Recommendations for car tracking on map

Configuration
1

Hi, I’ve got a device tracker that is used to track my OVMS enable car. The device was created by an automation using the device_tracker.see service, and then I think HA automatically created a known_devices.yaml configuration file.

I’ve added the device to maps, and things seem to work well enough, but I’d like to customize the appearance of the car on the map, as it shares an initial with another person, and the map card seems to only show initials. A couple of questions:

  1. I read that known_devices.yaml is deprecated. How am I supposed to create a trackable device without using the known_devices.yaml file? Understanding this seems critical to updating the image/name of the device. (The device_tracker.see automation responds to a latitude update sensor from the MQTT OVMS device, in case there’s some other integration I should be using)

  2. Is there a way to change what icons look like on the map card? My Map dashboard (hopefully the right term) shows people pictures correctly, but the map card on my main dashboard just shows one letter for each person. I just recently added pictures to people, so it might have just not updated yet?

  3. People are great for putting trackers with pictures. Is it correct to create a People person for my car, or is there some other recommended way to give the car a home on HA?

2

It has been deprecated a very long time.
Not sure it’s actually “true”.

Yes in known devices file add:

picture: /local/image.png

If you need a “home” then I suppose you need a persone entity for the car.
I’m not sure I would want that since it could create issues with other automations, but as long as you make sure the car is treated as a car and not a person then it should be fine I guess.