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Announcing the EV Trip Optimizer for Tesla App

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I've already used this app for a long distance trip that was new to me which had no room for error, since there was no backup charging in it (many 100 to 150 mile legs within which had many 50 mile stretches (often through hills) with not even a house to knock on for help much less a place to charge, some almost freezing weather, etc., but most of it beautiful), and it allowed me to plan it with confidence and get to everywhere without problems. At no point did I get nervous after operating this app for planning. It is definitely a good long distance companion.

There is a steep learning curve, but less than the learning curve of driving an EV long distances, so on balance I find this a superb application once the learning curve has been experienced, and I would recommend it highly to any tech savvy driver who is new to Tesla EV's for their more demanding drive distance routes. It takes about a week of extensive long distance driving and using the app to sort of get the hang of (learning curve), so I highly recommend committing that week, and starting with a pretty complete reading of the documentation and experimentation with the app during that reading to figure it out. This probably takes a few hours before setting out at first, with a healthy dose of cross-referencing with EVTripPlanner.Com and the in-car planner for sanity of confirmation that the app was operated properly and is giving sane results.

I inputted one of the Chademo sites I usually use into the app manually, but from what I understand, updated versions should automatically pull those in if I have the filters set up right.

During beta testing, I did run into a handful of bugs (I have a personality that seems to find every bug without trying), but I found they could be solved with manual intervention (adding a charge point manually, deleting automated ones, manually inputting a buffer, etc.), and since then, most of those have been ironed out, and I suspect the rest of the remaining bugs will quickly dissipate. Please, if you have unusual routes to try, or even regular routes to try and have the time to put into learning a new app (maybe a few hours), don't hesitate to try this app and report the bugs to the developer. He has been quite responsive to the few errors that have come up during this time of development. Be forewarned that the current iPhone version is quite a few versions behind; I don't know why Apple is dragging its feet with sending out the most up to date release (any day now?).
 
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The EV Trip Optimizer for Tesla is an application created to help you optimize your long-range travel with the Tesla Model S, Model X and Model 3 cars. The application helps you plan your trip by cataloging your starting and destination points, as well as any required stops (waypoints) you identify along the way. The application is available for both Apple and Android mobile devices and is free.

The app (IOS) is not available for Europe ?
 
thanks for creating this app - looks useful.
I just downloaded and started playing with it - I'll continue to try it out, but FYI in the first few minutes it already crashed on my iPad three or four times... Also, I'm not sure the following is quite what you wanted to display when the app first asks you to allow it to use your location:
iOS 10.2.1 on an iPad Air
IMG_0802.jpg
 
Looks cool... I'll definitely have a play with this over the coming weeks. One point which might help with non-US customers: What about auto loading the superchargers for the region where the customer is (or at least having a dialog pop up asking "It looks like you're in Europe. Do you want to load the European superchargers?"). I nearly deleted the app when first playing with it, thinking it only works in the US.
 
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So far I am very impressed. A couple of suggestions:

1. The menus could be better organized. It appears the menu options are not in any particular order and I need to scan all of the items each time I want to select a particular options.

2. In your FAQs you mentioned why you chose to base your calculations off of percent charge rather than rated range. You mentioned percentage is more consistent, and rated range depends on "driving style, etc." This relationship of driving style to rated range has been debunked by wk057(https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/threads/calculate-usable-battery-capacity-based-on-rated-miles-values.84434/). He has determined that it is directly proportional to energy (kWh) in the battery and hence is a direct measurement of available energy. On the other hand, percentage varies with battery age (e.g., 90% on my 70D was 214 miles on day 1, now it is 206). You allow users to compensate for this in vehicle setup, but it is unnecessary if you were to just base your calculations off rated range.
 
Question: Reconciling EV Trip Optimizer with on-board route planner. I'm about to take my first long road trip in my S60. (Florida to Connecticut). I've planned the whole route on the app, with stops at hotels with chargers, etc. Here's my question. Do I essentially ignore the on-board route planner recommendations about how much to charge at each SC and follow the app reccos? I'm trying to figure out, when I'm actually on the trip, when to stop and for how long. Thanks.
 
Looks cool... I'll definitely have a play with this over the coming weeks. One point which might help with non-US customers: What about auto loading the superchargers for the region where the customer is (or at least having a dialog pop up asking "It looks like you're in Europe. Do you want to load the European superchargers?"). I nearly deleted the app when first playing with it, thinking it only works in the US.
This is a great suggestion. Working on it. I will probably point out the discrepancy of location once rather than force it as there could be nuances and some regions are quite vast and not connect.
 
1. The menus could be better organized. It appears the menu options are not in any particular order and I need to scan all of the items each time I want to select a particular options.
Well at least they don't move around and change the order.:)

If you have some thoughts on what you would like to see in the order, PM me. I am open to suggestions.
 
Question: Reconciling EV Trip Optimizer with on-board route planner. I'm about to take my first long road trip in my S60. (Florida to Connecticut). I've planned the whole route on the app, with stops at hotels with chargers, etc. Here's my question. Do I essentially ignore the on-board route planner recommendations about how much to charge at each SC and follow the app reccos? I'm trying to figure out, when I'm actually on the trip, when to stop and for how long. Thanks.
No. Use both.

What I do is to use the app planner to plot my course and planned stops. If you have the Pro version you can have the app send the stops to your devices calendar and with the Tesla app, have them show up as navigation stops for the car navigation system.

Then when you start your trip select the next calendar event. The car will then calculate that route and tell you if it can make it. However the car does not take into consideration weather so it could be off. None the less, the car does keep track of your consumption and whether it thinks you can make it in real-time. Watch that and adjust your driving style if needed to insure you are going to make the next stop reasonably close to what you expect.

Even though the app is pretty sophisticated, there are plenty of opportunities for it not to be exact. It should be treated as a estimation tool. IT IS NOT A DRIVING TOOL. You should balance all of the information available to you to make the best decision at the time and adjust your plans accordingly.
 
Purchased Pro and multi-trip, but see no way to "save" current planned trip, only restore.
All trips are saved. Go to the Current Trips menu and you will see them all. Only one trip at a time is Active though. The Restore Purchases is your purchases, not the trips.
Planning on iPad but will use iPhone on the road.
The trips are saved on the device, not in the cloud etc. If you want to plan on one device and use on another, you can Share the trip with yourself. See the Share feature in the Current Trips menu. It will temporarily store the trip in the cloud and you can then import it on your phone. Make sure your settings and My Cars are exactly the same as it basically clones the trip and then you may need to recalculate when after you import if time has gone by etc.
Any plans to add Tesla destination charger locations?
There are some in there today. Look for the H icons. Most of these in NA are at Tesla stores. In AP and Europe they are more prevalent.

If you are in the USA then the little car icon on the map has non Tesla chargers along your route. Other geos is in planning. And of course you can add your own and store them as favorites to be used over and over again.
 
2. In your FAQs you mentioned why you chose to base your calculations off of percent charge rather than rated range. You mentioned percentage is more consistent, and rated range depends on "driving style, etc." This relationship of driving style to rated range has been debunked by wk057(https://teslamotorsclub.com/tmc/threads/calculate-usable-battery-capacity-based-on-rated-miles-values.84434/). He has determined that it is directly proportional to energy (kWh) in the battery and hence is a direct measurement of available energy. On the other hand, percentage varies with battery age (e.g., 90% on my 70D was 214 miles on day 1, now it is 206). You allow users to compensate for this in vehicle setup, but it is unnecessary if you were to just base your calculations off rated range.
Fair enough. I changed the FAQ around this. PM me if you have other thoughts.