What's everyone's take on our nav system?

[jerry33]

Compared to the one in the Prius or the Leaf the Tesla Nav is a dream. I suspect much of the difference of opinions is due to how the Nav is used. I don't plan my trips in the car, so many of the issues just don't exist for me. The two thing I would most like for the Nav system are:

Avoid toll roads

Route explanation (a popup with text such as "accident ahead" or "Supercharger congestion").

 

[RDoc]

IMHO, anything to do with charging on the NAV system is a complete mess and I've turned it off.

Beyond that, here are my complaints:

No waypoints
No alternate routes
The maps can't be cached, so if you go outside a good data connection, repainting is painfully slow.
The car icon is centered. In general I'm more interested in where I'm going than where I've been.
There's no way to pan and keep the car on the screen. Zooming by the +/- keys works, but the car is always centered, wasting half the screen and the keys are too small.
The list of turns takes up too much of the screen.

 

[tomp]

I now use waze much more than the Tesla app. I primarily use it going to/from work - for me, there are 3 different routes, and waze has seemed much better at determining which is the best option given traffic.
I also use waze anytime I am concerned about traffic. If I'm not concerned about traffic and just looking to find a place within town, it's easier to type into the Tesla app.

For long trips, I've used Tesla, but generally then I have already mapped out the route. So then I use it more for tracking distance and battery remaining.

 

[Sasmania]

I use the Nav a lot. For the most part, it works great, but there are some obvious, basic things it won't do or needs improvement:

1) ESPECIALLY on road trips, where you've never been in your life.... Avoid Toll Roads would be REALLY helpful...
2) Timing of the exit turn-off icons. You really need to pay attention as the "exit here" icon can often appear too far in advance and you may turn one street ahead of where you intended. Or, it might be helpful to have a greyed out Icon overlapping your exit icon to let you know you have to pass one exit before yours is actually next.
3) Hiccups with SC routing, making you go the wrong direction etc..
4) Voice Command not finding basic addresses to Tesla SC's, Service Centers, etc.
5) Multi-stop planning.

 

[tomp]

My biggest question (and frustration) with the Nav system is that I can't figure out how it determines which route to tell me to take. I have often had the Tesla route me from work to home, and then will not always take the route it suggests. Once I begin to deviate from the Tesla directions, the system recalculates the arrival time - which often ends up earlier than the time Tesla thought I'd get there with their route.
I guess my question is: does the Tesla algorithm optimize for time, or distance, or something else? Because in my experience it is neither time nor distance.

 

[BertL]

My biggest question (and frustration) with the Nav system is that I can't figure out how it determines which route to tell me to take. I have often had the Tesla route me from work to home, and then will not always take the route it suggests. Once I begin to deviate from the Tesla directions, the system recalculates the arrival time - which often ends up earlier than the time Tesla thought I'd get there with their route.
I guess my question is: does the Tesla algorithm optimize for time, or distance, or something else? Because in my experience it is neither time nor distance.

Sounds to me like you may have "Traffic Based Routing" ON if the route changes from time-to-time. If you don't want your Tesla to automatically reroute you based on traffic conditions and ensure it takes the same route, turn it OFF in Settings / Apps / Maps & Nav. ...but for your guess, it's all speculation as to what the algorithm really is under the covers -- Tesla does not provide the option to specify one over the other like some other brands do.

 

[CHGolferJim]

I've had my car less than a month, and have taken only two road trips involving interstates where traffic based rerouting might've been helpful. So far, my impression is it seems harder to notice highlights for traffic than with Google maps which has provided excellent reroutings with other cars. I'm tempted to compare both at once on a coming trip to southwest of Charlotte.

I greatly appreciate having the large screen and supportive map and turn lane directions on the dashboard, so it seems the car nav will probably work fine allowing for occasional traffic overrides from iPhone Google Maps. [Also need to check to see settings as Bert mentioned.]

Edit: duh, traffic re-routing was off as set by service center pre-delivery.

 

[jerry33]

My biggest question (and frustration) with the Nav system is that I can't figure out how it determines which route to tell me to take. I have often had the Tesla route me from work to home, and then will not always take the route it suggests. Once I begin to deviate from the Tesla directions, the system recalculates the arrival time - which often ends up earlier than the time Tesla thought I'd get there with their route.
I guess my question is: does the Tesla algorithm optimize for time, or distance, or something else? Because in my experience it is neither time nor distance.

As far as I can tell, it optimizes for time and takes traffic into account. But it doesn't seem to take traffic lights into consideration, so it doesn't always choose the best route.

 

[tomp]

That was my assumption. But I'm still confused why, if when coming out of work, I turn right instead of left, my car will recalculate and often then tell me the new direction I chose is faster.

As far as I can tell, it optimizes for time and takes traffic into account. But it doesn't seem to take traffic lights into consideration, so it doesn't always choose the best route.

- - - Updated - - -

That's correct, I believe I have traffic based routing on.

Sounds to me like you may have "Traffic Based Routing" ON if the route changes from time-to-time. If you don't want your Tesla to automatically reroute you based on traffic conditions and ensure it takes the same route, turn it OFF in Settings / Apps / Maps & Nav. ...but for your guess, it's all speculation as to what the algorithm really is under the covers -- Tesla does not provide the option to specify one over the other like some other brands do.

 

[BoldSharpe]

I WONT buy another Tesla until they allow third party apps like WAZE.
I will always use WAZE because I want thee most up to date traffic speeds and problems and NOTHING bests thousands of other drivers reporting in! Also I love knowing where cops are even if I'm not speeding it's fun to see how accurate it is.

You can't input a destination but this is a great solution to display incidents through the car's browser on the 17" touchscreen. It was developed by a fact200 on this forum. I used it on a road trip over Christmas and it worked great.

Waze for Tesla Incidents

You can also have Waze running in the background on your phone to give you audio notifications and share incidents.

 

[freeewilly]

Due to the 17" LCD screen, Tesla has the best NAV system compare with any other car's NAV system, even without any function, traffic report or navigation.

I use Waze (not car NAV) a lot, it's the best to take me from point A to point B, but Tesla map allows me to look the entire area without scrolling around.