? about abetterrouteplanner

[M3Newb]

@KenC , thanks, I didn't know that. The thing is, I use ABRP to plan a trip hours and often days ahead. The current SOC and temperature don't matter, I need that information for the moment I'll be driving. I use the weather predictions and the Windy app to lookup the information I need. I believe a premium subscription would do that automatically, saving me the hassle.

I do the long term planning also. But when I start a drive I enter the SOC, then drive normally and I'm within a percentage of the estimated SOC. Also I set parameters to not discharge below 20% or to charge above 80%. Charging from a lower SOC is faster than at the higher levels. ABRP seems to have most of the charging at the lower faster levels. So a larger number of short stops. Gives me just enough time to use the head or get a snack. Not much more.

 

[M3Newb]

Yep, I use ABRP here in Quebec Winters. I don't travel often but when I do, I always plan with ABRP If you input the correct advanced settings (temperature, wind, speed etc) it does a very near perfect estimate of my arrival SOC. I remember a case where ABRP predicted a 6% arrival and the car started at 18% and went down as I drove. I arrived at 4%. In most cases however I arrive a couple percent over ABRP, but that's because I tend to set wind and additional weight a bit pessimistically.

Thanks for the info.

I was hoping it could get SOC and weather automatically. But I haven't figured that out yet.

 

[RoadSoda]

I generally just go with the car navigation/computer unless its a big road trip and I check to see where I'll have to stop. I dont think that is worth the paid version for me

 

[vanjwilson]

Good point. On-trip accuracy will be a bit better as the site calibrates driving efficiency. For planning, probably doesn't matter as much to the OP since this is the first road trip.

Even though I'm a premium ABRP user, I actually don't always use it in-car...it is a bit clunky (this is one place where it used to be better than it is now). Live Supercharger availability is a killer feature though, so I do occasionally pop up ABRP just to see that. For me, popping up the native Tesla Trip Consumption display on a trip is sufficient to monitor progress towards the next charging opportunity. I occasionally pop it up to see if I am doing better or worse than the initial prediction and if I'm in danger of falling below my comfort level (5% or so arrival SOC). Normally I'll use ABRP to plan and determine that I can make it to a particular Supercharger that perhaps the car's nav may not think I can reach. But I'll navigate to that one anyway and keep an eye on the arrival SOC during the trip to make sure that I am doing better than predicted by the car (this is almost always the case). If I'm not seeing a comfortable enough improvement in Tesla's estimate I may pop open ABRP and/or go to the earlier Supercharger.

This is the kind of thing I am looking for:
View attachment 637825

I like to use ABRP to plan trips, but then rely on the in-car nav on the actual trip. (In-car will precondition the battery, and get the handy Trip Consumption graph that RTPEV went over above.)

I think ABRP is really good for running different what-if scenarios. To start, it usually gives you two or three options in its results, just like Google Maps. Then, you can add different additional stops for side-trips, to see how that affects charging.

My favorite feature is the ability to add a stop at a hotel with a destination charger, and then click the edit icon, add the destination charger's power and the percentage you plan to charge to, and finally hit Recalculate. It will re-plan your trip, based on what you think you will be at after the overnight in the hotel. I pay for Premium, because I want to support them, my wife and I have 2 different electric cars, and I like to save my plans. However, I think the ability to manually add charging at a stop is available in the free version, too, not just as a paid feature.

(Like many others have said about destination charging in other threads, you shouldn't count on a hotel charger being available, or in working order. Always have a nearby supercharger in range, just in case you need to use it instead.)

I have mainly taken in-state trips in the 8 months I've owned my Model Y, but I have successfully used my "hotel strategy" on a road trip to Chicago (~500 miles each way) during the week after this past Christmas. I've also been using it a lot to plot my first coast-to-coast road trip in March. (Not just my first coast-to-coast trip in an electric car, but my first coast-to-coast trip ever!)

 

[GtiMart]

Thanks for the info.

I was hoping it could get SOC and weather automatically. But I haven't figured that out yet.

SOC can be automatic if you link ABRP with your Tesla account. Weather can be automatic if you subscribe to ABRP (premium). Note that these will be instantaneous. If you use ABRP for planning and what-ifs for a trip in a day or two, it will be useless.

 

[Tedkidd]

I pay for Premium, because I want to support them,

I agree it's useful and am also not sure what benefits I get from the paid version, but I pay for it for this reason also.