TEG

In a conventional ICE car, the accelerator pedal is commonly called the "gas pedal" (at least in the USA).

This is obviously inappropriate for the Tesla Roadster, so I think we should call it the "Torque Pedal".

I thought to just call it the accelerator pedal, but in the Roadster it can also cause deceleration when you let off due to regen.

In the Roadster, the pedal apparently sends a motor torque request to the PEM. The torque request goes from negative (for regen) to positive depending on pedal position.

(If the eMotor is above a certain RPM the PEM may restrict how much torque it actually asks the motor to make to make sure the eMotor stays happy)

AGR

You could call it the Torque Pedal... 8)

On a different note, will the brake lights turn on when you let off the positive torque, and get on the negative torque(by getting off the accelerator)

The regen braking when you get off the Torque Pedal and the car starts slowing down without the brake lights coming on presents an opportunity to get "rear ended" in a traffic situation.

tonybelding

I'm sure I read somewhere that regenerative braking activates the brake lights.

I still like "accelerator" pedal. Einstein taught us that acceleration and deceleration are the same thing anyhow -- it's al relative. :)

vfx

Torque Pedal.

I like it.

It differentiates from the common "gas" pedal but not in a super-nerdy way that would put people off.

Torque is a powerful word that really says something positive. It conveys movement and energy expended. It's also not so far out a technical word that Mrs. Jane housewife in the Midwest would not accept it. She would know that Torque is a "mechanical thing" but would not be confused or afraid of it.

Personally I have bee saying Accelerator -a word that is too long and too much of a mouthful.

Sometimes I use throttle which is pretty a good word but the only use I would have for that word besides in a car would be to describe the act of beating someone up (not a good association)

The word Torque is short, strong and MANLY with the harsh "T" and Q as a "K" sounds. When written the “ Q” itself looks a bit effeminate but since it’s not pronounced like the “Q” (QUA) in “Queen” but as a (KUH) sound it's OK. Combined with the (TUH) of the opening “T” the whole the word is very rugged and powerful

I would ask for it to be proven that the term Torque Pedal is technically accurate definition of what it does and why a "regular" ICE car pedal could not make the same claim.

Still though, I submit that all Tesla documentation and Marketing and Sales teams* adopt the term “Torque Pedal”. In fact, all future manufactured EVs should consider standardizing this important differentiating term.



*Like that Tesla guy in the UK showing the light blue Roadster in the video.

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The world loves to be deceived.

TEG

Have you visited the latest Tesla blog page? ;)

TeslaMotors: "A torque command is derived from the position of the throttle pedal. The motor controller converts this torque command into the appropriate 3-phase voltage and current waveforms to produce the commanded torque in the motor in the most efficient way. The torque command can be positive or negative. When the torque serves to slow the vehicle then energy is returned to the battery and presto - we have regenerative braking!"

doug

In general, I'm not a fan of inventing new terms when there are existing terms that are perfectly adequate and accurate. A change in velocity is an acceleration, be it positive or negative, so I would just call it the accelerator… something everyone understands.

I agree that “gas pedal” is inappropriate for obvious reasons. For that matter, “throttle” is also inaccurate since a throttle is literally something that regulates the flow of a fluid (either gas or liquid). But to use “torque pedal” doesn’t really add much and there’s no reason you couldn’t just as easily use that term with an ICE car. So again, I’d stick with accelerator.


"It can't be that difficult to figure out which pedal is the velocitator and which is the decceleratrix." -Mr. Burns

doug

I don't remember hearing about it from Tesla directly.* You might be thinking about the brake lights on the ACP eBox (fourth paragraph here).* As I recall, it took them some time to work out the appropriate deceleration threshold for when the brake lights should come on.* On the first iteration the brake lights came on too easily and adversely affected the behavior of the vehicles traveling behind.* The ACP eBox also has a little driver adjustable knob to control the level of regen, something Tesla seems reluctant to do for some reason.

AGR

The safety aspect of regenerative braking can become an issue. I certainly would not like to follow a vehicle where every time the driver takes his foot of the TorQ Predal or Accelerator that brake lights come on, with no idea of when he is putting his foot on the brake pedal.

There could be "regen buttons" on the steering wheel, which could be similar to downshifting a car with an ICE and a transmission. There could be several regen positions on the buttons, and once the TorQ pedal is depressed the regen positions defaults to 0.

TEG

By the way, the Prius & other Hybrids have an extra regen "gear" setting. So you can pick "D" for regular drive, or "B" for drive with enhanced regen.
Tesla apparently bumps up the regen when in 1st gear (as apposed to 2nd), but the Toyota system is purely a different software profile as they have a CVT gearbox.

The "throttle" term really does go with ICEmobiles. Old carburetors had "throttles" and "chokes" to basically starve the engine for air. The terminology goes so far to talk about engine breathing, etc.

Michael

I would think that letting up on the GO pedal should do nothing more than provide a similar feeling to that we would currently get by letting off the pedal on an ICE vehicle.

Pressing on the Brake pedal should be the only way that the brake lights activate, and the amount of pressure applied to the Brake pedal should control the amount of additional regen given up to the point that the batteries are incapable of accepting further input, at which time the braking switches over to physical brakes.

The above allows the current driving dynamic to remain consistent with what most people are already comfortable with and requires no further safety concerns with regards to when and how much a vehicle slows down and when the brake light should activate.