Tesla has deployed a software fix to its navigation system after a recent update to Supercharger naming conventions that caused confusion among owners.
The controversial update, which was rolled out earlier last week, replaced the traditional Geographic Site Names (e.g., “Lovelock, NV”) with Local Amenity Names (e.g., “Chevron” or “Target”). While it was intended to be a helpful change, it made long-distance trip planning nearly impossible. Drivers could no longer easily identify where a charger was located on a map, and instead saw a list of five “Wawas” or “Sheetz” without any useful context.
A Big Miss
In a rare public acknowledgement of a miss, Tesla’s Director of Charging, Max de Zegher, took to X to address the backlash directly, stating that Tesla should have waited until their updated UI was in place before launching the new names.
The new UI will show the Supercharger name in addition to a new line that includes the street and city the Supercharger is located in. When combined, the new Supercharging naming makes more sense, as users will have the common name and the city the Supercharger is located in. However, having just the new naming causes a lot of confusion.
The naming change should have happened at once, instead of in 2 sequential steps. That was a big miss on our end. We do listen to the community and we do course-correct fast. The accelerated fix rolled out last night. The Tesla App is updated and most in-car touchscreens should…
— Max (@MdeZegher) November 20, 2025
The Fix is Live
According to de Zegher, an accelerated fix was deployed to the Tesla App and in-vehicle trip planner late last week.
This immediate patch reverts the primary display to the more recognizable and user-friendly City/Town format that drivers are used to, ensuring that navigation remains intuitive during the upcoming holiday travel season.
All of these changes are made in Tesla’s API, which the Tesla app and vehicles request as needed, so there's no need for a software update.
Improvements Coming Soon
The original goal of the update - to let drivers know what amenities are at their stop and exactly which charger they’re going to - has not been entirely abandoned despite the public backlash. De Zegher confirmed that a more polished implementation will be coming sometime in December.
This new version will display both the primary name, remaining as the City/Location, and the secondary name, showing as the common site name or amenity.
This should provide a best-of-both-worlds approach that solves the ambiguity of which charger is where, without sacrificing the geographic context required for road trips.
