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Tesla created secret team to suppress thousands of driving range complaints

reuters.com

291–300 of 769 posts

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

#292
post #256

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"I hate almost everything about it." Not owning a car only using rentals, I still think Tesla has the best and most intuitive UI. I can find everything easily, whereas in a SUVs from Skoda/VW/Audi/BMW/Renault/... it's hard to find things - at least for me. What I do hate about the Model Ys we rented is the noise! Wind/wheel noise is as loud at 100km/h as a BMW at 150km/h - I guess they do this to safe weight and incr…

>the best and most intuitive UI I think the best UI was before all the computer displays in cars. Everything operable without visual contact.

Plus consistency. The last time I drove a friend's tesla we spent a stupid amount of time sitting in the driveway trying to make a simple adjustment. The UX had changed and neither of us could find the option in the touchscreen menus. Even pulling out my phone and searching Tesla's documentation didn't work because it was out of date and wrong.

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

#293

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't quite get this. It was a round-trip thing right, like the overall net elevation change at the end of the day was 0, right? All that energy was stored as potential energy, they'd get it back rolling down the mountain. To my understanding a round-trip it shouldn't have made that much of an impact.

Regen braking is not 100% efficient, closer to 70-80%. So climbing a mountain and then going down the other side does cost more net energy than driving the same distance on flat ground. Also if the elevation change is such that you don’t have enough to get to the top, the amount you would regen on the way down doesn’t matter.

This isn't a question of regen braking through.

> climbing a mountain and then going down the other side does cost more net energy than driving the same distance on flat ground.

You say this, but your reasoning is regen braking? What if you never had to brake the entire way? Where did all the energy going going up the hill go? If I carry a sack of sand up a hill and drop it, the amount of energy it has falling is equal to the amount of energy lifting it up the hill. Why does this then magically change when that sack of sand is now a car?

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

#294
post #98

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I thought braking aggressively increases range.

Braking doesn't increase range. Rather the natural foot off pedal regen braking increases range. If you physically slam on brakes, I'm sure that doesn't help range.

That's a Tesla problem. They couldn't figure out blended braking. If I press the brake hard in my car, the regen goes to max possible.

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

#296
post #236

As a Tesla owner, I think the source of the confusion is the EPA range displayed in the HUD on the Tesla. We toggled ours to show the battery percentage, which is much more useful to us. We've never owned a gas vehicle that met it's EPA range and the Tesla is no different. No one takes EPA MPG * GALLONS of gas and expects it to be a real life estimate of range. Wind resistance increases EXPONENTIALLY with speed. Driv…

My 2021 Honda CR-V doesn’t get close to EPA MPG but the range calculator is still accurate to within maybe 15%. I’ve tested it a few times driving from Oakland to LA which is right around the full range of the car and it gets pretty close- even with a whole mountain range to drive over north of LA. It doesn’t appear to use EPA MPG for its estimates and it makes for a better experience.

Both Tesla and this seems to be veering into the territory that VW did back then with emissions.

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

#297

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".

I think it's basically some PM taking a stand at Tesla with the fact that there's just no good estimate possible without knowing the route, so they will always show EPA estimate. Any sane a Tesla driver changes that to show percent battery instead of range. As others have said the trip planner is excellent, within a percent or two even in winter conditions driving over passes etc.. Note that range changes a lot more…

The article says it was a mandate from Elon Musk. Not sure I believe the claim, but I'd also be surprised if he wasn't aware just how optimistic the EPA estimate is.

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

#298
post #126

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> 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.

Very few people attain EPA average efficiency, so insisting on putting a range indicator based on EPA averages seems silly.

Most ICE cars calculate range based on a long term average of a person's usage with some small amount of pessimism. Why should an EV do worse?

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

#299

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I pay way more attention to the range of my ICE car over my EV, because I need to actually go someplace out of my way to recharge it while my EV practically always has more range than I need every day. I spend more of my time recharging my ICE than I do my EV. It's way less convenient and I never know what the cost will be tomorrow. Meanwhile my electricity is on a fixed rate contract measured in years.

People who are worried about range on EVs are not worried about a usecase that looks like this, obviously. Home/work plug-in is amazing , and an underrated QOL improvement over ICE, but it’s just not relevant to most of the concern around EV range. Range concern comes from either not having a charger available as a matter of daily business (street parking) or from frequently going on very long drives.

> People who are worried about range on EVs are not worried about a usecase that looks like this, obviously.

But this use case covers the majority of drivers in the US.

The vast majority of people I've personally talked to concerned about range could absolutely charge at home and rarely drove more than even 100 miles.

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

#300
post #24

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[flagged]

You have it backwards. The car serves you. You should not have to serve the car (beyond universal, traditional things, like the need to maintain, insure, etc.). It’s reasonable to ask for a range estimate that’s not naively optimistic.

> The car serves you.

Physics serves no one. It is.

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