Road Trip - Model Y

We took our first road trip in a 2023 Model Y LR during the recent winter weather. We went from Chicago-land to Northern Florida and back. Before we went, I read every thread here about traveling with the Tesla, so thought I'd share some notes to try to help someone else. Here's what we learned; good, bad, and ugly.

Good

• The Tesla map is awesome.
• The recommendations for charging on the map were spot on. It was insanely cold (1 F) when we left and was under freezing our entire trip. The car got every stop right and it was amazing to see how many spaces were open in every stop.
• Plug and charge with no credit card slide and not having to answer 14 questions about car washes and receipts was great.
• Our stops generally had good services nearby.
• It was nice to have to stop every 1.5 - 2.5 hours for a break and to stretch our legs. I really enjoyed the pace of travel.
• Electrify America was a great back-up for us and their app is super-easy to use.
• It was fun to stay overnight at the Tru hotel in the Atlanta area and wake up with a full battery!
• Do I even have to mention how much more fun it is to drive the Tesla? One pedal driving on mountain roads was especially nice.

Bad

• I wish I could use the PlugShare map in an automated way in my Tesla. We wanted to use 1-2 Electrify America stops and our car didn't know we were going to charge there so couldn't update what we'd have left at the next charger until we "filled up" at the 3rd party stop. Not awful, but it would've made our trip better.
• For us, we calculated that it takes about an extra hour of travel time every 5 hours of trip time. For a day-long trip, that's not bad. For our 17 hr trip, it made a big difference. It's a bit of a contradiction to the positive above, but both can be true.
• The wipers aren't the best. For the price of the car, the wipers with fluid left some streaks, even after extra runs. They got LOTS of action on our way down to Florida.

Ugly

• The worst part for me is that with an ICE vehicle you can watch the exits and choose one with specific services you want. We had to stop so much we didn't really want to get off on more exits and delay our already really long drive.
• Autopilot was atrocious. On the way down, when it was icy and super-cold, it was unusable. The wipers went off incessantly, even thought there was no snow or rain falling. On the way back, it was OK, but would turn off every time a semi was in the lane next to me. I'd like to request Manual Cruise Control back.
• I'm so afraid to wash the damn car that we spent a ton of time searching and driving around towns trying to find self-serve car washes. Turns out, they're not really advertised or even locatable online in many cases. Upon returning to Chicagoland I've decided "f-it" and am just going to my last car wash. I took my Nissan at least weekly and never had a problem. If my twice as expensive car can't be washed in the winter, it shouldn't be sold in the midwest. I'll hand wash it in the summer.

My summary is that we loved the driving experience but will likely not want to spend another really long road trip in it until electric charging becomes more prolific. We definitely don't regret it, though. Our dog got to come along, and she would've had to stay home if we flew like we usually do. And, we learned SO MUCH about the Tesla and its range in a variety of weather conditions.

"Tesla Model Y Dual Motor Deep Blue Metallic (1)" by Damian B Oh is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Admin note: Image added for Blog thumbnail.

 

[Kokukenji]

Thanks for sharing. I can definitely see the bad and ugly are basically things that we previous ICE owners need to learn and live it. Is it worth it? For me, it's still up for debate. I don't think I'm ready to fully commit to an all EV fleet of cars in our household specifically for reasons that you mentioned above.

We currently utilize our MY as a city cruiser and it does a great job as one since we fully utilize the wall charger at home to top it off. Might be more ideal if we fully invest in solar soon but like everything Tesla and EV, there is a huge premium on the initial buy in (Car, charging system, ways to pay for the charge).

 

[Kairide]

Isn’t one click down on the stalk manual cruise control?

 

[TLej]

Isn’t one click down on the stalk manual cruise control?

No, it is traffic-aware cruise control (TACC), which means the bloody wipers come on frequently when not needed, and I think the auto high-beams are activated too althouh that might just be for Autopilot. I have started logging bug reports every time the wipers come on when not needed, if they would just give us a speed-hold cruise control this car would be pretty close to perfect.

 

[Kairide]

No, it is traffic-aware cruise control (TACC), which means the bloody wipers come on frequently when not needed, and I think the auto high-beams are activated too althouh that might just be for Autopilot. I have started logging bug reports every time the wipers come on when not needed, if they would just give us a speed-hold cruise control this car would be pretty close to perfect.

We’ll if you want the wipers to be manual you can switch them from auto to off and then turn them on when needed. The autowipers on Tesla are pretty bad. They are still listed as beta on my 2019 Model S.
Forcing auto high beams while on autopilot is bad too. It was better when the cars had radar and there was no necessity for auto high beams. I was driving in fog last week at night on the highway on autopilot and the car kept blinding me with the high beams reflected in the fog. You can turn them off manually once, but the turn right back on and you can’t turn them off again unless you take it off autopilot.

 

[TLej]

We’ll if you want the wipers to be manual you can switch them from auto to off and then turn them on when needed. The autowipers on Tesla are pretty bad. They are still listed as beta on my 2019 Model S.
Forcing auto high beams while on autopilot is bad too. It was better when the cars had radar and there was no necessity for auto high beams. I was driving in fog last week at night on the highway on autopilot and the car kept blinding me with the high beams reflected in the fog. You can turn them off manually once, but the turn right back on and you can’t turn them off again unless you take it off autopilot.

Actually, you can no longer switch the wipers off. I think you can still switch the high beams off though. Apparently the SEXY buttons will allow you to bypass the auto-wiper requirement.

 

[Watts_Up]

I wish I could use the PlugShare map in an automated way in my Tesla. We wanted to use 1-2 Electrify America stops and our car didn't know we were going to charge there so couldn't update what we'd have left at the next charger until we "filled up" at the 3rd party stop.

I believe that Tesla mapping is starting to include CCS chargers,
when those chargers have been reported having a good charging success, like 95%.
This would then allow using pre-conditioning.

Our dog got to come along, and she would've had to stay home if we flew like we usually do.

Some superchargers provide a dog area:

Supercharger experiences

I've tried the search function to no avail. Does anyone recall seeing recent discussion threads regarding owner experiences at superchargers? I am interested in how much additional time I need to factor in planning road trips. Also, what kinds of problems are people experiencing at superchargers?

teslamotorsclub.com

 

[Watts_Up]

The worst part for me is that with an ICE vehicle you can watch the exits and choose one with specific services you want. We had to stop so much we didn't really want to get off on more exits and delay our already really long drive.

One issue regarding Superchargers, compared to gas stations. is the lack or restroom availability 24/7.

The following USA Rest Stops App could be very handy.

 

[BitJam]

. The wipers went off incessantly, even thought there was no snow or rain falling. On the way back, it was OK, [...]

Some people have been able to fix the over-active wiper problem by cleaning the windshield. The idea is that bright sunlight scattering off dirt on the windshield can be interpreted as drops of water. I don't know what time of day you were driving but sun on the windshield will be more of a problem this time of year when you're driving south than when you're driving north.

Also, you can significantly shorten the total time spent charging by ignoring the suggestions in the nav app and instead plan to charge from around 5% - 10% up to around 50% or whatever you need to get to the next charger. This is because the charging rate tapers off rapidly once you have over 30% or so SoC. Kyle Conner has demonstrated this many times on his Out of Spec Motoring YouTube channel.

Here is the Iowa Tesla Guy explaining it in detail:

Riding The Charging Curve - 1800 Mile Telsa Model Y Road Trip in 48 Hours​

 

[SEB1230]

We are actually a one-car household (childfree makes it easy) and we don't take many roadtrips at all. For around town, which is 99% of our driving, this is perfect, as you mentioned. We reviewed and drove several EVs and most felt like they were rushed to market. The Tesla was absolutely our favorite and we're happy with the shift.

We just did the NEMA 14-50 in the garage for our day-to-day charging. It wasn't expensive and works perfectly. I have it scheduled to charge every night during our non-peak electricity hours. My FIL asked if we wanted to get solar now to help with the costs, but we spent $11 the first month we owned the car, so solar doesn't make sense for us, yet.

I believe that Tesla mapping is starting to include CCS chargers,
when those chargers have been reported having a good charging success, like 95%.
This would then allow using pre-conditioning.



Some superchargers provide a dog area:

Supercharger experiences

I've tried the search function to no avail. Does anyone recall seeing recent discussion threads regarding owner experiences at superchargers? I am interested in how much additional time I need to factor in planning road trips. Also, what kinds of problems are people experiencing at superchargers?

teslamotorsclub.com

That's adorable!

 

[SEB1230]

Some people have been able to fix the over-active wiper problem by cleaning the windshield. The idea is that bright sunlight scattering off dirt on the windshield can be interpreted as drops of water. I don't know what time of day you were driving but sun on the windshield will be more of a problem this time of year when you're driving south than when you're driving north.

Also, you can significantly shorten the total time spent charging by ignoring the suggestions in the nav app and instead plan to charge from around 5% - 10% up to around 50% or whatever you need to get to the next charger. This is because the charging rate tapers off rapidly once you have over 30% or so SoC. Kyle Conner has demonstrated this many times on his Out of Spec Motoring YouTube channel.

Here is the Iowa Tesla Guy explaining it in detail:

Riding The Charging Curve - 1800 Mile Telsa Model Y Road Trip in 48 Hours​

Great points! We did that and loved that the map would update while we were supercharging to show how much charge you'd have left at the next charger. I think because of where we were driving, it wouldn't give us enough to get all the way to the next supercharger in the insanely cold temperatures we were driving in. If we did have the ability to also add the CCS charging stations into the map as charging stops, and those updated, too, that might've worked better. We really liked being able to modify the amount of time we charged at stations by watching future charging stats. Tesla's map and those data are impressive.

 

[Brian-MS90D]

I liked the OP's post. This is reply is not critical of it.

I'm finding it curious how many consumers are taking a contradictory/ hypocritical stance (about Tesla) regarding road trip EV charging. There are lots of people on Twitter bashing EA and non-Tesla charging options. See: https://twitter.com/itskyleconner (for example). Their criticism of non-Tesla EV charging is accurate. However, they will not bash the auto manufacturers (Rivian, Ford, etc) as being partly to blame. In fact, they will all strongly defend these companies (Rivian, Ford, etc) and cite ICE vehicle & gas station history as why reliable charging is not at all a responsibility of the auto manufacturer.

Then, when it comes to Tesla this same standard is not applied. There is no forgiveness for any flaw in the Supercharger network (for example, "Oh well, at least Tesla is going above and beyond"). The OP here is even (level headedly) criticizing Tesla for not integrating non-Tesla chargers.

I suppose it's a good thing. Tesla clearly has the upper hand in consumers' minds (and seemingly subconsciously) because most people view non-Tesla EV's as un-road-trip-able (due to no reliable charging options). To the OP I would note that for road tripping we are still very much in the early adopter phase. Things today are immeasurably better than when I started road tripping in my first Tesla in 2017. Tesla road tripping will be immeasurably better in the coming years.

Also,@SEB1230 , what do you mean about washing the car? I do not understand this comment. Do you mean that you are unfamiliar with car wash mode?

 

[tashtibet]

expressing the experience is Okay but comparing ICE vehicles and EVs make no sense. ICE vehicles is over 100 years old while EV is just beginning.

 

[legendsk]

We’ll if you want the wipers to be manual you can switch them from auto to off and then turn them on when needed. The autowipers on Tesla are pretty bad. They are still listed as beta on my 2019 Model S.
Forcing auto high beams while on autopilot is bad too. It was better when the cars had radar and there was no necessity for auto high beams. I was driving in fog last week at night on the highway on autopilot and the car kept blinding me with the high beams reflected in the fog. You can turn them off manually once, but the turn right back on and you can’t turn them off again unless you take it off autopilot.

This thread has such great examples of the vast differences from one car to another. Yeah, I get that different driver's perceptions are different, but so much of the experience depends on software and some computer functions can become intermittent due to hardware issues, but overall software is by its nature consistent.

My windshield wipers have worked automatically, I would say nearly ideally. I do remember a trip where with some particularly heavy rain, I asked the car to speed up the windshield wipers and it instantly did, and just the right amount. Other than that one time, I have never done anything other than use the wash function of them before I start out if the car has accumulated dirt and dust on the windshield.

My headlights automatically choose between high and low beams I would say perfectly. I don't get oncoming traffic flashing me and yet the car goes to high beam at every reasonable opportunity. So many, many things about the car are absolutely wonderful. It should be great experience.

And yet, it's not. I live in a rural area about an hour from town, so I go to town every 2 or 3 weeks, with occasional added trips to the airport, doctor visit, Mexico, etc. I hate having to go somewhere. It's like walking through a mine field in a very uncomfortable uniform. Because the car's driving behavior is so erratic, unpredictable, inconsistent and dangerous.

Need to wait in a queue for the bank, pharmacy, or other drive thru? Can't do that because the safety score will ding me for following too closely and raise my insurance premium. (I had a 100% safety score for 4 years with my Kia and low insurance rates.) I made a trip with no passengers and decided to test what it would do at a 4-way stop sign intersection where there is a 75 mph speed limit, (I know, but this is Texas). It was still accelerating wildly when I had to stand on the brake hard enough to activate the ABS and slide chattering into the intersection. Sure enough, safety score dinged me badly for hard braking and it was certainly my fault for testing what the car would do with a situation that should have been no issue at all. If I don't use NoA, I'll get dinged for following to closely, if I do use NoA then I am at total risk of the car, (although request permission for lane change is checked), may suddenly see a shadow from a bird flying over or something and violently floor it and whip the steering wheel a full turn one way or the other and this is kind of an issue if you're waiting in a queue.

I can't imagine why all the whining I see is about trivial stuff, unless other Tesla's behavior is very different from mine? And I have no problems with the trivial stuff, it all works wonderfully, only the life threateningly dangerous stuff is an issue for me and nobody else seems to be focused on that?

 

[Dennisis]

I think long road trips is where my MY shines! As you mentioned, getting out to stretch etc... every couple of hours is a plus. The next adjustment is planning the overnight stop(s) so you get destination charging and don't make your days too long. Apparently you did that at least one night in Atlanta so you get the idea, not clear if that was the only one. And use ABRP while planning your trip in advance to run alternate charging scenario's. Once you have a bit more experience and adjust from your old ICE ways I think you'll find the pluses greatly outweigh the minuses.

 

[BitJam]

I think because of where we were driving, it wouldn't give us enough to get all the way to the next supercharger in the insanely cold temperatures we were driving in.

They are not cheap but you can cut your wintertime range loss in half with products from EVinsulate that insulate your battery and your roof. If Teslas had been designed and built in Canada then these things would have been standard equipment.

 

[nate704]

Bad and Ugly lists sound more like user related issues than the car itself.

 

[SEB1230]

We’ll if you want the wipers to be manual you can switch them from auto to off and then turn them on when needed. The autowipers on Tesla are pretty bad. They are still listed as beta on my 2019 Model S.
Forcing auto high beams while on autopilot is bad too. It was better when the cars had radar and there was no necessity for auto high beams. I was driving in fog last week at night on the highway on autopilot and the car kept blinding me with the high beams reflected in the fog. You can turn them off manually once, but the turn right back on and you can’t turn them off again unless you take it off autopilot

I liked the OP's post. This is reply is not critical of it.

I'm finding it curious how many consumers are taking a contradictory/ hypocritical stance (about Tesla) regarding road trip EV charging. There are lots of people on Twitter bashing EA and non-Tesla charging options. See: https://twitter.com/itskyleconner (for example). Their criticism of non-Tesla EV charging is accurate. However, they will not bash the auto manufacturers (Rivian, Ford, etc) as being partly to blame. In fact, they will all strongly defend these companies (Rivian, Ford, etc) and cite ICE vehicle & gas station history as why reliable charging is not at all a responsibility of the auto manufacturer.

Then, when it comes to Tesla this same standard is not applied. There is no forgiveness for any flaw in the Supercharger network (for example, "Oh well, at least Tesla is going above and beyond"). The OP here is even (level headedly) criticizing Tesla for not integrating non-Tesla chargers.

I suppose it's a good thing. Tesla clearly has the upper hand in consumers' minds (and seemingly subconsciously) because most people view non-Tesla EV's as un-road-trip-able (due to no reliable charging options). To the OP I would note that for road tripping we are still very much in the early adopter phase. Things today are immeasurably better than when I started road tripping in my first Tesla in 2017. Tesla road tripping will be immeasurably better in the coming years.

Also,@SEB1230 , what do you mean about washing the car? I do not understand this comment. Do you mean that you are unfamiliar with car wash mode?

I appreciate your reply and agree with your assessment of my critique. I spent literally hours reading posts and blogs about EV road-tripping before setting off on our trip and my review was solely meant to share my experience, not intended to criticize Tesla. I'm a seeker of information so I figured it may help others. I agree that the Supercharger network is amazing and that we're early on in the evolution of what we'll see!

I absolutely use car wash mode. My understanding is that the door trim and the paint quality on my Tesla is not of the same material and quality of my ICE and that I should not use tri-foam (impossible where I live) or car washes that have brushes. I get that lots of people have always used only touch-free car washes but I have not and have never had issues. All the posts I've found have recommended washing at home. That's a great suggestion, but not realistic in the upper midwest in the winter months (at least not for me). I'd very-much appreciate hearing from others who either use "normal" car washes successfully or recommendations for car washes that work in Naperville, IL!

 

[SEB1230]

Bad and Ugly lists sound more like user related issues than the car itself.

I don't disagree. I assume I'm pretty "average" though, so thought my experience might inform others so they can plan accordingly in their roadtrip.

 

[SEB1230]

expressing the experience is Okay but comparing ICE vehicles and EVs make no sense. ICE vehicles is over 100 years old while EV is just beginning.

Agree! Only meant to share my first road-tripping experience, as I bet others are doing their first EV road-tripping, too, because, as you point out, EV is only just beginning.