Photo: JayinShanghai
The Tesla mobile app in China includes a mobile trip planner, including the ability to search for and select waypoints from a driver’s mobile device, as shown in a video shared Wednesday by @JayinShanghai.
The video came in response to a thread from @WholeMarsBlog that started with them tweeting to Elon Musk that “it would be great to have the entire Tesla trip planner in the mobile app – waypoints, superchargers and all.”
Tesla Moblie App in China – Version: 4.4.2
Is it not the same worldwide Tesla App? $TSLA pic.twitter.com/ofNnMJecBp— Jay in Shanghai 电动 Jay (@JayinShanghai) December 30, 2021
In the same thread, Whole Mars Blog shared a photo of a direct message from a person who said they forwarded the info to someone at Tesla who said it was already a part of the mobile app in China, and was “hopefully coming soon” to the U.S. market.
One user in the thread pointed out that there could be limitations with regards to cost, since Tesla in the U.S. uses Google Maps API, which costs money, while Tesla in China uses Baidu Maps which they claim is free.
As a result, the user explained that someone at Tesla is likely working on the company’s own maps navigation program to cut costs and leverage its cars as data-collectors in the future.
Earlier this year, Tesla added an “add stop” feature to its in-car navigation system, after having been discovered in internal code by a Tesla hacker last year.
Tesla has been releasing some new features in China first, such as rear acoustic glass for the Model Y, along with AMD Ryzen chips, 12V lithium-ion batteries and more.
