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First long trip on first EV. Few issues to report

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Since you're so worried about the headlight consumption
Who the hell said I was 'worried' about it? Damn. Will look how to ignore people, and start with you. The headlights should not be on during the day, as they're not on other Teslas. Just wanted to know if other cars behave the same way. Will keep turning them off manually, so not a big deal, but if somebody has the same issue, please post it. Otherwise, I'm not interested in any other comments. Thank you.
 
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Regarding the auto headlights being on, I did notice on mine (a 2019), that if I start my drive from a dark place (e.g. parking structure) and drive into daylight, that it sometimes doesn't turn the headlights off for a LONG time (15 minutes to an hour or more). This doesn't happen when I just leave my garage, however. I actually need to drive a short distance in the dark first.

But I'm 100% with you, auto headlights is a simple feature, it really should work better. On the plus side, my headlights have always turned ON when they should. It bothered me at first, but when I realized it rarely happened overall, I stopped caring about it.

Regarding supercharging. Obviously do whatever you're comfortable with when it comes to leaving a buffer, especially across large expanses like Texas. However, what others have said is completely true, you get MASSIVELY faster charging at lower states of charge, so if charging speed does become important to you at some point, keep that in mind. For example, 20 minutes can get you roughly from 10% to 70%, whereas it also takes 20 minutes to get from 70% to 90% (approximately).

Regarding horn honk on lock. Mine is good and loud. Does your horn work correctly? All it does is "tap/toot" the horn, maybe your horn isn't healthy.

Regarding your AP stuff not working. Don't know about that. Haven't had this problem. I've been in very stormy weather where the cameras couldn't see the road well enough and the car warned me that some features wouldn't work, but it always cleared up within a few seconds or minutes when the visibility was better. As far as lane departure not working right.... I can tell you that every time I've tried to DEMONSTRATE this feature, either to myself or to my passengers, it doesn't work. However, every time I've taken my eyes off the road for a second and didn't see the road curve slightly, I get the screech and wheel tug, and before I'm in any danger. Its like it knows the difference somehow between you accidentally doing it, or doing it on purpose. It does, after all, have a camera pointed at you (despite what they say it can/can't do). Anyway, that's my experience.
 
Who the hell said I was 'worried' about it? Damn.

My mistake, for a second I thought you had spent the last few days complaining about your headlights.

I used to know someone who HATED his automatic door locks. The locks would auto lock when he started to drive, and then he'd manually unlock. After that about every 2 minutes the locks would lock again automatically, and he'd unlock it again. Repeat this process for the entire length he owned that car, for every drive. He was determined not to let the car get the upper hand.

You two sound like soul mates.

"I'm not going to let the car turn on the headlights, if its the last thing I do!"
 
Not sure about all the negativity on the guy's headlights. If they are truly on during the day, then the sensor that is supposed to Automatically turn them on/off is likely faulty. Just make an appt for mobile service to come out and check it.

fwiw: I have PUP, which included DRLs at that time...
 
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Honestly I’m not sure, It’s never something I’ve ever thought about. My assumption was that the same dims that are on at night were the ones that are on during the day. I guess ignorance is bliss because I couldn’t possibly care less.

Model 3 has 4 lights.

High beam
Low Beam
Day time running lights
Signature lights.

The signature lights are actually technically different to the daytime running lights (and dont look very good imho, some people buy eyebrows from aliexpress to blacken them). They are the big frosted white lights above the thin daytime running lights.
i got an interesting picture below where someone drives around with the daytime running lights on but the signature lights off.
No idea how he did it, afaik you can turn the signature lights on alone by turning all lights off in the menu (the signature lights arent considered a headlight for some reason).

For the car DRL are the same as the parking lights (need to use those in europe if pulled over on a road with higher limit than 50kmh) but the car only shows the DRL/parking light symbol when the low beams are also on which for the EU model only come on when it gets dark. During daytime it uses the signature lights+DRLs. Afaik there is also no way to switch the signature/DRL off at night and just have the low beams on.

I would be very surprised if in Canada it leaves the low beams on during daytime - they do use a bit of power and the signature/DRL are more than bright enough during daytime.

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My M3 2017 LR RWD's headlights have been on since day one (when using the car). Never thought they would be off. Since 1st and 2nd MS (which had DRL's) always enjoyed having that extra "Hey someone is driving here" notification.
Wasn't aware you could turn them off.
 
Not sure about all the negativity on the guy's headlights. If they are truly on during the day, then the sensor that is supposed to Automatically turn them on/off is likely faulty. Just make an appt for mobile service to come out and check it.
That was my first thought. I've had a few occasions where my headlights (not referring to DRLs) came on on during the day (going through a tunnel or under an overpass) and they stayed on, they didn't automatically turn off. I confirmed I was still on the "Auto" setting each time. It only happened a few times and it's probably been over a year since it happened last. Not sure whether that got fixed in a software update or by one of the system reboots that I've done since. @elptxjc you may try rebooting and see if that helps.
 
As to the headlights, I notice that the car switches them on below a certain level of brightness, and that level is relatively high. They certainly go off in sunshine and they usually go on when I drive through a forest or under dark clouds.

In my previous cars I had the headlights on only when it got really dark, and I had no daylight driving lights at all. So the Tesla meant a significant change in behavior.

However, I learned that the Tesla headlights are of the LED type, which consumes a lot less power. And undoubtedly the headlights increase safety a bit when it is dark enough for them to be conspicuous. This is why I am quite content with the current state of the art and am happy when I see the headlights automatically switch on in any even slightly dark situation. And that's what I recommend.
 
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Thank you for that info. I didn't know the optimal speed is only 20 mph; good to know, and the more reason not to risk having to hyper-mile (ha ha). And no way we'll ever do 10%. There's always uncertainty on a trip, plus you have to reportedly slow down at that charge level. And when it's super cold or super hot, you need HVAC if you get stuck or stranded, so will continue to shoot for 30% under those conditions. In early spring or late fall, when temps are mild, 20% would be fine. By the way, did the comparison between 20 and 30% on ABRP for this 600+ trip, and the difference was 10 minutes. Not worth the extra risk IMO. I know perfectly by now how EVs work, but I can't justify that difference. If I needed 100, then I'd probably do 20% on that leg, since it does take longer the higher you go with the charge. Or if somebody parked next to our supercharger (cutting charge current in half), maybe for that leg too. But I actually liked the stops we made, so no need to charge charging time, at least for this trip, which we used to make often before COVID.
It’s good that you prepped for your first trip by running sims in ABRP. More people should try it, because you sometimes get odd results that are counterintuitive. Your result of only a 10min trip time difference between using a SOC limit of 30% vs using 20% is counterintuitive. Would have guessed a savings of at least a half hour for a 600 mile trip. But that’s what sims are for.

i found on my regular 340mile round trip to Boston, it doesn’t really make much difference if I leave home with 90% or 60%, so now I don’t change my weekday charging routine for the weekend.
 
It’s good that you prepped for your first trip by running sims in ABRP. More people should try it, because you sometimes get odd results that are counterintuitive. Your result of only a 10min trip time difference between using a SOC limit of 30% vs using 20% is counterintuitive. Would have guessed a savings of at least a half hour for a 600 mile trip. But that’s what sims are for.

i found on my regular 340mile round trip to Boston, it doesn’t really make much difference if I leave home with 90% or 60%, so now I don’t change my weekday charging routine for the weekend.

indeed. Depends on how close the nearest ultrafast charger is but from 5 to 40% you charge so fast that it is hardly noticeable. That said it is cheaper to charge at home so i'd still leave with 90%.
 
Just leave your headlights alone. The only time I turn them off is if I’m like idle at a pizza shop and blinding the people inside.

extra light during the day makes you safer and cost maybe a penny a day in electricity. It’s not going to be what runs you out of charge.

There is no US scientific evidence to make that general claim. (we had a thread on that a couple of years ago and I posted the key research articles.) That is why NHTSA did not mandate DRLs back in the 80's.
 
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There is no US scientific evidence to make that general claim. (we had a thread on that a couple of years ago and I posted the key research articles.) That is why NHTSA did not mandate DRLs back in the 80's.

Hmmm. Who needs scientific evidence when common sense indicates that it's much easier to spot a car with DRLs and/or headlights than those withou, especially near dawn/dusk when those without common sense prowl the roads. And the US has never been a league leader when it came to safety standards anyway. Just look at when we got seat belts; disc brakes; amber turn signals; etc. And don't tell the Scandinavians or the Canadians there is no evidence to support DRLs.:(
 
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There is no US scientific evidence to make that general claim. (we had a thread on that a couple of years ago and I posted the key research articles.) That is why NHTSA did not mandate DRLs back in the 80's.

Really? Of all the hills to die on, it’s big government making you use DRLs? You do you I guess. I’ll continue to run my lights during the day and it might save my life.
 
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