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UK-Specific Issues to be aware of?

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WannabeOwner

Well-Known Member
Nov 2, 2015
9,163
5,335
Suffolk, UK
Newbie question, not even got to the test drive stage yet :smile:

I have read on the forums that map display is an issue where there is no 3G coverage. I'm out in the sticks in East Anglia so that may be an issue for me. I drive regular journeys with SatNav on for two reasons - my mind wanders and without it I may sail past a turning!! but more importantly so that if there is congestion I can make a speedy decision for an alternate route - I've often come upon queuing traffic a few hundred yards before an exit and having the destination already in the system makes it much quicker, I think, to review the map for alternatives and ask SatNav for its suggested route-around. How would that play out if there was no 3G coverage at that location? (my understanding is that turn-by-turn continues to work, but there is no map display)

I do carry a map, and quite capable of using it!, but when driving solo I have found SatNav a huge advantage for this job.

If I have Satnav set up and lose 3G en-route and THEN miss a turning does the turn-by-turn have enough info to sort me out?

- - - Updated - - -

I'm probably being thick, but I can't see how to edit that post, sorry.

I meant to add: are there other issues specific to the UK that anyone can please alert me to?

Thanks.

- - - Updated - - -

Hahaha ... now I know how "edit post" works :smile:
 
If I have Satnav set up and lose 3G en-route and THEN miss a turning does the turn-by-turn have enough info to sort me out?

Yes, it can still recalculate new routes when offline. The nav loses three things when there's no 3G:

  1. The big map display goes partly blank (unless it happens to have cached the piece of map you are looking at at the right zoom level).
  2. Traffic-sensitive routing obviously can't be updated - continues working like a standard stand-alone satnav.
  3. Ability to enter new destinations using Google search. This is the big issue, because with a flaky connection (as you get in much of rural East Anglia where O2 has only 2G coverage...) that's the only way to input a new destination. If there's no coverage at all, then it offers a basic street-address entry, but if it thinks there's some sort of internet connection it insists on using Google even if it doesn't work. In either case, you can still select destinations from favourites/superchargers/the 'history list' of previous destinations, which offers some degree of a work-around.
 
Thanks, very helpful.

If there's no coverage at all, then it offers a basic street-address entry

Isn't that good enough in all instances? My current in-car SatNav only offers "input address or postcode", or are am I misunderstanding and actually it is brain-dead when it thinks O2 is going to give it a 3G signal, and then doesn't get one, and at such times there is no "input address" capability at all?
 
Isn't that good enough in all instances? My current in-car SatNav only offers "input address or postcode", or are am I misunderstanding and actually it is brain-dead when it thinks O2 is going to give it a 3G signal, and then doesn't get one, and at such times there is no "input address" capability at all?

That is exactly the issue - it could so easily pop up the address entry when Google fails, but it doesn't, just giving you an error box instead.
 
Are there any options to use an alternative carrier? Like switching a sim card or connecting to an external wifi?

O2's 3G network is weak sauce. 3 is miles better and EE is also better (for 3G).

You can carry a MiFi and connect it to the car, or indeed tether the car to your phone if your phone/bundle supports it. Both those work well.

In response to complaints, Tesla have in theory enabled roaming onto EE for more coverage, but unfortunately it doesn't really work - the radio in the car only considers roaming when it's lost the original network altogether, while the problem in many places (my experience mostly in East Anglia) is that O2 has loads of coverage but it's all 2G with a data channel so slow it's worse than useless.
 
I was told by Tesla on Tuesday that the eu contract with Telefonica was being re-tendered. Also hopefully the fact that 3 are buying O2 might open up the default network for the sim. Also I understand from the mighty inter web that new cars are being supplied with LTE (4G) and that older cars can be upgraded by SC.