Tesla now says it needs its own maps for FSD after years of dismissing maps
Tesla says it’s building its own maps to fix some of the most common problems with its “Full Self-Driving” system, including reading speed limits, parking, and choosing routes. The company’s head of AI described the effort on Tesla’s Q3 2026 earnings call.
It’s a notable shift for a company whose CEO spent years arguing that self-driving systems relying on maps are brittle. And it shows Tesla’s fleet is now doing the same job Waymo’s cars do: mapping the roads so the self-driving system knows what it can’t reliably figure out on its own.
Tesla fans argue that Waymo’s approach differs because it creates HD maps with lidar, but ultimately both are creating their own maps; if your argument is that Tesla’s maps are less well-defined and needed for driving for different reasons than Waymo’s, you don’t really have an argument.