Does anyone here use a Garmin GPS to replace / supplement the native navigation?

[hmadsen]

In our case all stops have actually been on our route, so no complaints yet on that front. Your experience would certainly be annoying. I recall that the supercharger routing algorithm tries to distribute drivers across superchargers, so what looks optimal in isolation may have other factors that cause the nav system to route you differently.

Yeah i understand the logic behind trying to distribute the drivers.

We chose to opt for chargers closer to the motorway and with less SOT and also 250KW chargers.

To be fair, only once were we forced to wait for 10 minutes because the chargers were all occupied, this was at a 16 150KW charger site that was full so only 75KW, but right next to it, was a construction site, and i think it was 24 concrete foundations for 250 KW, V3 chargers, so Tesla is obviously very proactive when it comes to upgrading sites that has a high usage rate.

It would be great though on such sites, where they have both 150 KW chargers and 250 KW Chargers (If they do not remove the 150 KW chargers) to actually reserve the 250 KW chargers for Tesla's and other cars that can charge at a faster rate than 150 KW.

I have seen more than a few instances where free 250KW Chargers could not be used because someone with a "Not a tesla" had their charge port in the "wrong" side of the car and took up one stall, and the charger for the stall next to it.

That i think is going to be Tesla's next big problem, not they opened up the chargers for everyone. These V3 chargers really need longer charging cables or maybe force owners of "Not a tesla" cars to buy an extender cable to be able to use the chargers.

 

[unk45]

Since the first GPS certified IFR nav system, Garmin GNS80, i bought one in 1992 and subsequently became a devoted Garmin aircraft nav customer, for everything from a TB21 Trinidad, several Robinson helicopters, even Lear and Citations. Logically I bought car units too.
The biggest pro for Garmin car units, for me is the ability to choose shortest distance, shortest time or scenic. That shortest distance has given memorable choices over dirt roads to a French abbey, vs shortest time was twice as long on Autoroutes. Garmin allows such choices.

For display I’m agnostic. I use Tesla mostly, but Google/Waze is better in dense urban conditions (I use it always in Rio de Janeiro not for Nav but for traffic conditions. In US I use Tesla, but back up with Google/Waze to be uptominute traffic.

For charging locations only Tesla! Outside TeslaWorld I’m forced to a potpourri of not-very-good options.

 

[LostVector]

Yeah i understand the logic behind trying to distribute the drivers.

We chose to opt for chargers closer to the motorway and with less SOT and also 250KW chargers.

To be fair, only once were we forced to wait for 10 minutes because the chargers were all occupied, this was at a 16 150KW charger site that was full so only 75KW, but right next to it, was a construction site, and i think it was 24 concrete foundations for 250 KW, V3 chargers, so Tesla is obviously very proactive when it comes to upgrading sites that has a high usage rate.

It would be great though on such sites, where they have both 150 KW chargers and 250 KW Chargers (If they do not remove the 150 KW chargers) to actually reserve the 250 KW chargers for Tesla's and other cars that can charge at a faster rate than 150 KW.

I have seen more than a few instances where free 250KW Chargers could not be used because someone with a "Not a tesla" had their charge port in the "wrong" side of the car and took up one stall, and the charger for the stall next to it.

That i think is going to be Tesla's next big problem, not they opened up the chargers for everyone. These V3 chargers really need longer charging cables or maybe force owners of "Not a tesla" cars to buy an extender cable to be able to use the chargers.

Optimal allocation of cars to charging stalls would be nice. For example, there are sometimes one or two trailer friendly pull through stalls at a supercharger, and being able to pick those out for those who can actually use them would be really useful.

For now, it seems like the effort is going entirely into adding as many chargers as possible and not in optimizing how chargers get allocated. For sure the best approach is one where there are always enough stalls that you just don't have to think about it.

 

[hmadsen]

Optimal allocation of cars to charging stalls would be nice. For example, there are sometimes one or two trailer friendly pull through stalls at a supercharger, and being able to pick those out for those who can actually use them would be really useful.

For now, it seems like the effort is going entirely into adding as many chargers as possible and not in optimizing how chargers get allocated. For sure the best approach is one where there are always enough stalls that you just don't have to think about it.

To be honest i dont mind that they allow "not a tesla" at these chargers but if im being a bit selfish, i think they should make some sort of queue system where Tesla cars have preference over "Not a tesla"

If i am navigating to a Tesla supercharger site, i should be put into a virtual queue so that when i arrive i should be given preference over other brand cars, if the charger is full.

I know that sounds a bit entitled, but i do feel that there should be some preference for Tesla cars at Tesla chargers.

 

[LostVector]

To be honest i dont mind that they allow "not a tesla" at these chargers but if im being a bit selfish, i think they should make some sort of queue system where Tesla cars have preference over "Not a tesla"

If i am navigating to a Tesla supercharger site, i should be put into a virtual queue so that when i arrive i should be given preference over other brand cars, if the charger is full.

I know that sounds a bit entitled, but i do feel that there should be some preference for Tesla cars at Tesla chargers.

The easy charging experience is definitely a big reason for buying these cars. I don't think it's unreasonable to expect some priority having actually bought into the ecosystem with our hard earned money.

I've always been a bit puzzled by the lack of a formal line or queueing system for these charging sites. It seems like a recipe for conflicts and arguments. In practice, however, perhaps the trip planning algorithm and real time visibility of supercharger occupancy prevents these lines from forming. So far I've tried very hard to avoid full supercharger sites, so the feedback loop solves the problem for me in its own way.

 

[hmadsen]

The easy charging experience is definitely a big reason for buying these cars. I don't think it's unreasonable to expect some priority having actually bought into the ecosystem with our hard earned money.

I've always been a bit puzzled by the lack of a formal line or queueing system for these charging sites. It seems like a recipe for conflicts and arguments. In practice, however, perhaps the trip planning algorithm and real time visibility of supercharger occupancy prevents these lines from forming. So far I've tried very hard to avoid full supercharger sites, so the feedback loop solves the problem for me in its own way.

Yes i have never seen a "line" anywhere, and in the one place where i had to wait, a line formed rather nicely, but the only place the line could be formed, kind of impeded traffic a lot.

I think Tesla's thinking is...If there are lines at a place "often" they will just add more chargers.

That was certainly the case when i waited in line, they had 16 150 KW chargers there, and right next to them, were a construction site that had 24 concrete foundations for 250 KW chargers.

When these goes opererational i bet there will not be a line there for quite sometime.

 

[DanDi58]

So yes … I know it’s a first world problem, but the built in nav is just a little short of where I want it to be … so I’ve been considering throwing in a Garmin Drivesmart GPS?

Pros to the Tesla Nav
Built in range estimates
Integration with supercharger network

Cons to the Tesla Nav
stalls up without connectivity (I park in a underground garage)
Too many unnamed roads
Lane guidance comes very late and is not consistently available

Nav on my phone is much better, but offline is still not great and if I need to quickly check something for whatever reason, I’m having to multitask on the phone which I really do not want to do when driving.

So I’m thinking maybe a Garmin could be an improvement? Even tho there are clunky aspects to the software, it’s still a pretty customizable interface with many years in the Sat Nav space. The smaller model might even serve as a reasonable instrument cluster in the Y.

Thoughts?

 

[LostVector]

Added the BC40 to the front license plate. The mount is high quality and easy to use with the license plate. The camera has no anti theft features ... however, I don't think I'm at risk of theft with where we normally park, so I'm taking the risk for now.

I had to spend some time experimenting with the angle of the camera after mounting it. Right now I have it angled down quite a bit so that if a point on the ground passes out of view at the bottom, that means the bumper is just about to pass over it. Due to the angle and FOV of the lens, those last couple of inches move very quickly on the screen, but the idea works.

Some minor complaints are that:

1. The video obviously has to be turned on manually ... there's no integration with the car. There's a camera button that appears in the upper right UI, but you can also just voice prompt the video feed with "OK Garmin, show video". The voice prompting is acceptable to me.
2. The video takes a few seconds to spin up.
3. The camera could use more dynamic range ... it's often difficult to distinguish parking lines from the ground, especially in very dark or bright situations.
4. The camera is powered by AA batteries ... this is obviously a blessing and a curse. Not really a complaint per se but it will be some ongoing overhead. The specs say that battery life should be 2 to 3 months.

Overall tho ... still a keeper. A nice bonus to using the Garmin that I wasn't quite expecting.

 

[TheLex]

I have a Garmin RV770 that I repurpose from my F450, when I'm not using it to tow my fifth wheel. It's great because it generally never loses signal. Also having a second display allows me to run with one display zoomed in and the other zoomed out, which is useful when I'm somewhere where everything is quite a distance apart.