Air Suspension no longer lowers at highway speeds (FW update v5.8)

[yobigd20]

265 miles, in winter, presumably at freeway speeds. You weren't going to make that distance anyway.

I have drafted other vehicles >70mph and watched the Wh/mi usage drop from 340Wh/mi to 197Wh/mi so yes it is definitely possible to make this. (now obviously this really isnt a safe thing to do...but just pointing out that it is possible).

Nonsense. You are already at the edge of range. Temperatures and even headwind vs tailwind would have a bigger effect on range.
Are there no regular chargers along the way? If not, or if you aren't willing to use them I wouldn't take the trip anyway.
Personally I would take the trip if I were willing to slow down, or stop for an hour at a public charger.

There are, but the part that I left out was that I am on a time crunch. Can't leave until 10:30am, must arrive before 6:00pm. No superchargers or HPWC's on plugshare on the way. I know of one stop along the way that has a NEMA 14-50, but due to the time crunch I can probably only charge maybe 1.5-2hrs. Given the winter conditions, distance, highway speeds, and elevation increase through mountains, it was already on the edge of whether or not I could do it in time. After this air suspension change, I don't think its possible.

 

[Gizmotoy]

Nonsense. You are already at the edge of range. Temperatures and even headwind vs tailwind would have a bigger effect on range.
Are there no regular chargers along the way? If not, or if you aren't willing to use them I wouldn't take the trip anyway.
Personally I would take the trip if I were willing to slow down, or stop for an hour at a public charger.

Pretty much what I was thinking. Tesla doesn't even claim a range increase with the air suspension. If it there was any noticeable range benefit to be had, you can bet they'd be advertising it like they did with the aero wheels or the P85+.

 

[gaswalla]

Ummm... They do say you get better range with the air suspension... It was even posted here earlier.

 

[gnelson]

I see it as a validation of trust.
Tesla knows more about the accidents than I, and I would guess you, know.
If they feel that temporarily not letting the car settle to the low setting on the highway may help prevent an additional accident, I trust their engineers who have access to details of the accidents and logs that I don't.

The issue isn't the knowledge or motives of Tesla Motors Inc. The issue is they did not communicate the solution prior to deployment. This is a violation of TRUST.

 

[Right_Said_Fred]

The effect of lowering the car by 1 inch on range is neglectable. Tesla claims it encreases range, but nobody knows by how much. I'm sure they are overstating the impact. It probably has the same impact as a temperature change of a few degrees. I read claims of 10 kW less per mile. That's absolutely impossible.

 

[Gizmotoy]

Ummm... They do say you get better range with the air suspension... It was even posted here earlier.

But they don't. I've seen no where on the Tesla site claims increased range with the air suspension. It's certainly no anywhere near the ordering or specs pages.

The other options that actually increased range, they clearly claimed the improved range, and then how much to expect (Ex: P85+ = 6-12mi over regular cars with std 21"s).

 

[jerry33]

Ummm... They do say you get better range with the air suspension... It was even posted here earlier.

However, they don't say how much, and rightly so because the increase is speed dependent. A lot more at 85, not so much at 55.

Also tire pressure, wind, detours, and other things you can't control are going to make just as much difference in most cases.

Prudence suggests that if it's a route you are unfamiliar with (driving the Tesla) then you leave a 20% margin of error to the next charging location. Once you have driven the route you can reduce that to 10 or 15% based on your experience (always keeping weather in mind).

 

[omarsultan]

I've seen no where on the Tesla site claims increased range with the air suspension. It's certainly no anywhere near the ordering or specs pages.

But they did - someone posted a screen grab of the previous text upthread or on one of the other threads here.

O

** Update **
See post #44 by @NigelM

 

[Gizmotoy]

But they did - someone posted a screen grab of the previous text upthread or on one of the other threads here.

I'm not sure that "they used to claim it improved range, but don't any more" is a great argument that it noticeably increases range, but I'll admit I haven't seen that.

 

[youlikeadajuice]

I received the notification this morning to go from 5.6 to 5.8. I'm not going to do it (for now) because I want to keep the ability to lower at freeway speed, at least until there is some sort of explanation. Does simply closing the update window without pressing "set time" or "install now" prevent the update from happening?

 

[SCW-Greg]

OT, @YobigD... A 14-50 delivering a rated 40 amps will give you 29 miles in an hour.

(Not sure where the winky came from above)




[Moderator: "winky' removed. Simple operation with local anesthetic only. Post made a full recovery.]

 

[Right_Said_Fred]

But they did - someone posted a screen grab of the previous text upthread or on one of the other threads here.

O

** Update **
See post #44 by @NigelM

But they don't say by how much. I'm sure it isn't much, considering that it's just 1 inch (and the total frontal area of the car stays the same).

 

[liuping]

I have drafted other vehicles >70mph and watched the Wh/mi usage drop from 340Wh/mi to 197Wh/mi so yes it is definitely possible to make this. (now obviously this really isnt a safe thing to do...but just pointing out that it is possible).


There are, but the part that I left out was that I am on a time crunch. Can't leave until 10:30am, must arrive before 6:00pm. No superchargers or HPWC's on plugshare on the way. I know of one stop along the way that has a NEMA 14-50, but due to the time crunch I can probably only charge maybe 1.5-2hrs. Given the winter conditions, distance, highway speeds, and elevation increase through mountains, it was already on the edge of whether or not I could do it in time. After this air suspension change, I don't think its possible.

Ironically, drafting at 70MPH is a good way to hit road debris, since there is much less time to react...

While Model S are great for road trips. This absolutely sounds like a trip that is it NOT good for. Pushing range to (beyond?) the limit, plus weather conditions, and a hard deadline with no time to stop. If there is no time charge along the way, I assume there is even less time to wait for a tow truck when the batteries run out...

 

[gg_got_a_tesla]

One other thing to be aware of: The installation of release 5.8 appears to reset the existing air suspension setting to the 'normal' height position. In my case, it lowered the car from the 'very high' setting to 'normal', causing the bottom of my car to scrape across a concrete lip at the entrance to my garage when I pulled the car out of the garage after the firmware installation. I always put the car into the 'very high' setting before entering my garage as my driveway is an uphill slope and the car will scrape at the garage entrance unless the suspension is raised.

Has anyone else observed this? This is a one-time-only type of event, so it would be useful to know if my experience is unique or if this happens to everyone upon installation of 5.8. This is the only firmware release for which I've seen this behavior.

I'll check this as I move up to High as well everytime I back into my garage to clear a steepish driveway. Thanks for the heads-up though; you saved me a scrape.

Not sure I have the update yet; haven't been down to the car this morning.

Yes, post-update, the car initially stayed in High but, when I pressed the brake pedal, it descended to Standard and the setting UI displayed that. Changed it back to High before going down the driveway. Thanks again, Dale!

 

[Chipper]

Pretty much what I was thinking. Tesla doesn't even claim a range increase with the air suspension. If it there was any noticeable range benefit to be had, you can bet they'd be advertising it like they did with the aero wheels or the P85+.

Well...they kinda do. They tell us on the website that it "lowers for optimum aerodynamics". Obviously optimum aerodynamics would include a range increase. They just don't state specifically what that increase is in actual mileage. Obviously even if they did it would have to be caveated with "your mileage may vary".

 

[kendallpb]

26:30 80mph CC Low manual attempt: Success

From there I tried around 80 and it hit or miss whether it would engage or disallow the action.

Interesting; thanks for posting. Could you tell, at 26:30ish, that it was actually lowering? E.g., spinning circle graphic it normally shows, and did the ride feel different after that?

I wonder, isn't it more dangerous at higher speeds? This sounds like buggy behavior to prevent it at normal speeds but allow it higher, plus the hit-or-miss aspect. Unless the UI is just glitchy and it's not actually lowering (in which case it's a different sort of bug).

 

[Doug_G]

Of all potential road debris any of it that is lower than that extra 3/4" will now pass under the vehicle. Statistically it has to reduce the chance of under body strikes.

Possibly more than you think. Statistically speaking the lowered Model S is lower than most cars on the road. That means it has a higher chance of being the first car to strike the debris. If instead it's at the same height as everyone else, some other car will probably get the privilege of knocking the debris off the highway - with ensuing damage.

I received the notification this morning to go from 5.6 to 5.8. I'm not going to do it (for now) because I want to keep the ability to lower at freeway speed, at least until there is some sort of explanation. Does simply closing the update window without pressing "set time" or "install now" prevent the update from happening?

I got the notification this morning to go from 4.5 to 5.8. I pushed the button to install it. The improved features are more important to me at this point in time than losing the lowering feature. I would like to have that feature back for a road trip I'm doing next month, but I won't cry in my beer if that doesn't happen. I'll just spend a little bit more time charging en route.

Ironically, drafting at 70MPH is a good way to hit road debris, since there is no time to react...

Good point. It's probably a bigger issue in heavy traffic during your daily commute, though. Our freeways are so busy that you can't leave an adequate stopping distance - someone will always pop into that space and eliminate it.

As I've mentioned before, if they provide the choice, I will not lower my car during daily driving, but will do it on road trips. It would be rather more valuable to me to be able to drive in High mode during snowstorms, though. I hate dragging the bottom of the car on snow. I think it's even damaged some of the trim pieces at the bottom of my car.

 

[gg_got_a_tesla]

Have to admit: the highway ride feel at Standard did feel noticeably different, almost like a high-riding vehicle (maybe, the Model X would feel this way) and just a touch "floaty".

Despite being one of those who asked for the height to be raised to prevent Model-S-vs-tow-hitch, sign me up for a setting to toggle this in 5.9.

 

[lolachampcar]

I just played with mine and on the third or forth attempt on the highway you will not get the nag message (selected mode not available) and the graphic bar on the display will stay in Low. However, the picture of the vehicle does not lower nor does the car lower. I've also confirmed what another poster wrote in that the graphic bar stays in the selected Low all the way to a stop and the car (and the picture of the car in the display) are NOT in the Low position.

 

[Lloyd]

I tried this also. I believe that on the third attempt the display goes to low without the not allowed warning, but it does not actually lower. Others may want to verify this.