Breaking down the Model S range calculator: hidden features and data!

[KarenRei]

So, on a whim I decided to look into how Tesla's Model S range calculator works. You know the one (3/4ths down):

Model S | Tesla Europe

Looking at the code, I see that first off, there's actually several data fields that you can't configure. They have 90D data. They have data on the effects of headlights. They have data on the effects of windows. They have a range field called "city", which one presumes is a start/stop city cycle of unknown details. And of course,one can always take their data, combine it with the known actual-usable-capacity data, and get Wh/mi on the vehicles. They also have three versions of the site - metric, imperial, and hybrid - each with datapoints, which you can combine to get a wider set of data. So, I'm attaching two spreadsheets that contain *all* of this data, including the hidden data, so people can feel free to look things up, make comparative graphs, and so forth

Graph ideas (I don't have time at the moment):
* How does each model's energy consumption compare in the same weather/window/light/ac/heating conditions?
* How do windows-down effect a given vehicle's energy consumption under a specific set of conditions vs. AC?
* Same for lighting, and heating

One could also adjust the curves to get a pretty good guess at Model 3 data (for example, range vs. speed in different weather conditions).

The other curious thing I found is this:

https://www.tesla.com/tesla_theme/js/models/data/config.json

There's a ton of fields in there describing something *much* more elaborate than the simplistic range calculator on the page. It sounds like they were perhaps looking to do a primitive of what a company I ran years ago had offered to them as a feature That is, simulating actual drives. There's data in there to figure out how long charges take, with fields like:

"plugEfficiencyStd": 6.48,
"plugEfficiencyMid": 9.94,
"plugEfficiencyMid_JP": 6.743,
"plugEfficiencyHi": 19.85,
"plugEfficiencyHi_JP": 13.65,

There's fields discussing summer vs. winter. There's something involving estimating your savings vs. a gasoline car:

"savingsTitles": ["PETROL STATIONS", "OIL CHANGES", "SPARK PLUGS", "SMOG CHECKS", "TIMING BELTS", "FUEL FILTERS"],

There's a list of fuel prices for different countries. There's lots of animation data - including charging animations, savings animations, and my favorite, road trip animations that have fields related to cows:

"cowLeftStart": 7138,
"cowLeftStop": 7618,
"cowRightStart": 7138,
"cowRightStop": 7618,
"cowRight2Start": 7138,
"cowRight2Stop": 7618,

It'd be interesting to know just what they had been planning

Anyway, just thought I'd share

 

[jaguar36]

I just use EVtripplanner Its very accurate for predicting energy usage, and takes into account weather, elevations and road speed. The Tesla information is mostly useless.

 

[cadop]

Wow this is awesome!

 

[DanL50]

How practical/accurate is A Better Routeplanner compared to EVTripPlanner?

 

[SKRGO]

How practical/accurate is A Better Routeplanner compared to EVTripPlanner?

Once you try ABRP while connected live to your car on a trip you will not use anything else.

 

[BigTonyTones]

Just want to contribute my 2 cents.
I found the in car tesla navigation to be a bit off in range on certain routes that I have taken in the past and decided to give this app a try last week when I went from Los angeles to San francisco.
tesla_to | Digital Auto Guides

Its a forum member who made it and it uses multiple things to calculate range, altitude, weather, wind, speed you like to drive at etc...

I have to say it was SPOT ON! On my way back it said I would have 33 miles left when I would arrive to my house.

Almost home and I was saying to myself, "no way this thing is accurate I should be much less than that". Nevertheless I kept driving to test it. Well the few mile descent through the grapevine gave me the mileage needed and I did arrive to my house with about 38 miles left. I was shocked! I actually proffered its route calculation more since it had me stopping at superchargers for only a few minutes where the tesla navigation wanted me to stop for a full 40 minutes at certain ones.

Also, the TESLA navigation was indeed accurate for the first time (iv done the same drive before). Im wondering if they optimized it with the latest map update that my car received.

 

[David99]

That's very interesting. Since the data comes from Tesla it's most likely pretty accurate. They used to have a range calculator on their website that allowed you to see the difference with windows up or down, headlights up or down and various temperatures.

On the other hand we have quite a few good trip planning tools available now. EVTripplanner.com, AbetterRouteplanner.com, EVTripping, The car's own trip planner and a few others.

I have driven 90k miles on road trips with my Model S, used Superchargers more than 800 times. These days I'm using mostly EVTripplanner to give me an idea of the trip, but once I'm on the road I just use the car's trip planner and sometimes manually pick the superchargers I want to use rather than what the planner does, depending on how hungry we are, bathroom needs or things I want to stop by and see on the way.

 

[Hugh Mannity]

Cool stuff! I’m always amazed when people dig into the car’s info like this. You make this forum a better place!

 

[yngwiescruggs]

Just want to contribute my 2 cents.
I found the in car tesla navigation to be a bit off in range on certain routes that I have taken in the past and decided to give this app a try last week when I went from Los angeles to San francisco.
tesla_to | Digital Auto Guides

Its a forum member who made it and it uses multiple things to calculate range, altitude, weather, wind, speed you like to drive at etc...

I have to say it was SPOT ON! On my way back it said I would have 33 miles left when I would arrive to my house.

Almost home and I was saying to myself, "no way this thing is accurate I should be much less than that". Nevertheless I kept driving to test it. Well the few mile descent through the grapevine gave me the mileage needed and I did arrive to my house with about 38 miles left. I was shocked! I actually proffered its route calculation more since it had me stopping at superchargers for only a few minutes where the tesla navigation wanted me to stop for a full 40 minutes at certain ones.

Also, the TESLA navigation was indeed accurate for the first time (iv done the same drive before). Im wondering if they optimized it with the latest map update that my car received.

Likewise I noticed today on a road trip that the tesla in car nav estimates were spot on and much more aggressive, matching actual driving conditions. I expected to see more on the forums about it because the difference was stark from before. I noticed the difference especially because the original algorithm seriously overestimated range when going up in altitude and underestimated when going down. Today it was accurate both ways from Phoenix (1500 ft) to/from Sedona (5000 ft).

 

[BigTonyTones]

Likewise I noticed today on a road trip that the tesla in car nav estimates were spot on and much more aggressive, matching actual driving conditions. I expected to see more on the forums about it because the difference was stark from before. I noticed the difference especially because the original algorithm seriously overestimated range when going up in altitude and underestimated when going down. Today it was accurate both ways from Phoenix (1500 ft) to/from Sedona (5000 ft).

I'm glad to hear I wasn't the only one who noticed it I bet it's hard to notice unless you do a long drive.

 

[shanelord]

Just want to contribute my 2 cents.
I found the in car tesla navigation to be a bit off in range on certain routes that I have taken in the past and decided to give this app a try last week when I went from Los angeles to San francisco.
tesla_to | Digital Auto Guides

Its a forum member who made it and it uses multiple things to calculate range, altitude, weather, wind, speed you like to drive at etc...

I have to say it was SPOT ON! On my way back it said I would have 33 miles left when I would arrive to my house.

Almost home and I was saying to myself, "no way this thing is accurate I should be much less than that". Nevertheless I kept driving to test it. Well the few mile descent through the grapevine gave me the mileage needed and I did arrive to my house with about 38 miles left. I was shocked! I actually proffered its route calculation more since it had me stopping at superchargers for only a few minutes where the tesla navigation wanted me to stop for a full 40 minutes at certain ones.

Also, the TESLA navigation was indeed accurate for the first time (iv done the same drive before). Im wondering if they optimized it with the latest map update that my car received.

Moderator note-- Shanelord apologizes for mistaking this app with another:
I’d love to use EVTO but the subscription is way overpriced for what it does.

 

[dweeks]

I’d love to use EVTO but the subscription is way overpriced for what it does.

It's only 99 cents per month. I don't consider that overpriced.

 

[BigTonyTones]

It's about 85 cents a month .it saved me some time on my last San Francisco trip. That time alone is worth more to me than the subscription fee.


Isn't the program free up to a 500 mile trip ?

 

[SKRGO]

Once you try ABRP while connected live to your car on a trip you will not use anything else.

So

David99
jaguar36
Galve2000

Why do you disagree with my post. What do you not like about ABRP?

 

[shanelord]

I’d love to use EVTO but the subscription is way overpriced for what it does.

Apologies you are all correct. Mistakes were made and I have confused EVTO with another app. Sincerest apologies to the developer and you all for my incorrect statement.

Shane.