Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Tesla created secret team to suppress thousands of driving range complaints

reuters.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

121–130 of 769 posts

Re: Tesla created secret team to suppress thousands of driving range complaints

#121

Post by Merad »

londons_explore wrote: post #16
jvanderbot wrote: post #8

I have a model Y. I hate almost everything about it. But most germane, The "Battery meter" at the top of the display is total bunk. That's got to be "rosy" numbers. It'll display a the battery in miles, but it's at least 25% inflated. However if you punch in a destination, you'll get exact numbers, and those are insanely reliable. It claims (and I don't believe any claims coming from tesla) that it'll factor wind, el…

Battery meter at the top is EPA range - ie. the official range measurement method, in basically ideal conditions. The routefinder 'learns' from your previous driving habits. Driving style easily has a 50% impact on range between "drives 50 mph slipstreaming behind a truck" and "drives 90 mph and brakes aggressively at every corner".

There's no reason why Tesla can't calculate the accurate range in both places, is there? My 2022 Toyota RAV4 Hybrid has a "distance to empty" number that "learns" based on your driving habits and typical mileage. It's not perfect, for example going on a road trip can throw it off (the hybrid gets significantly lower highway MPG than around town), but most of the time it's very accurate.

Re: Tesla created secret team to suppress thousands of driving range complaints

#122

Post by gonehome »

I don’t really get the range complaints at this point, with an ICE vehicle people rarely know their range they just look at a gauge for F to E.

With the superchargers, range doesn’t really have a material effect anymore and most of the time the network isn’t necessary anyway.

It’s not a real issue.

Re: Tesla created secret team to suppress thousands of driving range complaints

#123

Post by jmpman »

bilsbie wrote: post #77

It’s a controversial opinion but I really believe EV’s need 500 miles of range to truly compete with ICE vehicles. Think: batteries not fully charging or depleting for longevity concerns. Having to stop at chargers before range is out due to there not being another one coming up, extra headwinds, extra heat or AC, simply ending up at a broken or crowded charger and needing it to a different one, pulling a load, etc,…

I’d like to be able to go 200 miles at 85mph, and do it between 80% and 20% of charge (so I can supercharge quickly and not worry about range at the bottom end) That would equate to a single stop on my typical family road trip. That’s 333miles at 85mph. My Model 3 can’t do that. Hoping the high end Cybertruck can get close.

Re: Tesla created secret team to suppress thousands of driving range complaints

#124

Post by tekla »

rootusrootus wrote: post #99
tekla wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How does the Tesla know I'm going on a trip? Are you implying its strange that the Tesla can calculate a more accurate range estimate when you literally tell it where you want to go to its computer which can use map data to calculate energy usage, versus you just driving around in circles in a arbitrary area and the computer only can assume based on EPA average usage?

It doesn’t use average usage to calculate the remaining range, it uses EPA numbers which are 200 Wh/mi or less. Which, interestingly, is less than the consumption shown on the Monroney sticker. How they can show two contradictory numbers on the same official document is fascinating to me.

I meant EPA average usage

Re: Tesla created secret team to suppress thousands of driving range complaints

#125

Post by cevn »

londons_explore wrote: post #16
jvanderbot wrote: post #8

I have a model Y. I hate almost everything about it. But most germane, The "Battery meter" at the top of the display is total bunk. That's got to be "rosy" numbers. It'll display a the battery in miles, but it's at least 25% inflated. However if you punch in a destination, you'll get exact numbers, and those are insanely reliable. It claims (and I don't believe any claims coming from tesla) that it'll factor wind, el…

Battery meter at the top is EPA range - ie. the official range measurement method, in basically ideal conditions. The routefinder 'learns' from your previous driving habits. Driving style easily has a 50% impact on range between "drives 50 mph slipstreaming behind a truck" and "drives 90 mph and brakes aggressively at every corner".

It really does not learn. I have driven the same route to and from Richmond, VA as a range test over and over again since 2018.

My range is approx. 180 miles, in favorable conditions (summer, AC off). If it was actually accurate, as soon as you hit 70-80mph you would see your range half. Clearly that doesn't happen, so the estimator is off by ~40% for highway conditions, i.e. complete bullshit.

Re: Tesla created secret team to suppress thousands of driving range complaints

#126

Post by tekla »

cowsandmilk wrote: post #103
tekla wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How does the Tesla know I'm going on a trip? Are you implying its strange that the Tesla can calculate a more accurate range estimate when you literally tell it where you want to go to its computer which can use map data to calculate energy usage, versus you just driving around in circles in a arbitrary area and the computer only can assume based on EPA average usage?

> computer only can assume based on average usage It is clear from the discussion that it isn’t basing it on that at all. Would be overjoyed if it was based on average efficiency for the last 50 miles I drove. It isn’t.

I meant EPA average usage. And good it shouldn't.

Re: Tesla created secret team to suppress thousands of driving range complaints

#127

Post by huijzer »

jvanderbot wrote: post #8

I have a model Y. I hate almost everything about it. But most germane, The "Battery meter" at the top of the display is total bunk. That's got to be "rosy" numbers. It'll display a the battery in miles, but it's at least 25% inflated. However if you punch in a destination, you'll get exact numbers, and those are insanely reliable. It claims (and I don't believe any claims coming from tesla) that it'll factor wind, el…

> I have a model Y. I hate almost everything about it.

Can you tell more about this? I'm curious.

Re: Tesla created secret team to suppress thousands of driving range complaints

#128

Post by cmrdporcupine »

Merad wrote: post #121
londons_explore wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Battery meter at the top is EPA range - ie. the official range measurement method, in basically ideal conditions. The routefinder 'learns' from your previous driving habits. Driving style easily has a 50% impact on range between "drives 50 mph slipstreaming behind a truck" and "drives 90 mph and brakes aggressively at every corner".

There's no reason why Tesla can't calculate the accurate range in both places, is there? My 2022 Toyota RAV4 Hybrid has a "distance to empty" number that "learns" based on your driving habits and typical mileage. It's not perfect, for example going on a road trip can throw it off (the hybrid gets significantly lower highway MPG than around town), but most of the time it's very accurate.

Yeah, there's no reason they couldn't do that, and most other BEVs do that. The fact that Tesla doesn't is I'd say, disappointing? and likely to give EVs a bad name in the long run.

But could also reflect that this is a California company where they don't really have weather.

Re: Tesla created secret team to suppress thousands of driving range complaints

#129

Post by rhaway84773 »

aaomidi wrote: post #24
jvanderbot wrote: post #8

I have a model Y. I hate almost everything about it. But most germane, The "Battery meter" at the top of the display is total bunk. That's got to be "rosy" numbers. It'll display a the battery in miles, but it's at least 25% inflated. However if you punch in a destination, you'll get exact numbers, and those are insanely reliable. It claims (and I don't believe any claims coming from tesla) that it'll factor wind, el…

[flagged]

And “you’re holding it wrong” is equally wrong in this case.

Funny how somehow the millions who were “holding it wrong” were not holding the previous model wrong nor were holding the next model wrong.

And while all you’re saying about the driving range being affected by those factors is correct, if the car cannot accurately predict the range for this particular driver using some pretty simple historical data it should have then the Tesla’s shouldn’t display miles remaining.

Re: Tesla created secret team to suppress thousands of driving range complaints

#130

Post by herodotus »

wil421 wrote: post #42
PhilipA wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had a Tesla Model 3 which was very optimistic with the range. My BMW iX3 however is quite conservative and I can usually drive longer than the display states.

We don’t have the iX3 in the US (yet?). I was looking at the x5 plug in hybrid with ~40 miles electric range and the normal b58 straight 6 motor. My wife has the X7, we have 3 kids and hobbies so I’m not sure if even an i5 would work. The new X5 headlights are not my favorite. Do you like the BMW electric system?

I have the 330e Hybrid Plug in. The electric range on a full charge varies from about 28km to 44km (17-27 miles). When I do my usual around town driving, I never need to go off all-electric, so this range works perfectly for me. The range shown on the dash is slightly conservative. For example, I can get from suburban Vancouver to SFU (on top of Burnaby mountain), a distance of 24km with a couple of kilometres still showing, but I can get back home using only about 50% of the reported range. The up-hill portion of the drive versus the down-hill return journey makes a big difference.

When I recharge at home (using Level 2), the reported "full" values range from 28km to 44km. I cannot figure out why there is such a big range.

Post reply on HN