Just finished my first road trip - which was a 268 mile nail biter between Chicago and Detroit. Theoretically, I should have been able to make the trip without charging at the rated 270 mile range. But, I wanted a margin of safety so I borrowed a privately owned wall powered charger halfway to Chicago on the way back, and charged for almost 90 minutes (single charger, so that added about 42 miles of charge). That should have been more than enough, but it wasn't because my actual range was much less. I drove carefully the whole way back knowing I would end up running close. I avoided brake usage, glided slowly to stops, accelerated slowly, and stayed at the posted speed limits using cruise control whenever possible. Yet, I ended up barely making the 268 mile trip even with the added benefit of topping off to add 42 miles of charge (at the misleading "rated" range). I ended up turning off the navigation system and using my phone, because Tesla's navigation was worse than useless.
The problems I encountered were: (a) the navigation system makes it impossible to map out the shortest route, instead opting for high speed battery sucking freeways that took away many miles from my range before I realized it (on highways in cruise control when possible I got only about 360-375 wh/mile), (b) there is no way to overlay the remaining range with the route so I had to constantly calculate range in my head, (c) using the "rated" range was misleading, because my actual average range is about 360 (which seems pretty consistent with the rest of the world), (d) even when i realized I was in trouble range-wise, and slowed to 45-55 mph, I could not see the impact of that on range so I had no idea if I was going to make it (or not), and (e) I could not determine the impact of making a detour to charge more because there is no way to route using multiple destinations (or, better, charger to charger!).
This was all made worse by the fact that, if I didn't make it, I would have been abandoned somewhere between Gary and the South Side of Chicago. Not a great place to have to pull over and call for help.
This led to a very tense drive home. I ended up with zero miles at the end (turned from 1 mile left just as I pulled into the garage)!!
I hope the good folks at Tesla will consider my very painful trip and make a few very simple modifications to the nav system in the next firmware release:
(1) Add an option to route via the shortest mileage route (ideally, you could have "shortest mileage avoiding side streets and frequent stops" so as not to be routed into 25mph or high traffic zones; but any shortest route option would be a great add)
(2) Add an option for multiple destinations to permiting routing via chargers along the way (ideally, an automated routing solution that calculated the best chargers to use/stop at given the desired route would be amazing)
(3) Add an option to the Energy use app to use the "trip average" (trip a or trip b, should be user selectable) when showing range; and/or allow the user to input Wh/Mile for this purpose. An "ERC" (estimated range remaining) should be displayed at all times based on the real world trip datra or user input Wh/mile.
(4) Show range on the navigation system, with a warning zone (orange) and out of range zone (red) to indicate where the remaining ACTUAL range (at the above Wh/mile, not the misleading rated range) will require recharging (and possibly suggest charging stations when in the orange/red zone). The nav system should also display how much charging time will be required for a given charging station in order to complete the trip. Ideally, the nav system would display an Estimated Range Shortfall (ERS)
(5) Allow detours en route (for charging, or other purposes), and show the impact of each detour on ERC and ERS as defined above.
The problems I encountered were: (a) the navigation system makes it impossible to map out the shortest route, instead opting for high speed battery sucking freeways that took away many miles from my range before I realized it (on highways in cruise control when possible I got only about 360-375 wh/mile), (b) there is no way to overlay the remaining range with the route so I had to constantly calculate range in my head, (c) using the "rated" range was misleading, because my actual average range is about 360 (which seems pretty consistent with the rest of the world), (d) even when i realized I was in trouble range-wise, and slowed to 45-55 mph, I could not see the impact of that on range so I had no idea if I was going to make it (or not), and (e) I could not determine the impact of making a detour to charge more because there is no way to route using multiple destinations (or, better, charger to charger!).
This was all made worse by the fact that, if I didn't make it, I would have been abandoned somewhere between Gary and the South Side of Chicago. Not a great place to have to pull over and call for help.
This led to a very tense drive home. I ended up with zero miles at the end (turned from 1 mile left just as I pulled into the garage)!!
I hope the good folks at Tesla will consider my very painful trip and make a few very simple modifications to the nav system in the next firmware release:
(1) Add an option to route via the shortest mileage route (ideally, you could have "shortest mileage avoiding side streets and frequent stops" so as not to be routed into 25mph or high traffic zones; but any shortest route option would be a great add)
(2) Add an option for multiple destinations to permiting routing via chargers along the way (ideally, an automated routing solution that calculated the best chargers to use/stop at given the desired route would be amazing)
(3) Add an option to the Energy use app to use the "trip average" (trip a or trip b, should be user selectable) when showing range; and/or allow the user to input Wh/Mile for this purpose. An "ERC" (estimated range remaining) should be displayed at all times based on the real world trip datra or user input Wh/mile.
(4) Show range on the navigation system, with a warning zone (orange) and out of range zone (red) to indicate where the remaining ACTUAL range (at the above Wh/mile, not the misleading rated range) will require recharging (and possibly suggest charging stations when in the orange/red zone). The nav system should also display how much charging time will be required for a given charging station in order to complete the trip. Ideally, the nav system would display an Estimated Range Shortfall (ERS)
(5) Allow detours en route (for charging, or other purposes), and show the impact of each detour on ERC and ERS as defined above.