct. Correlation often does not equal causation.

Last time I left the service center, I was trying to go to Wallingford so north on I-5. The nav wanted me to get on I-90 and then take the first offramp to I-5. I do believe it was assuming that I was actually on I-90 which was about 50 feet above me in the air. That entire interchange is relatively new and I'm not all that familiar with it so I was actually thinking there must be some secret way to get on I-90 from there. I drove circles around that intersection for a bit until I figured out the nav was just being stupid again.