ABRP help (or ABRP is so frustrating)

[spokey]

I get really frustrated with ABRP's interface. Has anyone written a user guide?

I don't use it that much but I end up doing the same thing over and over because somehow i lose stuff or don't save it right. It's frustrating that I can't type in a date/time for stops but have to use a calendar that defaults to today forcing me to click forward a few months to when I'm actually going.

I can't for the life of me figure out how to update and existing plan. I did it a long time ago but what I thought I did back then (I did write it down) was either wrong or they have changed the interface. All I can do now is a save which saves a new copy. I just deleted 10 of these and I'm hoping I kept the current version. If I rename the plan, any update default back to the start->end title.

Asking because I can't believe this decent app has a horrible interface /user interaction and I figure I'm just doing it wrong.

 

[nate704]

Ask here:

A Better Routeplanner Forum

A Better Routeplanner Forum has Retired

forum.abetterrouteplanner.com

 

[spokey]

Ask here:

A Better Routeplanner Forum

A Better Routeplanner Forum has Retired

forum.abetterrouteplanner.com

Figured I would try here as that is not a particularly active or responsive forum. The only response I got when I asked a year ago was my own when I thought I had figured it out. After that there was another response. Another user with the same question. I know lots here have talked about it so I thought this would perhaps would be a better place to re-ask

 

[Grabthar]

I agree which is why I stopped using it. I use the in car nav about 95% of the time and only use ABRP has a check. The interface of ABRP is so difficult, just not worth the effort.

 

[GtiMart]

ABRP has never been great with its UI. If you push it too much you'll hit bugs and glitches. Use it to setup your parameters and then ask ABRP what a route would look like. Don't try to push it too hard by modifying things. If the route isn't what you like, reset and add an intermediate stop to make it go through the place you want, and run the plan again. That's how I use it. It's for planning, to see if you can make a trip and how it would look like. For that, you don't need to set a particular date.

 

[DanDi58]

You can absolutely adjust the date and time. Next to where it says 'My Position' or whatever your starting point is, there is a graph-looking icon. Click that and you can adjust starting SOC and date/time of travel. Just keep in mind that your car may decide on a totally different set of charging stops. You can also click the heart at the bottom to save the plan. I wish the navi available in the Tesla app - as much as I appreciate it - would allow for input of multiple waypoints.

 

[gx9901]

I don't have anything to add other than to say I tried using ABRP to plan a trip driving an Audi fat etron a couple of months ago and the guidance was so far off I literally couldn't believe it and just planned the trip myself using PlugShare to find chargers and estimated my charging stops myself (my estimates ended up being fairly accurate). Perhaps I entered my information incorrectly, but as far as I could tell it was all correct. Anyway, I know ABRP is highly regarded, but it didn't work for me the one time I tried using it with a CCS car.

 

[GtiMart]

I don't really use it to choose specific chargers and stick to that plan. I use it to see if a trip will be doable or not, because supercharger availability is more spotty where I live. I mean, it's always doable but I might need a deep charge sometimes... I also use it for trips in the USA (plenty of SCs) to see how much longer the trip will take compared to what Google Maps says, for example. I never follow the plan exactly, I choose my next supercharger as I'm stopped and charging, deciding how long I want to drive next. ABRP's strength was in accounting for weather, accounting for extra weight you give it, using your own personal consumption estimate, that sort of thing. As years have passed more and more of this is replicated it the car's navigation.

 

[spokey]

You can absolutely adjust the date and time. Next to where it says 'My Position' or whatever your starting point is, there is a graph-looking icon. Click that and you can adjust starting SOC and date/time of travel. Just keep in mind that your car may decide on a totally different set of charging stops. You can also click the heart at the bottom to save the plan. I wish the navi available in the Tesla app - as much as I appreciate it - would allow for input of multiple waypoints.

I know I can adjust the date. But it is not a particularly good interface. I set the start ok. Now I hit the first night hotel. I'll want to change the departure to maybe 9am the next day. I can't just change the day digit or type a new date in. I have to click and bring up a calendar which defaults to today. So now I have to click forward a couple months. Now I have to mentally calculate what day I'm on because maybe I'm at day four of my trip that started maybe 2023-06-20. Ok, so I have to pick 2023-06-24. Not that it can't be done but it's very prone to error and would be so much easier if the interface pre-selected the current date and I just clicked the next one. Or just changed the day digit by selecting it and typing a '4' (in this case).

But none of that addresses the main complaint of how (if I can) update an existing plan. Not create all these extraneous new ones but just modify the original one. And keep the same plan name while I"m at it.

 

[Spinkick]

I agree about the interface, it just seems like they need to bring in someone to make it easier. Its so fiddly

 

[ICE5891]

Yes I feel the pain. I am planning a 2w trip in Norway and have tried ABRP. I end up doing a plan for each day with accommodations in the ends and some points in between.
Every time I need to do a modification I have to edit the existing one, save as new and delete the old one. It is not friendly UI at all but I couldn't find a better way to do it. Plus I am putting a large margin on the SOC.

I wish tesla would do their version of long trip planning. The car is awesome but it requires good planning on long / complex trips and we need the tools for it.

 

[DanDi58]

Yes I feel the pain. I am planning a 2w trip in Norway and have tried ABRP. I end up doing a plan for each day with accommodations in the ends and some points in between.
Every time I need to do a modification I have to edit the existing one, save as new and delete the old one. It is not friendly UI at all but I couldn't find a better way to do it. Plus I am putting a large margin on the SOC.

I wish tesla would do their version of long trip planning. The car is awesome but it requires good planning on long / complex trips and we need the tools for it.

I use ABRP to kind of check out where I'm going but once I start the trip, I just stop when and where the car tells me to stop. If I know I'm stopping for the night, I'll just get an extra 5-10% at the last SC stop. I don't think it's as complex as we're making it out to be, once the trip starts.

 

[ICE5891]

I use ABRP to kind of check out where I'm going but once I start the trip, I just stop when and where the car tells me to stop. If I know I'm stopping for the night, I'll just get an extra 5-10% at the last SC stop. I don't think it's as complex as we're making it out to be, once the trip starts.

It depends a lot on the kind of trip, when it is a simple A-B with few chargers in between it is easy and I have done few times without warring. But in this Norway trip for example there are few places that I need 60% of battery in the morning to reach next charger and there are so many variables.

-Are there other fast chargers that are not tesla and I can use?
-Are them reliable?
-Is there a lvl2 charging in my accommodation?
-Would the accommodation allow to plug a mobile charger?

If the answer to those are No or Not sure I have to do a kind of precise plan that I leave a charging in one day and with the remaining drive I still have at least 60% in the morning of next day. Even to come to that conclusion I had to do the route planning in advance. This is of course much more sophisticated planning than it would be required in a ICE car.

So yes I would appreciate a better planning tool for this kind of trip.

 

[everydaychris]

ive never had any issues once you "get it". Not very UI friendly. Not sure if my video will help

 

[everydaychris]

It depends a lot on the kind of trip, when it is a simple A-B with few chargers in between it is easy and I have done few times without warring. But in this Norway trip for example there are few places that I need 60% of battery in the morning to reach next charger and there are so many variables.

-Are there other fast chargers that are not tesla and I can use?
-Are them reliable?
-Is there a lvl2 charging in my accommodation?
-Would the accommodation allow to plug a mobile charger?

If the answer to those are No or Not sure I have to do a kind of precise plan that I leave a charging in one day and with the remaining drive I still have at least 60% in the morning of next day. Even to come to that conclusion I had to do the route planning in advance. This is of course much more sophisticated planning than it would be required in a ICE car.

So yes I would appreciate a better planning tool for this kind of trip.

You have to find another charging app in your area. For us its plugshare that helps us see local j1772's so I use both.

 

[Stirfry]

...and the guidance was so far off...

I've had similar issues, several times I found my route was planned all along back roads. Turns out for some reason my app keeps defaulting to "avoid highways" (which I never selected). Finding that setting was not intuitive either.

I agree with many here, I found the UI very finicky and only use it at the beginning to plan route.

I still think it is a good app, just needs some massaging.

 

[Jim R]

Very unhappy with user interface and lack of available instructions. Your shouldn't need 4 or 5 tries to change your starting charge level, for example.

Also downright WRONG info. Examples: 1 Routed me to a ferry that didn't exist. 2. on a route from point A to B to C to D, It routed me A to C to B to D. Made no sense. Use this software cautiously.

 

[GtiMart]

Change starting level is very simple: go to settings and change it. If you had already planned a route, press the reset button which brings you back to entering destinations. I don't think it loses them. Just press plan again.

 

[spokey]

I tried support about two weeks ago and (interestingly) got an answer since starting this thread and downgrading to basic (my $50 was coming up in a week or so). The answer is you can't modify an existing plan other than what has been talked about here. I.E. let it create the new version and delete the old. Also there is no help/guide other than the minimal help & FAQ.

Sad as I think ABRP has lots of potential but, at least for me, not very usable.

 

[jabloomf1230]

When I first got my car, I was enamored with ABRP. But its user interface is hardly friendly and most of the options just add to the complexity of use without any benefit. Like others have said, I use ABRP as a check against planning the route manually with Google.