Tesla: How to Set (and Change) Your Home Address in 3 Minutes

By Zac Ludicrous •  Updated: 05/01/22 •  12 min read
Credits to Tesla Dad

If you’ve owned a Tesla for quite some time, you already know how fantastic their navigation system is. 

But one of the underrated features of these EVs is their ability to remember where you live, work, and frequently go to. 

How do you set or change your home address in your Tesla Model 3 or Model Y, though? And do you set, change, or delete addresses the same way for the Model S and Model X?

That’s what we’re going to find out, and turns out, it’s pretty easy! You can do it in less than three minutes.

How to Initially Set Your Home or Work Address on Tesla Model 3/Y

tesla set home address
Pretty simple steps to follow that won’t waste your time. Credit to Pro Tesla

Why set up your home or work address when you do know where you live and work, right? 

The thing is, unlike ICE cars, your Tesla recognizes the locations you go to based on your usage patterns.

Your electric car would even prompt you to save these places.

If you haven’t configured your home or work address yet on your Model 3 or Model Y, here’s how to do it using your Tesla touch screen:

  1. On the top left corner of your touch screen’s map, you’ll see a search bar. Tap on it.
  2. Then you’ll see two main icons show up: Home and Work. Press on either one that you want to assign an address to.
  3. Next, there will be a pop-up that says Set Your Home Address or Set Your Work Address. It will give you a blank field where you can type in the address.
  4. After typing or selecting your address, click on Save as Home or Save as Work

And you’re all set up!

How to Change Your Home or Work Address on Tesla Model 3/Y

Your home and work addresses are already configured on your EV. But what if you moved to another state or region? Or work for a new company? Or maybe you want to update the address because it wasn’t set up properly and shows a different location on the map?

If you’re wondering how to change your home or work address on your Model 3 or Model Y, no need to worry because it’s also very easy.

  1. Tap on the Navigation search box from your Tesla touch screen.
  2. Press and hold Home or Work for two to three seconds and then there will be a pop-up.
  3. Tap on Clear Home or Clear Work so that the address you have there would be removed or deleted.
  4. You’ll be brought back to the same screen when you initially tapped on Navigate, but it would now say Set Home or Set Work. That means there’s no address assigned to it.
  5. Click on Set Home or Set Work and then type in the address you want to set it up with.
  6. Once done, just click on Save as Home or Save as Work.

You can watch this video to know what it looks like when you change or delete the home and work address you configured on your Tesla:

The steps start at 0:38.

Changing or removing your address is one way to secure your info in case you want to sell your Tesla. Rebooting your Tesla won’t do the trick, so you have to do a factory reset to erase any personal info you have on it.

How to Add Your Other Favorite Locations

Other than your home and work addresses, there are other important destinations that you can set on your Tesla. If you’re in college or you have kids, there’s school. If shopping is your guilty pleasure, then your favorite mall. And we all love food, so restaurants and cafes are a must!

But when you click on Navigate, it doesn’t really give you a way to add any other addresses aside from work and home.

It’s not obvious, but it’s right there… the blank field that lets you type and search a location.

Found it? Great! Follow these steps to add your favorite locations on your Tesla:

  1. Click on Navigate, and you’ll see a search field above the icon for home and work.
  2. Type the name of the place on the search field and then press the pin of the destination you prefer.
  3. Then you’ll see a pop-up that gives you the details of that destination. It includes the complete address, reviews, operating hours, and how far that place is from you. You’ll also have an option to navigate to or call that place.
  4. On that same pop-up, you’ll see a heart on the top-right corner. Click it.
  5. The next pop-up that says Name This Favorite allows you to rename it. For example, “Special Dinner Place.” Or you can simply use the default name provided; it’s up to you.
  6. Lastly, select Add to Favorites.

After that, it will bring you back to the previous pop-up message that has all the details of that destination. But if you’ll notice, the heart is now filled, darkened, or highlighted, which means it’s one of your favorites.

Once you go back to the map of your touch screen and click Navigate again, you’ll now see two sub-categories below Home and Work. It will show Recent and Favorites.

Click Favorites and you’ll see all your favorite locations.

You can also add other places you frequent in, such as multiple work destinations and addresses of family or relatives you often visit.

If one of those locations doesn’t deserve to be your favorite anymore, just press and hold it and swipe to the right. Unlike online dating apps, this means “buh-bye.”

Check out how you can add and remove your favorite locations on your Tesla in this video:

Skip to 1:06 to see how the steps are done from the Tesla touch screen.

Is the Process the Same in the Model S and Model X?

Adding, changing, and deleting the home and work address is the same for the Model 3, Model Y, Model S, and Model X

You’ll even see similar icons or options in these models for setting up addresses for your home, work, and favorite destinations. After all, they use the same software.

Benefits of Having Your Home and Work Set Correctly

For an intelligent car that learns where you live, especially if you’ve set up your home address, you also want it to learn your new address if you’ve relocated. This is also useful if you’ve changed careers or you’ve started working for a different company branch or division so that it knows your new work address.

When you set up your address, you can simply swipe the Navigate button when you’re heading home or to work. And as easy as that is, you want your intelligent car to know important information.

Setting your home and work address will be put to good use because your Tesla will:

Calculate Your Route

You’ll know when you’re going to reach your house, your office, or your chosen destination because it will show you how many miles and minutes it will take for you to get there. It will also show you how the traffic is! The good thing about this is you’ll know when you’re going to get there, which — I think — is a pretty neat feature!

Save Battery

This is another advantage when you have your home address or work address set up on your electric car as Sentry Mode consumes battery. From your EV’s touch screen, click on the car icon and select Safety & Security. If Sentry Mode is turned on, tick the boxes on the right to turn it off when you’re at home (Exclude Home), at work (Exclude Work), or at your favorite places (Exclude Favorites). Of course, that will be up to your preference.

Some Tesla owners said they’re having trouble with Sentry Mode turning on or off because of issues with the address. The solution to this is setting up the correct home and work address!

Allow You to Navigate on Autopilot

Now this is a cool feature that you’ll enjoy using when you have important addresses or destinations set up in your Tesla. Your car will actively guide your driving while you supervise. I want to emphasize that you should still be paying attention when this feature is activated because your car is just helping you, not taking over.

You’ll be given an option to use Navigate on Autopilot if it’s available on the specific destination or route you selected. Another way to turn it on is if you move the gear lever two times downward.

Watch this video to see how you can use this feature with your Model 3:

If your home or work address is set up, you can relax a tiny bit or drink your coffee while your car drives for you!

What If Your New Address Doesn’t Come Up?

If your new address isn’t showing up, I want to clarify that the issue is not with Tesla, but with Google Maps. It’s an easy fix using a desktop or mobile phone, but it may take some time before it becomes searchable on the map. Here’s what you need to do.

Request for Your New Address

Google Map Maker

Can’t find your address on Google Maps? Let them know the way! Credit to Bernard Goldback / Flickr.

Using Google Maps on your desktop, you’ll see a search field where you can type in your address. If you tried searching for the address but it doesn’t show up, remove specifics such as your house or apartment number. The marker should place you in the middle of the street your home is on.

From there, you can right click on the pin and select Report a data problem so it will open the pop-up for Send Feedback. Then choose Wrong pin location or address.

It will ask you for your complete address. Please make sure that you spell everything out. Don’t abbreviate because Google will automatically do that.

Another way to do it is by clicking on the three horizontal lines or Menu on the left top corner of the screen and selecting “Edit the Map”, then Wrong pin location or address.

Next, zoom in to the exact location of your new address and ensure that the pin is directly over it.

Click Done and then Send to submit your request.

To check on the status of your request, go to Contribute from the side panel, then Edits, and scroll down to see the status.

tesla set home address
Don’t hesitate to send feedback so you can make the most out of your Tesla’s features. Credit to Ermest / Connect Moderator

Adding Your Address on Google Maps Using Your Mobile

You can also add your address using your mobile phone. Once on Google Map, you’ll see you have options at the bottom.

  1. Tap on Contribute (the one with the “+” icon).
  2. Next, select Add Place and you’ll be asked for the complete address.
  3. Provide the necessary info. You’ll also see a map that gives you the option to edit the map location manually or to check if the pin is on the right spot.
  4. On the “Category” part, you can choose Residential or Office & industrial.
  5. Once you’ve double-checked the info and are ready to submit, click on the arrow on the right top corner of the screen.

You can also do this:

  1. Type in your specific or general address of your street on the search field.
  2. Choose the one that’s nearest to your house, and then it will show you the location and its image. Scroll down and you’ll see an option that says “Add a missing place.” Click it.
  3. It will take you back to the form part where it will ask you to provide the complete address.
  4. Don’t forget to make sure that the pin is on the exact place of your house.

After submitting your request, you’ll get a confirmation email. Keep it as it may be useful in the future, like if it takes more than a month for the map to get updated with your address or if your request gets incorrectly denied.

Temporarily Use Your Neighbor’s Address When Setting Up Your Tesla

Now what are you going to do while waiting for your address to be available via Google Maps? 

For the meantime, you can set up your neighbor’s address as your home address on your Tesla.

Once your address becomes searchable on Google Maps, update the one you have on your Tesla by following the steps we provided earlier.

Final Thoughts 

What are you waiting for? Go and set up your home and work address on your Tesla if you haven’t yet. If this is the first time you’re doing it, you’ll finally be able to appreciate the changes it can make.

You can navigate on Autopilot by simply tapping on your destination of choice, save battery as Sentry Mode is off when it’s charging in your garage, or enjoy having the knowledge of what your trip will be like when you swipe right or down to navigate to your home or work.

Zac Ludicrous

Mechanical engineer by profession. TSLA shareholder before the hype. EV enthusiast all day long. Zac enjoys learning about the future of battery technology, autonomy, and EVs. He considers Tesla Model 3 the most important vehicle of the 21st century -- and is in a quest to improve the ownership experience of every Model 3 owner he possibly can.

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