First Road trip with model 3.....really sucks.....

[Zythryn]

I love Teslas but why is it always the owners fault when something happens? When I was 16 I bought a new Nissan and never did I once had to test a gas station to make sure I can fill my gas tank.

Btw, I over filled it and gas spilled all over me. Learn the hard way. Maybe I should have tested it first. Oh well.

Not one poster is saying that the issue is the owner's fault.
What some posters are saying is that it would be wise to test the supercharger prior to depending upon it for a trip.

The error would have happened either way, but if tested early it would have been a small inconvenience, if that.

As the OP stated, lesson learned.
I also agree with the OP, that really sucks, and I am sorry it happened.

 

[Evoforce]

We

I once was stuck in Shamrock for 20 hours. I arrived when a major snow storm caused a wide power outage. Eventually Tesla organized a tow truck that drove me 90 miles to the next Supercharger.

That is quite the story... Well at least they do have some decent hotels in town.

 

[Nocturnal]

In addition to being one of those things that should just work, the idea that someone should have to test Supercharging assumes that someone has a Supercharger nearby to test. I'm about 60 miles one-way from the nearest Superchargers. Unless I'm driving it at night, both of those locations could be 2 hours or more in traffic.

If I had to be stuck somewhere, Kettleman City's Supercharger would be towards the top of my list. Hope that a fix is found quickly for you. Keep enjoying that playtime with your kids. My oldest is back at college now (we actually stopped in Kettleman City on our way home from his first year of school), and might not have been willing to play hide and seek with me if I'd asked.

Same. I have one that is 20 minutes away, but it's 20 minutes in the complete opposite direction that I would ever drive in.

 

[Evoforce]

Yes,

Not one poster is saying that the issue is the owner's fault.
What some posters are saying is that it would be wise to test the supercharger prior to depending upon it for a trip.

The error would have happened either way, but if tested early it would have been a small inconvenience, if that.

As the OP stated, lesson learned.
I also agree with the OP, that really sucks, and I am sorry it happened.

Yes, there is something to be said about preparedness. Try to reasonably plan for the expected/unexpected.

 

[roblab]

It sure saves a lot of grief to check things out before going on a road trip. My takeaway on this is that these cars are not the Nissans and Chevys folks have been driving their whole lives, and new owners should make themselves familiar with how they work. ALL new owners. When a person figures that they don't need to bother, they end up having problems.

Especially with supercharging. The OP had never done that before. Probably just needed to give Tesla a credit card number. But why didn't the OP call road service? The Service Center never seemed to be aware that this person was stuck away from home and should have gotten Tesla Road Service moving, and Road Service doesn't take a half hour to answer the phone. This is another thing people need to understand. Getting connected with Tesla is not the same as calling the Service Center. Here again, this isn't a Toyota or Ford.

There have been suggestions that each new owner get connected to an experienced owner for just such reasons as these. I think it should happen. Newbie owners, even if they know how to fill a gas tank or can double clutch, or have never read an owner's manual because they already know it all, can profit by experience.

 

[ℬête Noire]

Probably just needed to give Tesla a credit card number.

It also saves a lot of grief if you take the time to read the thread (or at least scan the first page?) before you post.

 

[ℬête Noire]

It seems almost certain that Tesla used DC charging on this car at some point. Probably even a proper SC setup during vehicle prep at the delivery location. That implies that whatever happened here could happen at any point along the way, even mid-trip. We'll see what the Tesla engineers figure out for a root cause/fix but that's what I find most disconcerting about this.

 

[Zythryn]

It seems almost certain that Tesla used DC charging on this car at some point. Probably even a proper SC setup during vehicle prep at the delivery location. That implies that whatever happened here could happen at any point along the way, even mid-trip. We'll see what the Tesla engineers figure out for a root cause/fix but that's what I find most disconcerting about this.

I suspect that when Tesla used DC charging the car was in it's pre-delivery setting. Under that setting, it may not have exhibited any such error.
That said, perhaps it should be tested under the standard setup to insure critical issues such as this are not missed.

The only cars I am aware of that weren't 'supercharger enabled' were the 40kWh model S cars. Any others? This seems a very old bug and I hope Tesla can fix it OTA ASAP.

 

[WileyTheMan]

Oh man I sympathize with you, OP. I have young kids and being stuck with no place for them to play is painful.

I hope it's a simple fix.

 

[Nuclear Fusion]

It is not the first road trip, but its your first supercharging that screwed up your trip. You should have checked out to the supercharging in your nearest supercharger first, a few days before you went for the road trip. Especially given that you are in CA, that should have been quite easy.

This makes sense. Tesla is f*cking up production on a monumental amount of cars.

 

[Nuclear Fusion]

Oh man I sympathize with you, OP. I have young kids and being stuck with no place for them to play is painful.

I hope it's a simple fix.

#thoughts&prayers

 

[ℬête Noire]

I have young kids and being stuck with no place for them to play is painful.

In my experience the difficulty lays in that they'll play anywhere.

 

[ebmcs03]

That's awful, that being said, I know when I picked up my Model 3, the dealer was charging it up at a supercharger prior to handing it off. So maybe something happened after a software update that broke your charging?

But those are free ones.

I’m guessing there’s some authentication that was messed up for paid ones.

 

[Electroman]

Disagree. Not cool man. Hope you realized what you were really saying before posting.

Hold on guys. I am a little tickled at the huge number of disagrees.

Tesla put a defective component in the car. I don't think anyone is disputing that. They should have tested it before releasing it to the customer. I don't think anyone is disputing that. Those are Tesla's clear failures.

Given that, but lets look at two hypothetical scenarios how this could have played out:

- M3 owner a few days before going on a long first trip on his new car, checks out in a SC nearby , finds the problem, drives over to the service center and is fixed the next day - perhaps a broken clip? In this scenario we would not even have heard from that owner here in TMC, or at best there might be a topic headlined, "Supercharging had a defect, Tesla service fixed it - great service from Tesla; I had a fantastic long trip today"

- M3 owner buckles his 2 year old and heads for a fairly long first trip on a new car, finds the problem, gets stuck for many hours through the night at a very unfriendly neighborhood with no food or restroom services, had to cancel the trip, stay at an expensive hotel; kid becomes sick, and yada yada (add your own other bad things that can happen) - the whole Tesla ownership experience is ruined.

In both the situations the error from Tesla is the same: untested, broken Supercharger equipment in the car. But how the 2nd scenario played out, and the magnitude of the troubles the owner experienced is totally self-inflicted. When you don't do due diligence and get into some very deep trouble, it is unfortunate, but you can't shift all of that blame to the source that initiated this problem.

Here the trip was disaster due to two things:

a) untested SC equipment from Tesla
b) lack of due diligence and planning - especially when you take your first trip and load your 2 year old in the car

That was my point.

 

[Pollux]

Putting my money down on the side of, "just bought it, expected it to just work".

The days of the early-adopting crowd are over. Expectations are rightly much higher.

While I agree that the *ideal* is that everyone be a fully-prepared, master planning Eagle Scout, the real world doesn't work like that. The typical purchaser taking delivery of any other $50K car wouldn't imagine checking critical engine components, fluids or even the tire pressure before taking a road-trip soon afterwards. Wouldn't check the gas tank for a slow leak, look under the car for strange puddles, or check to make sure that the gas cap really can be unlocked correctly. Get in the car and go.

Heck, Tesla doesn't even supply a spare tire with its vehicles. If a tire fails, the owner is expected to call for help.

Sure, OP could have prep'd better; especially in 20/20 hindsight. But truly what marks OP is his patience and grace, especially when his family is affected, which in my mind is the attitude of an early-adopter.

Alan

P.S. I showed up to get my first S in August, 2013, carrying with me a 3-page delivery acceptance checklist assembled by a thoughtful person on TMC (or was it the tesla.com forum). That behavior was *typical* in 2013. For my Dec '16 S and my parents' Jan '18 3, I just walked around the car and listened to the delivery specialist. Now, I hear that Tesla is perfecting a 5-minute delivery experience. Sounds like Tesla doesn't expect that its typical customer will perform the due diligence expected by others on this thread.

 

[brobinson]

That was my point.

And your point is still incorrect. This is the definition of victim blaming.

 

[RedModel3]

But those are free ones.

I’m guessing there’s some authentication that was messed up for paid ones.

There is no such thing as "free" and "paid" superchargers. They are all the same, and when you plug in it should connect with your account automatically. If you don't have free supercharging, it gets charged to a credit card. It's very simple.

This sounds like something else altogether. I agree with Bete Noire - this is something that could have just happened out of the blue, and until we know what it is, it could happen to any of us. Every time I've gotten an update, some other tiny glitch seems to appear. Fortunately, it's never anything crucial, but the next time it might be.

I hope the author of this thread keeps us posted.

 

[Need]

I don't disagree but really, should you have to check such things? I know I know... to be fair, I just yesterday stopped to charge for all of 10mins just to prove it worked but.. I find my lack of faith disturbing...

I drove my Model 3 after delivery last Wednesday straight to the supercharger next to my home just to make sure supercharging works. When I took delivery of our Model X last year, it could not supercharge. BTW, these were the other things I tested at the delivery center because they did NOT work after we took our Model X home last year:
Windshield wiper
UMC charging

 

[Darren Donovan]

I don't disagree but really, should you have to check such things? I know I know... to be fair, I just yesterday stopped to charge for all of 10mins just to prove it worked but.. I find my lack of faith disturbing...

Well, it IS a Tesla vehicle, so new owners should check out everything and make sure it works. Don't blindly trust Tesla QC.
When a typical consumer buys a new car, s/he is not expected to have to test out every function of that car. It's common and standard to expect that the factory had done that already, it's called Quality Control.

 

[ℬête Noire]

I drove my Model 3 after delivery last Wednesday straight to the supercharger next to my home just to make sure supercharging works. When I took delivery of our Model X last year, it could not supercharge. BTW, these were the other things I tested at the delivery center because they did NOT work after we took our Model X home last year: Windshield wiper, UMC charging

My designated delivery center is also a SC location (on top of being a Service Center), so I had already expected I was going to try it out anyway to make sure I had a handle on it. So it was about me (and the wife's) competency, but this really puts an underline on going through that process.

Short of that I wouldn't be using a SC until well into my first road trip, as I don't expect to ever use any of the several 'local' SC save maybe during a return leg of a very trip from certain directions.