Firmware Version .236
I just finished a 2,775 mile round trip from New Orleans to Northern New Jersey and I have to say that while the concept of Trip Planner is great the current implementation is Beta at best (maybe more like Alpha). Here's my experience.
I started off at home (New Orleans Metro). There is only one, direct, mostly supercharged route. I-10 East to Mobile, AL; I-65 North to Montgomery, AL; I-85 North to I-95; I-95 North to destination (North New Jersey).
I programmed in my destination in N Jersey and it routes through superchargers going west to Baton Rouge, on to Texas, north to Nebraska then east to New Jersey. Okay, I think I can maybe accept that because the more direct route has a gap in Superchargers between Atlanta and Charlotte of 245 miles and it probably assumes there isn't enough cushion to make that.
So, I program in Atlanta, GA since that's where I plan to make my first stop. It still calculates the same route west, north, east then south (some 2,000+ miles to get to Atlanta 500 miles away from me). Now I'm having trouble accepting this since I'm 90% charged (225 miles rated range) and Mobile, AL is 144 miles away from me along the direct east route. Beyond Mobile is Greenville, Auburn, Atlanta all spaced normally for supercharger usage.
So, I program in Mobile, AL supercharger as my destination (144 miles away). It still routes west, north, east then south some 2,400+ miles for me to get to Mobile which is 144 miles away on I-10. Trip Planner FAIL
I go ahead and depart for Mobile, AL on I-10. It takes until I'm halfway across Mississippi before the NAV finally decides that direct would be better and reroutes me the correct way. After that it mapped out the correct stops/times to each supercharger along the sane route.
Next issue: Each time I arrived at its designated supercharger, charged up until it said I had enough to continue on to the next one and then I usually continued charging to add another 10 or 15 miles on top of that before departing. This usually gave me 40 - 50 miles more rated range than the actual distance to the next charging stop. I would then depart for my next supercharger stop (as instructed by NAV) and everything would seem normal. Here's where the next rub comes in - many times it would let me get 10 or 15 miles into my journey toward the next supercharger and then all of a sudden reroute and decide I needed to go BACK where I had just charged and charge again. Sometimes it would even say I needed to go BACK to the charger I just left and I needed 0 minutes charge time. All the while I had at least 40 miles excess range to reach the next charger. I obviously would just keep going and eventually I would get far enough away from the past charger that it would reroute again to the proper next charge stop. Trip Planner FAIL
Having said all that, when it is working correctly it's a nice addition to the NAV.
Is everybody (anybody?) else see these same things?
Mike
I just finished a 2,775 mile round trip from New Orleans to Northern New Jersey and I have to say that while the concept of Trip Planner is great the current implementation is Beta at best (maybe more like Alpha). Here's my experience.
I started off at home (New Orleans Metro). There is only one, direct, mostly supercharged route. I-10 East to Mobile, AL; I-65 North to Montgomery, AL; I-85 North to I-95; I-95 North to destination (North New Jersey).
I programmed in my destination in N Jersey and it routes through superchargers going west to Baton Rouge, on to Texas, north to Nebraska then east to New Jersey. Okay, I think I can maybe accept that because the more direct route has a gap in Superchargers between Atlanta and Charlotte of 245 miles and it probably assumes there isn't enough cushion to make that.
So, I program in Atlanta, GA since that's where I plan to make my first stop. It still calculates the same route west, north, east then south (some 2,000+ miles to get to Atlanta 500 miles away from me). Now I'm having trouble accepting this since I'm 90% charged (225 miles rated range) and Mobile, AL is 144 miles away from me along the direct east route. Beyond Mobile is Greenville, Auburn, Atlanta all spaced normally for supercharger usage.
So, I program in Mobile, AL supercharger as my destination (144 miles away). It still routes west, north, east then south some 2,400+ miles for me to get to Mobile which is 144 miles away on I-10. Trip Planner FAIL
I go ahead and depart for Mobile, AL on I-10. It takes until I'm halfway across Mississippi before the NAV finally decides that direct would be better and reroutes me the correct way. After that it mapped out the correct stops/times to each supercharger along the sane route.
Next issue: Each time I arrived at its designated supercharger, charged up until it said I had enough to continue on to the next one and then I usually continued charging to add another 10 or 15 miles on top of that before departing. This usually gave me 40 - 50 miles more rated range than the actual distance to the next charging stop. I would then depart for my next supercharger stop (as instructed by NAV) and everything would seem normal. Here's where the next rub comes in - many times it would let me get 10 or 15 miles into my journey toward the next supercharger and then all of a sudden reroute and decide I needed to go BACK where I had just charged and charge again. Sometimes it would even say I needed to go BACK to the charger I just left and I needed 0 minutes charge time. All the while I had at least 40 miles excess range to reach the next charger. I obviously would just keep going and eventually I would get far enough away from the past charger that it would reroute again to the proper next charge stop. Trip Planner FAIL
Having said all that, when it is working correctly it's a nice addition to the NAV.
Is everybody (anybody?) else see these same things?
Mike
Last edited:
