We took our first road trip from San Diego to Yosemite then to Santa Cruz, Monterey, SLO, Solvang, Irvine, and then home.
I was a little bit nervous, especially around Yosemite since there weren't that many charging options around the mountains.
I did a lot of research and reading and combined ABRP with Tesla's navigation which worked out perfectly.
My ABRP settings provided forgiveness (320wh, 300lbs extra, 90mph max speed).
ABRP helped create the route plan which I printed out and then for each leg I used the car's navigation.
I had set my battery to display percentage and then used the TRIP tab to get a preview of my arrival SOC.
I had set my tire pressure to 43psi for the trip and will drop it back to 40psi.
I've almost always used FSD and I did better than the expectation allowing me to skip a supercharger here and there.
I've found that it was better for me to charge to 80% each time so it gave my family extra time to stretch their legs.
In the future, I think it's sufficient to just use the computer's navigation suggestions as long as you use the TRIP to preview your arrival SOC. It's very accurate.
Then you can make suggestions based on what you're comfortable with. I like to not go lower than 15% and I like to have as much charge as possible when I reach my destination so I can actually drive around and not worry about charging. Tesla supercharger locations are in great places!
The car did most of the driving and I didn't feel tired when I arrived to each destination. I even drove overnight and hiked 6 miles that morning without issues.
FSD is pretty awesome and the engineering is fabulous. The only gripes I have about the FSD is that it wants to change lanes too often and it won't let me stay in the HOV lane. I eventually turned off auto lane change and ignored it for the rest of the trip. I was stuck in LA traffic on the way back and the auto pilot was pretty terrible. It was not smooth. It accelerated way too fast and hit the brakes too hard. The software needs some work here. The acceleration should take into account of the current and recent speed as a coefficient so it's smooth in traffic. I had to turn off auto pilot and went old school.
There were many sections where there was no LTE or 3G reception and the voice commands wouldn't work. The car's functions should be independent of cellular reception.
Overall it was a good trip. I was worried that supercharging was a hassle and it wasn't. I would recommend tinting the windows and windshield for heat rejection.
The trunk space was great and I especially love the sub trunk which seem to keep the drinks cool.
I ended averaging 280wh and saved 50% compared to gas. Max speed set to 10mph over speed limit and always used Chill Mode.
The low center gravity of the vehicle made mountain driving easy.
I use FSD as much as I can and it would be nice if it was more obvious because sometimes I have to double check to see if FSD is on versus basic auto pilot, it can be dangerous.
Also, Park (black), Drive (green), Reverse (red) should be in different colors and should be more obvious.
I've made an appointment to put LLumar Air Blue 80% on the windshield (basically clear/no tint) and the car continues to get better. I'm still waiting for my first major software update.
I was a little bit nervous, especially around Yosemite since there weren't that many charging options around the mountains.
I did a lot of research and reading and combined ABRP with Tesla's navigation which worked out perfectly.
My ABRP settings provided forgiveness (320wh, 300lbs extra, 90mph max speed).
ABRP helped create the route plan which I printed out and then for each leg I used the car's navigation.
I had set my battery to display percentage and then used the TRIP tab to get a preview of my arrival SOC.
I had set my tire pressure to 43psi for the trip and will drop it back to 40psi.
I've almost always used FSD and I did better than the expectation allowing me to skip a supercharger here and there.
I've found that it was better for me to charge to 80% each time so it gave my family extra time to stretch their legs.
In the future, I think it's sufficient to just use the computer's navigation suggestions as long as you use the TRIP to preview your arrival SOC. It's very accurate.
Then you can make suggestions based on what you're comfortable with. I like to not go lower than 15% and I like to have as much charge as possible when I reach my destination so I can actually drive around and not worry about charging. Tesla supercharger locations are in great places!
The car did most of the driving and I didn't feel tired when I arrived to each destination. I even drove overnight and hiked 6 miles that morning without issues.
FSD is pretty awesome and the engineering is fabulous. The only gripes I have about the FSD is that it wants to change lanes too often and it won't let me stay in the HOV lane. I eventually turned off auto lane change and ignored it for the rest of the trip. I was stuck in LA traffic on the way back and the auto pilot was pretty terrible. It was not smooth. It accelerated way too fast and hit the brakes too hard. The software needs some work here. The acceleration should take into account of the current and recent speed as a coefficient so it's smooth in traffic. I had to turn off auto pilot and went old school.
There were many sections where there was no LTE or 3G reception and the voice commands wouldn't work. The car's functions should be independent of cellular reception.
Overall it was a good trip. I was worried that supercharging was a hassle and it wasn't. I would recommend tinting the windows and windshield for heat rejection.
The trunk space was great and I especially love the sub trunk which seem to keep the drinks cool.
I ended averaging 280wh and saved 50% compared to gas. Max speed set to 10mph over speed limit and always used Chill Mode.
The low center gravity of the vehicle made mountain driving easy.
I use FSD as much as I can and it would be nice if it was more obvious because sometimes I have to double check to see if FSD is on versus basic auto pilot, it can be dangerous.
Also, Park (black), Drive (green), Reverse (red) should be in different colors and should be more obvious.
I've made an appointment to put LLumar Air Blue 80% on the windshield (basically clear/no tint) and the car continues to get better. I'm still waiting for my first major software update.
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