Elon "About to end range anxiety"

[AnxietyRanger]

Why in the world would you do that?

You could also stop at that charger 100miles away before going to that distant and isolate destination, charge to ~250 and arrive with 150 left not relying on that single unreliably charging option. If it happens to be like pictured you are still fine to go.
Range anxiety is always drivers fault - he was too optimistic, relying on unrelyable. Having a car yelling at you to stop and charge where you still can will reduce opportunities for owner to F*** it.
Besides, car could and should and would know current state of all nearby charging options far better than anyone owner.
Besides, public charging options are not the only options, every electrical outlet is a charging opportunity. They are just so much slower. Slow charging beats walking anytime.

I dislike the notion that range anxiety is always the driver's fault. It is not realistic to assume people forgo driving anxiety-indicuing routes entirely and buy EVs to drive only the safe bets, because basically that is what such an arguments comes down to - if range anxiety is the fault of the driver, the driver must make (way) more decisions to not drive at all, because of the immaturity of the charging infrastructure in many (most?) markets.

It can be the only practical charger on the way to the destination - and it can be the only charger. This is easily the scenario in many countries still, smaller cities maybe having one public charger, if that. Range anxiety or lack thereof is greatly dependent on the charging infrastructure available. I can start with 100% from home, but it is even worse for those who live in an apartment or other dwelling without nightly charging options. This seems to be often forgotten by people who do charge at home daily and have a plentitude of compatible chargers around them.

All this is, of course, very area dependent but I have driven and have needs to drive routes where basically the only charger I can use is near the destination - and it is the only public charger I can use, period. That alone is quite anxiety inducing. This is not helped by the fact that many Tesla owners can't yet make use of many DC chargers out there (CHAdeMO/CCS), limiting the options more. The trip is fine if the destination charger works and is free - with, say, 30% of battery to spare at destination chager - but if it isn't, it is flatbed time way away from home because reaching back, even to another charger, is impossible.

This isn't some wilderness either, just an urban area with underdeveloped Tesla compatible infrastucture, that is within the range of the car one way, but not enough to return, without charging options along the way and very limited charging options at the destination. Charging at someone's outlet in a strange city is not easy either, local's may have it easier of course. Slow charging may not always be an option either (even if you are willing to wait it out), if you can't charge fast enough to get enough of juice for a return, say within the opening times of a parking garage that would allow you to do that.

The only realistic option to reduce this anxiety is to not make the trip in a Tesla and drive an ICE instead.

 

[sandpiper]

Other than being solidly founded in fantasy land, no amount of range will "end range anxiety".
Anxiety is caused by not knowing.
Accurate navigation and prediction removes that unknown, thus removes the anxiety.

You hop into the car, it takes your battery SOC, range to destination, elevations along route, temperatures and perhaps even wind speed and direction and the car tells you YES or NO. No mystery, no anxiety.
Add to that automatic routing to SuperChargers or public chargers and you have, IMO, the best way to remove range anxiety for the most people.

My fantasy will be crushed like a bug on Thursday. No need to crush it now, please!

If it has to be prediction (which will do exactly squat to eliminate my range anxiety in my circumstance), then they should also add a direct link to cruise control so that it automatically limits your speed to assure that you'll get there. And it should automatically disable the HVAC system to ensure that when I do get there after driving for 5 hours at 65 km/hr in -35, I'll be frozen like one of those wackos locked up in cryo suspension until the year 3000. But of course with lane keeping enabled, maybe this isn't a problem!

 

[taraquin]

I hope for a range increasing tweak and possibility 2 show remaining kWh instead of % og guessed mikm.

 

[Saghost]

But even in a world where chargers are always functioning perfectly, the prediction can be 100% accurate. It doesn't know headwinds or tailwinds, or exact traffic pattern, or trucks you can slipstream behind, or how much weight you have in the car.

Why wouldn't it? This is the computerized internet car...

The winds most everywhere are available in real time over the internet, and forecasters routinely predict them well in advance as well - so all Tesla would need to do is fold the weather along the path into the prediction. They'd also have to model your typical climate control choices - possibly link it to your driver profile and then add HVAC usage based on the weather forecast.

The exact traffic pattern isn't known ahead of time of course, but most of the rush-hour type backups are fairly predictable, and Tesla has had months of data from the traffic reporting Nav version to dig through - it should be fairly easy for them to add a factor that says "at 5 pm on Mondays, there's a 90% chance of a backup on this major road, averaging 15 minutes." Besides, traffic backups generally increase effective range for EVs, except for extreme backups or extremely bad weather.

If Tesla wants it, they can determine the weight in your car and any unusual aerodynamics the moment you drive off. If the car is monitoring the actual rate of acceleration versus the power applied, it would be simple for them to see the effect of extra people in the car - and if the road load is higher, they'd know you put a bike or cargo box on the roof rack.

They might have to curve fit against the load at a couple speeds to decide if it was increased aero from your bike rack or increased rolling resistance from your fancy new high performance tires, but it's still fairly simple math and Tesla has all the information to do it - most of which is being presented to you in the instrument panel already. This performance monitoring could also lead to proactive replacement of failing components - something we've started to do in aerospace based mostly on vibration levels.

Obviously, Tesla won't know if there's a convenient semi to draft - but the estimate would simply be built assuming you don't draft anyone.
Walter

 

[Ames]

I'm going with one of the following:

1) the tweet was created before the 6.1 / Torque Sleep update and inadvertently got released when scary AI app on Elon's phone had existential crisis, shut itself down, and thus freed up the CPU for other tasks.
2) an enhanced Tow Mode utilizing a tractor beam (naturally, included with the new Autopilot hardware) allowing TACC to lock on to the vehicle it is following coupled with an intelligent regen mode that dials to max for large trucks and all the way down to 0% for grossly under-powered vehicles such as the Amish Horse & buggy.

 

[bp1000]

Interesting to hear Jerome Guillen mention the update will be to the firmware suggesting it's something to do with the drivetrain / motor.

Video posted in the videos section for the EU HQ opening.

 

[tdelta1000]

Ok Mr. Musk the ball is in your court...now "wow" us with that Tony Stark stuff.

 

[harry]

I'm going with one of the following:

1) the tweet was created before the 6.1 / Torque Sleep update and inadvertently got released when scary AI app on Elon's phone had existential crisis, shut itself down, and thus freed up the CPU for other tasks.
2) an enhanced Tow Mode utilizing a tractor beam (naturally, included with the new Autopilot hardware) allowing TACC to lock on to the vehicle it is following coupled with an intelligent regen mode that dials to max for large trucks and all the way down to 0% for grossly under-powered vehicles such as the Mormon Horse & buggy.

@Ames,

It's Amish,, not Mormon, for the horse and buggy. I've driven behind them many times, and you get GREAT range!

 

[yobigd20]

Infinite range!

[video]http://youtube.com/watch?v=M0ANR-leiB8[/video]

 

[mibaro2]

What about Costco?

Costco would work...the line-ups at the cash are long enough for you to get a full charge!

 

[Ames]

@Ames,

It's Amish,, not Mormon, for the horse and buggy. I've driven behind them many times, and you get GREAT range!

My bad, posted edited...I must have been picturing a Mormon pioneer.

View attachment 74984

 

[zbarni]

1. My first theory is, that this software update will allow the car to get more juice out of the battery, possibly by allowing the motors to run on lower voltage.
2. Or maybe the cars always had a longer range, but Tesla didn't enable this feature, because they wanted to see the battery capacity reduction by time. Don't forget the Model S is only 3 years old and the battery is supposed to last approximately 10 years, so they nedded some time to test it.

It's also interesting that this
update comes when the stock is low. Maybe Tesla had this update ready for months, but they wanted to use this "card" when they really need it.

 

[iKhalid]

1. My first theory is, that this software update will allow the car to get more juice out of the battery, possibly by allowing the motors to run on lower voltage.
2. Or maybe the cars always had a longer range, but Tesla didn't enable this feature, because they wanted to see the battery capacity reduction by time. Don't forget the Model S is only 3 years old and the battery is supposed to last approximately 10 years, so they nedded some time to test it.

It's also interesting that this
update comes when the stock is low. Maybe Tesla had this update ready for months, but they wanted to use this "card" when they really need it.

Interesting... But Elon doesn't care about the stock. Unless he wants to create another company or something (hyperloop?)

 

[SW2Fiddler]

LOL Colorado models will change the "Ionizer" to a "Vaporizer" wherein when the car detects Range Anxiety setting in it will blow marijuana smoke into the cabin...

Obviously this feature is powered by the CAN Bus. xD

 

[MassModel3]

Why wouldn't it? This is the computerized internet car...

The winds most everywhere are available in real time over the internet, and forecasters routinely predict them well in advance as well - so all Tesla would need to do is fold the weather along the path into the prediction. They'd also have to model your typical climate control choices - possibly link it to your driver profile and then add HVAC usage based on the weather forecast.

The exact traffic pattern isn't known ahead of time of course, but most of the rush-hour type backups are fairly predictable, and Tesla has had months of data from the traffic reporting Nav version to dig through - it should be fairly easy for them to add a factor that says "at 5 pm on Mondays, there's a 90% chance of a backup on this major road, averaging 15 minutes." Besides, traffic backups generally increase effective range for EVs, except for extreme backups or extremely bad weather.

If Tesla wants it, they can determine the weight in your car and any unusual aerodynamics the moment you drive off. If the car is monitoring the actual rate of acceleration versus the power applied, it would be simple for them to see the effect of extra people in the car - and if the road load is higher, they'd know you put a bike or cargo box on the roof rack.

They might have to curve fit against the load at a couple speeds to decide if it was increased aero from your bike rack or increased rolling resistance from your fancy new high performance tires, but it's still fairly simple math and Tesla has all the information to do it - most of which is being presented to you in the instrument panel already. This performance monitoring could also lead to proactive replacement of failing components - something we've started to do in aerospace based mostly on vibration levels.

Obviously, Tesla won't know if there's a convenient semi to draft - but the estimate would simply be built assuming you don't draft anyone.
Walter

Actually, with the new radar devices and cameras on Model S's for the last 2 or 3 months, they probably have more than enough data to discern between "energy usage was better better today for unknown reasons" and "energy usage was better today and there's a 13-foot high wall (aka: semi) 20 feet in front of the Model S".

 

[Edgewood Dome]

Popcorn ordered.

Not for the event, but for the rampant speculation that's about to commence on TMC...

38 pages of speculation later, I have to agree with you.

 

[andrewket]

38 pages of speculation later, I have to agree with you.

Next time get it fresh from the hopper. Mmmm good.

 

[iKhalid]

Tesla SDK?

 

[Saghost]

Actually, with the new radar devices and cameras on Model S's for the last 2 or 3 months, they probably have more than enough data to discern between "energy usage was better better today for unknown reasons" and "energy usage was better today and there's a 13-foot high wall (aka: semi) 20 feet in front of the Model S".

Oh, absolutely. The car can certainly know when you've been drafting and while it's happening. I just don't see a practical way for it to predict that you'll be able to draft a semi for some portion of your upcoming road trip - so I would argue that the prediction would be best done on the assumption there won't be any convenient semis.
Walter

 

[Skotty]

Elon, the master of over-promising and under-delivering.

dont hold your breath.

But this shouldn't be thought of as all negative. His promises, or shall I say ambitions, tend to be extreme, but he often under-delivers that with really damn good.