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Tesla created secret team to suppress thousands of driving range complaints

reuters.com

441–450 of 769 posts

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

#441
post #250

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> slow is fast, keep it at 60 if you want the milage meter to not die as quick This also works in petrol cars: the air resistance efficiency falloff is dramatic at higher speeds.

The use of AC / Heat will also just burn through your battery or your gas at a much faster rate.

Heating for ICE vehicles is free because it redirects engine heat.

If your engine is overheating, one of the things you should do is turn the heater on max.

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

#442

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If that's true, then it may be a matter of lingering perception. As an ICE car owner who lives in LA, I see plenty of charging stations, but not necessarily when I go on drives of hundreds of miles outside the city. Of course, I may be biased given that I don't need to pay active attention to vehicle chargers. But, for me, it would be a deal breaker if I couldn't be confident that my car could still be fuelled up in…

They're there if you need them - not always extremely visible though if you're not driving to one (can see the map here: https://www.tesla.com/supercharger ). If you got a Tesla you'd get a better sense for how many superchargers there are. What you're saying is relevant though and why until recently I didn't really consider non-Tesla EVs an option to recommend if it was your only car (though now that Tesla has pivot…

That's very impressive. I was totally unaware to the extent of where chargers have been placed. There's even a supercharger located in Green River, UT, which was exactly the kind of place I was picturing in my head.

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

#443

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If that's true, then it may be a matter of lingering perception. As an ICE car owner who lives in LA, I see plenty of charging stations, but not necessarily when I go on drives of hundreds of miles outside the city. Of course, I may be biased given that I don't need to pay active attention to vehicle chargers. But, for me, it would be a deal breaker if I couldn't be confident that my car could still be fuelled up in…

Anyone who thinks the utility of an EV is identical to an ICE car in the US is deluding themselves or never gets out of town. I’ll probably take 10 long car trips a year often for camping but sometimes visiting friends. I know that most of the areas I’m driving through when I go east do not have the infrastructure at all and even if they do they’re still a hassle to use and add a bunch of time to a long drive. My mom…

> or never gets out of town.

Or they just don't road trip when they get out of town, or "getting out of town" to them is within 100mi or so, or the corridors where they do tend to travel is well served with chargers, etc.

I don't know about you, but I don't usually tend to pack my car with me when I go on an airplane. Maybe you do?

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

#444

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…

For what it's worth, I have a Nissan standard petrol car and it's pretty much the same. Every time I fill it up, it says I have 400 miles of range, then by the time I've driven about 300 miles, I've only got a few miles of range left.

Interestingly the accuracy seems to get a lot better by the time I'm down to half a tank. I don't know if it's a sensor issue, or maybe my driving habits just change a lot when I have a full tank versus when I'm running low.

The type of driving and time I'm driving can also make a huge difference to my trip MPG - some trips I average about 10MPG, others closer to 40MPG. Generally speaking, low speed but clear rural roads get the best, followed by motorway, followed by pootering around the city. The absolute worst mileage is during the winter, when I might only be driving lots of short trips around town on a very cold engine, with the headlights on, in the rain. In that case, I might only get around 200 miles out of a tank.

Anyway, my point is that knowing the specifics of this trip's fuel consumption is a much easier problem than knowing how many miles it'll be until you next need to refuel.

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

#445

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 actually got stranded once for some hours because of the mileage indicator! Was driving back from a campsite that I turned out to not have charging compatibility with, but thought I had plenty of margin to get to the nearest charger. As I drove through the mountains however, I began noticing that a.) my battery was depleting much faster than expected and b.) I wasn’t seeing any houses and very few motorists. I watc…

You meet the nicest people in a Tesla... not. [0]

[0] https://www.motorcycleclassics.com/classic-motorcycle-tourin...

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

#446
post #302
post #275

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tbh though, going up a mountain is insanely more energy consuming than regular driving, so the range indicator can't possibly take this into consideration ahead of time unless you chart a specific trip. In the other direction, I've had the experience of the battery charge level continuously increasing while going down a long mountain road - infinite range!

According to TSLA, it takes into account elevation though...

If you tell it where you're going it will.

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

#447
The Tesla cars are the only cars I've ever driven that can simultaneously provide one with the very best, and yet absolute dog shit driving experience. It's a weird car that I honestly don't understand. Especially when people talk about the software being the best on the market. I don't recall the last time I cared about car software more than being able to use the turn signals properly. Great acceleration though.

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

#448
post #121

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.

>but most of the time it's very accurate

How can you know this without repeatedly running your car out of fuel?

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

#449

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Tesla cars are way heavier. Nobody is pushing one with their friend. Unless it's downhill.

I'd need to do some quick math to double-check but very rough ballpark estimates still make me think Teslas can be pushed by a single person. After all, a single strongman can pull a passenger airliner, and any car is nearly impossible to push uphill -- you have to really get some momentum built up first to let them coast up driveways/etc.

It's not about weight or incline, it's the mechanical gearing in the "transmission" that can't turn the wheels without 100 percent power from the engine. You'll be able to push it and think it's really heavy, but it's just the transmission fighting you.

standards and automatic trans have neutral that disconnects driveshaft from engine, removing any resistance from the engaged gear. Most EVs either don't have neutral or a poor implementation of it, because of single gear transmission/direct drive.

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

#450
“In March, Alexandre Ponsin set out on a family road trip from Colorado to California in his newly purchased Tesla, a used 2021 Model 3. He expected to get something close to the electric sport sedan’s advertised driving range: 353 miles on a fully charged battery.

He soon realized he was sometimes getting less than half that much range, particularly in cold weather – such severe underperformance that he was convinced the car had a serious defect.”

He simply does not understand how batteries and power delivery work. Driving through the Rocky mountains will reduce mpg significantly for an internal combustion engine as well. Colder temperatures require a heater and less efficient for batteries due to increased viscosity of electrolyte fluid. All a perfect storm for poor EV performance.

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