Reading some of the issues people have interpreting what "rated range" and "ideal range" and "SOC" mean, and "do I have any reserve below 0?" and other things that go around in circles here, and after having driven a long road trip thinking about this... I propose a a new fuel display gauge that has no numbers on it. Just graphic. So it doesn't imply any distance for a given amount of charge. The charge just drops as you use it up. Here I'm indicated the state of charge as numbers on the right, but that's just as a reference for Model S owners who know these numbers.. Numbers would never be shown on the fuel display, just the graphic representation on the left.
Some design thoughts: imagine a line running horizontally through the middle of this graphic, this hits each "slash" line at it's midpoint. Count the number of slashes intersected and multiply by ten. That's the SOC % estimate for all the bars to the left of that point. The slash represents the variability in the estimate... if you imagine a vertical line at the mid intersecting point of each slash, then you see green above and vacancy below - meaning +/- 5% energy at that point. Giving a nod to "it's just a rough guess." The yellow on the 96-100 bar gives a clue that batteries are at maximum pressure and not a good place to stay. Note at the lower levels, things start to happen: when you drop lower than 26 you'd get a pop-up advising to "charge at your next stop" and yellow starts flashing slowing. When you drop below 16 you'd get a pop-up suggesting to "seek charging", and red is flashing slowly. When you drop below 6 you'd get a pop-up "stop and charge now" and red is rapidly flashing.
What do you think?
Some design thoughts: imagine a line running horizontally through the middle of this graphic, this hits each "slash" line at it's midpoint. Count the number of slashes intersected and multiply by ten. That's the SOC % estimate for all the bars to the left of that point. The slash represents the variability in the estimate... if you imagine a vertical line at the mid intersecting point of each slash, then you see green above and vacancy below - meaning +/- 5% energy at that point. Giving a nod to "it's just a rough guess." The yellow on the 96-100 bar gives a clue that batteries are at maximum pressure and not a good place to stay. Note at the lower levels, things start to happen: when you drop lower than 26 you'd get a pop-up advising to "charge at your next stop" and yellow starts flashing slowing. When you drop below 16 you'd get a pop-up suggesting to "seek charging", and red is flashing slowly. When you drop below 6 you'd get a pop-up "stop and charge now" and red is rapidly flashing.
What do you think?
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