Elon Musk has dropped hints that Navigate on Autopilot may soon be able to automatically route Tesla owners to any location of their choice, through learned behavior.
In a tweet response to a Tesla owner who requested the feature, the Tesla CEO agrees that Navigate on Autopilot should be able to adapt to the driver’s preference and anticipate where they want to go during certain times of the day.
Navigate on Autopilot currently allows users to set two auto-route destinations: Work and Home. Drivers initially enter their work and home addresses and the system automatically guides them to these destinations depending on the time of the day.
However, some Tesla owners have found that they would like to have more control over which destinations they are automatically routed to. Tesla owner @Everman suggests a new feature that will allow drivers to set other Navigate on Autopilot destinations, such as schools, for instance.
Yeah, system should adapt to most likely destination & anticipate school, then work, if that’s owner preference
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 23, 2020
It’s not clear when the feature will be rolled out. However, since part of Musk’s Master Plan, Part Deux is to achieve true self-driving approved by regulators, Tesla owners should be able to add more auto-route destinations to Navigate on Autopilot in the future.
This isn’t the first time Tesla has responded to feature suggestions from customers. In October last year, Musk agreed to a feature that allows users to choose their own route. Navigate on Autopilot chooses the fastest, most energy-efficient route. But some Tesla owners are enjoying their time on the road so much that they would like to be able to take longer routes.
Tesla also introduced Joe Mode with the release of V10 in September last year. Joe Mode allows parents to turn the volume down on beeping alerts so they won’t disturb their kids sleeping in the car.
Navigate on Autopilot is part of Tesla’s Full Self-Driving Suite and continues to improve in its ability to perform lane changes, handle interchanges, and make exits, by way of Tesla’s evolving Neural Network.
To date, Navigate on Autopilot has proven itself adept at navigating rush hour on a busy highway with no driver intervention and maneuvering road construction zones with no lane lines. The driver assistance feature won Germany’s coveted Connected Car Innovation Award in 2019, besting other entries including BMW’s backup assistant and Mercedes-Benz’s AR-Navigation.
