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That Tesla Data: What It Says and What It Doesn’t

wheels.blogs.nytimes.com

11–20 of 281 posts

Re: That Tesla Data: What It Says and What It Doesn’t

#11
post #7

Overall I think Broder acquits himself well, and his explanation about circling the Milford parking lot makes sense. Also, the Tesla engineer he was on the phone with at the time should have been able to tell Musk that happened (or Tesla should have just asked Broder to comment before posting the rebuttal). His action here is still hard to understand: > The Tesla personnel whom I consulted over the phone – Ms. Ra and…

> His action here is still hard to understand:

Yeah, I got the same impression, but that seems so insane I'm not sure it is right. I mean, surely he called them afterwards, right?

Re: That Tesla Data: What It Says and What It Doesn’t

#12
> "I was given battery-conservation advice at that time (turn off the cruise control; alternately slow down and speed up to take advantage of regenerative braking) that was later contradicted by other Tesla personnel."

This is one of the more bizarre statements in this whole discussion. Why would anyone with the slightest understanding of electric cars or physics believe that to be true - and I mean the reporter, as well? By extension, you could recharge your electric car by alternately gunning the engine, then slamming on the brakes. Perpetual motion!

Re: That Tesla Data: What It Says and What It Doesn’t

#13
post #5

> I was given battery-conservation advice at that time (turn off the cruise control; alternately slow down and speed up to take advantage of regenerative braking ) that was later contradicted by other Tesla personnel. What the heck? Does this guy seriously think that braking and then speeding up will conserve battery? Maybe the adage "don't attribute to malice what can be explained by stupidity" is true.

That bit about the second law of thermodynamics needs to get more attention in school.

Re: That Tesla Data: What It Says and What It Doesn’t

#14
post #11
post #7

Overall I think Broder acquits himself well, and his explanation about circling the Milford parking lot makes sense. Also, the Tesla engineer he was on the phone with at the time should have been able to tell Musk that happened (or Tesla should have just asked Broder to comment before posting the rebuttal). His action here is still hard to understand: > The Tesla personnel whom I consulted over the phone – Ms. Ra and…

> His action here is still hard to understand: Yeah, I got the same impression, but that seems so insane I'm not sure it is right. I mean, surely he called them afterwards, right?

I'm sure he didn't.

Re: That Tesla Data: What It Says and What It Doesn’t

#15
post #5

> I was given battery-conservation advice at that time (turn off the cruise control; alternately slow down and speed up to take advantage of regenerative braking ) that was later contradicted by other Tesla personnel. What the heck? Does this guy seriously think that braking and then speeding up will conserve battery? Maybe the adage "don't attribute to malice what can be explained by stupidity" is true.

He's probably thinking that other Tesla drivers will do what the company tells them to do, so he does it to see what happens. Do you think the author is going to be the dumbest person to ever drive a Tesla?

Re: That Tesla Data: What It Says and What It Doesn’t

#16
The logged data does support the broad lines of Broder's story (large drop in battery charge overnight, slow driving, turning down heating) and the 10-15% imprecision (driving at 52 mph instead of 45, heating goes down at 200 miles instead of 182, charge time of 47 minutes instead of 58) is well to be expected from what is a journalistic review and not a scientific experiment. So this all comes down to what customer service might or might have not said over the phone. Was Tesla customer service incompetent enough to suggest anti-solutions (use the brakes more to save energy, charge up to 32 miles when you need 60)? Was there miscommunication? Or did Broder completely make that part up?

Re: That Tesla Data: What It Says and What It Doesn’t

#17

From the article, "Beginning early in the morning of my second day with the car, after the projected range had dropped precipitously while parked overnight, I spoke numerous times with Christina Ra, Tesla’s spokeswoman at the time, and Ted Merendino, a Tesla product planner at the company’s headquarters in California." That quoted sentence includes the interesting phrase "Tesla's spokeswoman at the time," seemingly i…

I think in one of Broder's other posts, he mentioned that the spokesperson moved full time to SpaceX.

Re: That Tesla Data: What It Says and What It Doesn’t

#20
post #3

Two bits are completely non-sensical to me, is there any battery technician or otherwise knowledgeable person that can indicate in what conditions this makes any sense? > Beginning early in the morning of my second day with the car, after the projected range had dropped precipitously while parked overnight, I spoke numerous times with Christina Ra, Tesla’s spokeswoman at the time, and Ted Merendino, a Tesla product p…

Next time a journalist does a drive test, Musk should record all the telephonic conversations.
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