Lack of Google Support Means Teslas Have No Sat-Nav in China

No wonder Chinese Tesla Model S owners are pissed; they’re buying a car that used to have no name and now ships without satellite navigation.

It’s not because Tesla is being lean with the options, but due to the fact that Google cannot be accessed from China, nor any of its auxiliary services, like Maps, which is what the Model S uses to guide its driver – keep in mind it’s sold as a premium luxury car, so this is quite a noticeable omission.

Apparently, Tesla is working on an alternative system for markets where Google is not available, but it’s not ready yet.

Even when they do complete work on this new Google-free system, they’ll still have some trouble spreading it around to owners, since “over-the-air software updates are not yet supported in Chinese Model S.”

This is all well and good in that they’re working on solving the problem. The only issue is timing, since they couldn’t have found out there’s no Google in China when they got there – they knew in advance but did nothing about it until it got noticed. Not one of Tesla’s best examples of positive customer experience, that’s for sure…

The can make the Chinese luxury EV buyers happy again, though, by giving them the long-wheelbase model they so evidently crave.

By Andrei Nedelea

Story References: China EV via Autoblog-com