Tesla to Improve Supercharger Site Maps in App Over Time

Tesla has added Supercharger site maps to its mobile app and is planning ongoing refinements. Alex Guichet, a human interface designer for Tesla Energy and Charging, said the team prioritized delivering a useful tool for non-Tesla drivers over polishing every detail and noted that the experience will improve over time.

How the App Maps Work

The feature was introduced in app version 4.61.0. When you zoom in on a supported Supercharger, the standard map switches to Tesla’s stall layout, showing live occupancy and an overhead view of the site. In vehicles, it appears as a fully navigable 3D scene you can zoom and pan, whereas on phones it is a simpler top-down view.

Currently, zooming in switches the underlying map platform, which causes a brief stutter, and the vehicles are shown as flat sprites instead of full 3D models like in the vehicle.

Why Tesla Shipped It This Way

According to Guichet, the team is glad the layouts are in the app now so that everyone, including non-Tesla owners, can use Supercharger site maps. He said API limitations on the mobile map stack constrained what could be delivered initially, and the team chose to provide a usable stall map now rather than wait for a fully polished experience.

When asked whether the map platform might change in the future, Guichet did not disclose any specific products or timelines and stated, “We’ll know what the future brings when it ships.”

What Is Limited Today

The current app view is useful for trip planning. It shows the arrangement of stall rows and lanes and indicates which charging plugs are available before you arrive. However, you cannot rotate the scene or adjust camera angles as you can on the in-car screen. The app also displays the Cybercab correctly, while the in-vehicle software still shows it as a different Tesla model.

While the app layout is flatter and less flexible than the in-car view, it still provides real-time information for drivers. It appears Apple Maps APIs may not have been flexible enough to support full 3D models. It is not clear whether Tesla will switch to another map platform in the future or wait for Apple to improve API support.