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Energy Graph Tweaks

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Pluto

is a Planet
Nov 17, 2015
477
843
Auburn, AL
I know suggestions from here aren't delivered to Tesla, but I figure I'd bring this idea to TMC for discussion.

Something that would be really beneficial for Tesla owners trying to monitor their energy usage would be to differentiate between driving energy usage and all other energy usage. This could be done with a very simple tweak of the energy graph: show it as a double line graph, so that driving energy usage is the lower line, and any additional electronics, A/C, etc shows stacked above the first line. That way you can tell when there's non-driving energy usage (and see in general how much it is over long periods) and you can actually see the driving efficiency accurately at all times.

There are a few slight problems with this approach. For instance during long periods of regenerative braking, the car's additional energy usage would need to show that it cancels out some of the energy from regen. When there are minimal impacts from non-driving energy usage, it may look glitchy or be confusing with the second line appearing/disappearing. There is also the problem that when you're not driving, energy usage happens over a distance of zero. I have a strong feeling all of these can be figured out with enough thought to design.

The last issue may be that some of the energy usage cannot be separated/categorized. I highly doubt this would be problematic since, at a bare minimum, the energy put into/taken out of the inverter/motor can be estimated to come up with the same solution.

Any thoughts or other suggestions to tweak the energy graph?
 
Yes, I don't like it.

I'm all for techy/geekiness, but I don't see this having any mass market appeal, but only adding confusion to the graph.
The reason I originally thought of this was in response to the problem of a valet abusing the car and it not being entirely clear from the energy graph whether it was hard driving or energy usage while the car was at a standstill.

I do disagree with your opinion, though I respect it. I feel that since this is literally only a second line so that energy usage can be categorized in two, it's not confusing at all. The graph is incredibly basic as it is, and if anything a label would be all that's needed to make it clear.
 
Hah, I was reading the comments to see if anyone commented that it's possible that the car was just sitting "on" idling with someone inside keeping the heat/AC going, but I saw someone mention that. Also say your comment in the comments section ;)