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On board maps with no cell coverage? Are they stored somewhere in the system?

RivianXpress

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Curious if the USA maps (roads, trails, terrain, etc.) are stored locally in the vehicle system somewhere like the old school Navs that used a disc. Does anyone know if this is the case? I can't imagine needing cell coverage to navigate or explore in a vehicle that is geared towards adventuring.

My Garmin units are invaluable for this when I ride motorcycles. There are countless times when cell coverage is non existent on the street and almost always off road. A cell phone without a downloaded map is useless and grabbing every map needed is too much work.

I'm not sure how Tesla does it but I do recall that trying to navigate with the Model 3 when initiating a drive in a spot with no cell coverage means a lot of the maps is missing on the screen and not sure how it can correctly locate the car.

I can't image that Rivian created their own maps and a connection to a satellite system like Garmin has. Can anyone shed some light on this? I really don't want to hook up a Garmin in my Rivian to navigate off road or out of cell range.
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Pherdnut

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Curious if the USA maps (roads, trails, terrain, etc.) are stored locally in the vehicle system somewhere like the old school Navs that used a disc. Does anyone know if this is the case? I can't imagine needing cell coverage to navigate or explore in a vehicle that is geared towards adventuring.

My Garmin units are invaluable for this when I ride motorcycles. There are countless times when cell coverage is non existent on the street and almost always off road. A cell phone without a downloaded map is useless and grabbing every map needed is too much work.

I'm not sure how Tesla does it but I do recall that trying to navigate with the Model 3 when initiating a drive in a spot with no cell coverage means a lot of the maps is missing on the screen and not sure how it can correctly locate the car.

I can't image that Rivian created their own maps and a connection to a satellite system like Garmin has. Can anyone shed some light on this? I really don't want to hook up a Garmin in my Rivian to navigate off road or out of cell range.
I think even Tom-Tom stored data onboard.
 

CommodoreAmiga

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I'm not sure how Tesla does it but I do recall that trying to navigate with the Model 3 when initiating a drive in a spot with no cell coverage means a lot of the maps is missing on the screen and not sure how it can correctly locate the car.
Cars use GPS to know their position. They don't exclusively use cellular for this. In fact, most don't use cellular for location, at all... Although some may (like Tesla, perhaps) use cell tower data to augment/assist with faster initial GPS location lock. This is known as Assisted GPS or AGPS. The GPS satellites still provide the primary location information, however, and can do so even without cellular signal.

I can't image that Rivian created their own maps and a connection to a satellite system like Garmin has. Can anyone shed some light on this? I really don't want to hook up a Garmin in my Rivian to navigate off road or out of cell range.
Rivian is using MapBox. Some of MapBox's clients include Strava, Porsche, Land Rover, and General Motors. I don't know if Rivian stores basic maps onboard, but other automotive companies that use MapBox do, so it's reasonable to think Rivian will, as well. Some features -- such as satellite views and current charger occupancy information will require connectivity, but I think it's likely that basic mapping functions will be available without cellular coverage.
 

SANZC02

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I recall seeing the map in photos and videos during the reviews where they looked like they would not have cell service. I took that as a positive thing but not definitive.
 

NorthernOak

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I'm not sure how Tesla does it but I do recall that trying to navigate with the Model 3 when initiating a drive in a spot with no cell coverage means a lot of the maps is missing on the screen and not sure how it can correctly locate the car.
Recently was on a road trip with my Model 3 out to Yellowstone and Grand Teton National Parks. Starting in West Yellowstone in the mornings If I put in my destination in the park it would route just fine and load the whole map. Traffic data, turn by turn navigation, distance and arrival times all worked even when in the park and cell coverage was lost. Issue was the second I deviated from that route to see something of interest it all when to crap. I would still have "the blue line" to follow and a loaded map, but the car wouldn't know where I was so it would lose my distance to destination and arrival time along with turn by turn nav. In this particular instance I wasn't worried because I had looked over and known my routes ahead of time.

Also had issues when at various points inside the parks the car would get cell signal and I would pull up a new destination only for the car to tell me it couldn't find a route due to no service. "What do you mean no service? I can see you have 4 bars LTE right there!"

All that to say I hope Rivian has figured out how to have the car's navigation route you with and without signal, loaded/stored maps, doesn't mind you taking detours, etc.
 

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kylealden

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Pre-downloading and caching the map tiles for the route as soon as you set out would be relatively trivial. If you grab a couple miles in each directions you have most cases covered without needing much disk space (at least as long as you don't use the satmaps).

Cooler still would be a Trailforks or Garmin-like feature where you can download the vector data for an entire region via settings (even if it requires plugging in a storage device). Even if it can't be used for nav/POI data, being able to see trailheads and elevation data on the screen would be a huge boon.
 

Autolycus

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Google Maps allows you to download pretty large areas for offline use, and it even includes a pretty decent number of POI. It certainly doesn't have ALL of the POI, but it's still useful enough. It certainly doesn't have problems with giving offline directions or adjusting directions if you venture off the original route.

This shouldn't be hard to implement, even if it is not as good as full online maps.

Oh, and I wouldn't expect satellite tiles to be viewable offline, but I also don't think it would be crazy for the system to download the tiles around the vehicle and any routes that are input.
 

MilliM

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I know Volvo let’s you download various regions/maps for this exact reason, so I’d be shocked if Rivian didn’t allow for the same. Great question but I’m not worried that they’ll miss this.
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