Tesla announced plans to internally develop its own maps to resolve navigation issues and give owners more control over their routes. During the company's Q3 2026 earnings call, a question was raised regarding FSD (Full Self-Driving) navigation, particularly concerning speed limit recognition, parking, and route planning. These issues have repeatedly surfaced across different versions and appear to be quite challenging for Tesla's AI team. Ashok Elluswamy, head of Tesla's AI department, stated in response to the question, "You are absolutely right, we should not rely on external maps.
Therefore, we are building our own maps, but not in the way that OneMoreMap does. We are creating a completely new architecture, essentially an AI-based map and navigation."
He continued, "This will be fantastic. It will be integrated with voice. You can converse with it and request different routes. It will learn your personal preferences, along with the preferences of the entire fleet. The collective intelligence of all vehicles will flow into the map and navigation, making it super cool." Elluswamy noted that this issue should be resolved, and the maps should be available when version v15 begins deployment to customers. "In the coming months, this will completely take over all navigation functions, parking, and destination handling. It will understand your needs in driving tasks better than you do in some aspects and handle everything comprehensively."
Tesla to launch new AI map system to improve navigation functions
Tesla Summon performed quite well in FSD v14.3.2, but the navigation function may not have met expectations. Navigation has been one of the most obvious complaints about FSD; despite improvements, flaws still exist. Most of the time, FSD chooses routes that some drivers dislike, and Tesla is attempting to address this issue through route planning features in the summer 2026 update. Tesla currently relies on Google for map data, but it seems counterintuitive for the company to depend on a third party to resolve this issue.
These improvements will be welcomed, as route planning and navigation have long been pain points for many owners.