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Tesla created secret team to suppress thousands of driving range complaints

reuters.com

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

#51

Post by vagab0nd »

Not just battery and range.

I've had problems with the passenger side airbag not enabling, and turn signal not working. Both scary issues. Made appointments with the support. Both were cancelled outright by them (!). They tried to convince me that there was no problem, and it was all due to the way I use the car. They seemed to try everything to get out of appointments. My wife had to use the back seat for a month while I argued with them.

Eventually both problems were resolved by software updates, proving that the problems were indeed on their side.

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

#53

Post by stonemetal12 »

galangalalgol wrote: post #18
furyg3 wrote: post #6

Since cars have integrated phone-home diagnostic software, why would the government even allow automakers to advertise 'estimated' ranges for specific car models and not simply show actual averages?

I had an uber driver that said his 3 had less than half the range when temperatures got over 100F (38C). I imagine that is just the increased load from the cooling system. My Y sounds like a combustion car the ac runs so loud the past couple months. I leave the display on battery percentage because the range counts down very quickly in this heat. But it doesn't when it is nice out. Cold decreases the range because th…

It knows about how much power is in the battery and it can measure the distance, and power use so why not an estimate based on a windowed average of the last two - three days of actual distance/power?

It ought to quickly adapt to weather pattern changes quickly enough while not being too "jumpy".

My ICE car can display MPG and distance to empty it seems to do something like that instead of displaying some random preconfigured metric.

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

#54

Post by HWR_14 »

light_hue_1 wrote: post #21

Man. I love my Tesla (please car manufacturers hire good software engineers, pay them better and let them do their thing). But screw that guy. I don't think we'll be buying another one. It's time for a class action lawsuit and to be rid of him.

I just hope some car manufacturers continue to not hire UX designers and have everything not related to the actual operation of the car (controlled by physical switches) just be a dumb screen for my phone to control.

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

#55

Post by hammock »

rsynnott wrote: post #31
hammock wrote: post #19

How does the Tesla advertised range compare to the advertised range of other EV makers: less accurate, or similarly inaccurate? edit: "advertised" I mean the range shown on the dash. I.e. the range communicated by the car itself, as relevant to this article.

I mean, I realise that reading the article is considered most improper on this website, but it _is_ addressed.

Added language to clarify what I mean

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

#56

Post by browningstreet »

AuthorizedCust wrote: post #27
aaomidi wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[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.

Consider sprint estimates and story points. We have those discussions regularly here too and the HN community is very sympathetic to the line that those estimates can’t be accurate and involve too many unknowns and externalities. Why should this be different?

And did anyone ever scrutinize gas vehicle tank estimates closely? I think one of the issues is the absolute lower range of EVs. You can feel it more when a 250 mile range is off than when a 400 mile range is off.

That said, I road trip in my Y all the time. Still hasn’t really bothered me. And I usually drive at 80 mph.

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

#57

Post by barbegal »

ke88y wrote: post #49
bigdang wrote: post #29

Giving optimistic estimates based on generalized vehicle information, then giving more precise estimates after the 50% mark—and after having collected usage information based on the user’s actual environment—sounds to me like a decent algorithmic solution to a hard problem.

That only makes sense if there's strong correlation between the first 50% of a charge and the second 50% of a charge, but NOT an equally strong correlation between the previous charge cycle and the current charge cycle. That can be the case (eg on road trips) but usually isn't. Why not just always give the more precise estimates?

Because then you get people complaining it doesn't meet the range as specified in the marketing material which is based on the EPA (or equivalent) test.

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

#58

Post by wintermutestwin »

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 know someone who bought an early Leaf to get to work and back. The stated range was 107 miles and their commute was 35 miles each way. The problem was that there was >2000 feet of elevation change.

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

#59

Post by Astronaut3315 »

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 also have a Model Y- it’s our family’s only vehicle. We love almost everything about it.

Tip: tap the range estimate to switch it to percent. The EPA estimate is meaningless. Yes, that should be improved.

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

#60

Post by meroes »

AuthorizedCust wrote: post #27
aaomidi wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[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.

That’s never been the case. Drive down moderately steep grades and shift to a low gear to spare you breaks, for example. It’s the same argument. We don’t drive black boxes. Anecdote, a relative drove trucks in the Korean War and after, his vehicles lasted much longer per miles driven without maintenance due to how he drove.
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