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Tesla created secret team to suppress thousands of driving range complaints

reuters.com

691–700 of 769 posts

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

#691

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

On a highway my hood latch broke (old car) and it flew up at 50 mph and crushed my windshield. I had no service (but knew the other carrier would have full bars) and spent over an hour waving at every car trying to get someone to stop to let me call my parents (I was 18 and not exactly intimidating). It was a crazy experience as I'd obviously had an accident. Nobody would help. Finally I just stood in the road like a…

In the US and probably elsewhere, 911 works if any carrier has service

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

#692

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…

Aerodynamic drag increases as a square as a function of velocity, not exponentially.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drag_(physics)

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

#693

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have it show percent, not range. Tesla defaults to percent on the main display. I'm not sure about other cars. When you use navigation then Tesla will show you the expected charge at your destination and it's been pretty accurate.

I drove my wife's Model 3 on a short trip from Sacramento, CA to Santa Cruz. 3.5hrs if you factor in traffic (2.5hrs without). When we left, estimated range was 45% on arrival. We arrived with 27% range. Granted, we did encounter a crapload of traffic, but the Nav system took that into account because the time was accurate. I don't fully fault Tesla for the range inaccuracy; an ICE car would probably have had a simil…

I obviously don’t have a reason why it was so off. We regularly drive from near sac to Santa Cruz and it’s within a few percent with plenty of speeding. I commute 100 miles a day on the freeway, so maybe it knows my freeway driving habits very well.

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

#694

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, but isn't it up to EPA to fix their testing methodology to get better estimates? Why do we expect car makers to do that?

If the EPA rating is consistent in it's overestimation, it would still be a perfectly functional system to comparison shop range. Putting that KNOWN overestimating number as the headline "range" estimation is wrong. My ICE car does not use the EPA combined estimate for my range because that would be inaccurate and make the number useless. The knowledge on how to build a useful "Range" value in a car has been constant…

Tesla shows you percentage by default. The percentages for arrival in navigation are spot on for most people.

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

#695
post #425
post #262

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve thought that ever since they got caught rolling an EV down a hill for a promo video, after taking tons of money from a major automaker. Wait? That wasn’t Tesla? Okay, I guess there’s a level below “fraudulent to the very core”

Maybe this is what you were thinking: https://techcrunch.com/2023/01/17/tesla-engineer-testifies-t...

This is what they are eluding to.

https://arstechnica.com/cars/2020/09/nikola-admits-prototype...

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

#696
post #302

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

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

Doesn’t it know where it is ?

This goes to the optimistic/ exagerated calculation

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

#697

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

Doesn’t it know where it is ? This goes to the optimistic/ exagerated calculation

Yeah. I’ve never had the car not know where it is.

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

#698
post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Seems like it’s common across all EVs for the range to be inflated by around 20%, at least for freeway driving. Most people speed on the freeway. Extra speed reduces range significantly.

And much more than one would intuitively think. I just finished a long drive for summer vacation. Driving through Denmark (completely flat) at 130 km/h would absolutely wipe the battery, would be surprised if I managed even 350 km on a full charge. Driving over the mountains in Norway however, from 0m elevation to over 1000m and down again, at slower mountain roads (max 80 km/h), yielded almost 500 km on single charg…

I imagine that regenerative braking has a role here too. When you're going downhill the battery can recharge itself to some extent.

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

#699

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The distance left in the tank is closer to the Tesla's more accurate estimate because it's constantly adjusting based on both your current gas level as well as your current energy efficiency. It may not accurately convey the distance available at the start of a trip but you're going to know well ahead of time if you're burn rate is too high. If the non-navigation distance estimate in a Tesla is always padded you coul…

I wonder if anyone has actually objectively measured accuracy of various car models under various driving patterns. It seems plausible to me that everyone just thinks their ICE car is more accurate because 1) gas stations are literally everywhere so there is never “range anxiety” and 2) no one routinely lets their gas car get close to empty anyway.

[deleted]

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

#700

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Let's say you live in a state with a 55mph speed limit. The car has a lifetime average of 0.300 kWh/mi over 4 years of driving. It's December, ambient temperature is 20F and it is snowing. Your last 10 drives consumption rate was 0.400 kWh/mi because its cold out. There's A LOT of smarter things the car can do than use its factory set 0.250 kWh/mi consumption to spit out the range on dashboard. Erring on the side of…

It's not erring on the side of the absolute best state. The EPA-rated miles represent a standardized mix of highway and city miles. The best state would be over 600 miles [1]. It's erring on the side of consistency, as it's also representing the battery's state of charge. It would only serve to confuse users to try and guess whether the current trip is a highway or city drive, will end in the next minute or two hours…

Look I don't really care about Teslas so I don't really have any idea, but the article says that Tesla does NOT use the standardized EPA-mix, but instead does their own testing and gets those tests EPA approved. The EPA spokesperson said they were following the rules, but only technically. Do you have alternate information showing that it actually is the standardized mix to produce the estimate?
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