Yeah, I was there too at about ~14:20 PST I think. There were about 70-80 cars in front of us.. nice that Tesla was organizing the queuing. I decided to try up the road at Altascapo (or something like that). We got there and there about 20 cars ahead of us. The very nice Mykala was directing everyone. .After 20 minutes and one car left, I figured it was going to be 1.5-2 hours EASILY and I really only needed a 50 mile top up (there should be something for this for people, just like a 5-10 minute charge or something) anyway I bit the bullet and just did the 41 east to Kettleman and got there in 50 minutes, charged on a 250kwh charger for 20 minutes and made it all the way back on the 5 (and then the 153 BACK to 101, but I think I probably still made it home to the peninsula about 2-2.5 hours earlier than had I stayed at SLO.. that place was crazy
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Holiday travel availability / congestion at CA Superchargers; possible solutions, complaints, comments, discussion
- Thread starter SilverSp33d3r
- Start date
Ohmie
Member
I had a similar experience at Atascadero and backtracked to SLO hoping it would be faster. (That was probably a mistake.) Once I got to SLO and saw the crowd I thought about going to Kettleman but it looked like it would take an 1.5 hours to get there and probably a similar amount of time to backtrack to the 101.
Hopefully this was an anomaly caused by the holidays and temporary closure of the Grapevine.
Still it makes me wonder if the charging infrastructure is falling behind the number of Tesla vehicles on the road.
For the time being I’m glad that our hotel has a destination charger. Planning to extend the stay to Sunday night so we can avoid the potential for encountering more long holiday queues.
no, but the prior pics I think from thaksgiving tell the same story. rows 3-4 back, 5 wide, then under that covered awning thingy, all three lanes, then 5-6 deep, then another set of cars behind THAT. might as well have been a tesla shipping depot.70 - 80 cars in line?Did you happen to get any pics?
Tesla did have one of those portable mobile powerpack chargers going, but that couldn't have lasted too long. Maybe they can hook it up to the grid and still get use out of it.
It was basically this, Heavy holiday traffic leads to long lines at Tesla charging stations
check the tweet video from the reporter toward the bottom of the article.
you can see the cars all lined up and under the wooden cover and then parked as well in the back parking lot.
ucmndd
Well-Known Member
My brother drove his in-laws from Fresno to LAX yesterday - it took them 12 hours in a regular ICE car. Yesterday was the perfect storm (literally) for holiday travel nightmare. No amount of supercharger capacity was going to be prepared for that.
Yeah, this is really true. The storm was enough of an issue, but certainly when essentially ALL tesla traffic heading north and south on the I-5 HAS to go down the 101 instead means that those chargers were going to be overwhelmed. The i-5 has some pretty significant charging capacity of overall SC's deployed, while that whole middle section of the 101 has probably 1/2 to 1/3 of the overall numbers of units (i'm guesstimating here so when someone inevitably comes up with the actual number don't crucify me please)
You can't blame Tesla for the Grapevine being closed and the resulting lines? They reacted as best they could by bringing down the Megapack (mobile charger) but you certainly can't expect them to have an infrastructure in place for the perfect storm.
goldengate
Member
SLO has been a bottleneck for more than a year now... it's not a "perfect storm"... The Grapevine closes when there are big storms and that is becoming more frequent. Thanksgiving it was closed, Christmas it was closed. They need to add more SC's on this route and close the huge gap between Atascadero and Salinas. Anyone who is saying that doesn't need to happen hasn't driven this route. Even on good days when Grapevine is open, both Atascadero and SLO show full mid-day, which is when LA to SF hits them and SF to LA hits them.
ucmndd
Well-Known Member
I agree 101 needs more capacity. I maintain my assertion that no realistic amount of capacity would have made a difference yesterday.
The problem is not going to go away anytime soon. There will always be days with heavy traffic and road closures or other issues happen at the same time creating huge bottlenecks. It would be a waste of money and resources to plan for those extreme exceptions. Some extra capacity is good but by putting too many chargers in one spot you are creating constant bottlenecks elsewhere where you didn't put chargers in. It has to be a reasonable balance. The 364 days of regular traffic has to have enough capacity.
One way to help with those crazy days is placing mobile generators with DC chargers along the busy routes. Lots of companies rent those out for a reasonable price and they can be towed or driven wherever there is a road and are ready to go. Tesla could put the locations on the car's navigation and direct just enough cars there. In general, Tesla's navigation system could help smooth out some bottlenecks. Just yesterday I came through Vegas towards Los Angeles. The i15 was closed at night and a huge amount of people were stuck. Once it opened again everyone started driving and created lines at Barstow and Yermo. Baker, which has 40 stalls, was only 1/3 utilized when I came through. Tesla could send a pop up to cars on that route recommending to charge at Baker and charge enough to skip the busy ones.
Heck, if Tesla would come out with a CCS adapter the currently 99% unused EA chargers could be used!
One way to help with those crazy days is placing mobile generators with DC chargers along the busy routes. Lots of companies rent those out for a reasonable price and they can be towed or driven wherever there is a road and are ready to go. Tesla could put the locations on the car's navigation and direct just enough cars there. In general, Tesla's navigation system could help smooth out some bottlenecks. Just yesterday I came through Vegas towards Los Angeles. The i15 was closed at night and a huge amount of people were stuck. Once it opened again everyone started driving and created lines at Barstow and Yermo. Baker, which has 40 stalls, was only 1/3 utilized when I came through. Tesla could send a pop up to cars on that route recommending to charge at Baker and charge enough to skip the busy ones.
Heck, if Tesla would come out with a CCS adapter the currently 99% unused EA chargers could be used!
This sounds like the secret sauce for solving some of these problems. Have navigation direct only specific cars to these “hidden” special mobile megapak s.
Cheburashka
Active Member
I went to the Atascadero charger when the Madonna Inn one was full.
I got a spot but we were all getting a max of 30kW and eventually a line formed pretty quick.
Also it was about 9am and there were a ton of tweakers around the parking lot in Atascadero. What's up with that?
I got a spot but we were all getting a max of 30kW and eventually a line formed pretty quick.
Also it was about 9am and there were a ton of tweakers around the parking lot in Atascadero. What's up with that?
I have noticed that many times. When a site is full, the charge rate gets limited. I believe many sites do not have enough power to provide the full rate if all stalls are in use. This is usually never a problem because a site is rarely full, but when it happens it causes an extra slowdown and lines get longer.
What are 'tweakers'?
cpa
Active Member
Them folks what think methamphetamine is the panacea for all life's problems.
Last time I was at the Madonna Inn, I didn't have to charge. We just go there to look at the famous bathroom and have lunch LOL. I was already topped up at the Avila Lighthouse Suite Tesla destination charger. They have 2 of them there and I stayed overnight. During my 3 nights stay, 1 of the 2 were empty the entire time. You may be able to talk the front desk into letting you charge there for a few hours. Lots of restaurants around and the beach right there too.
Uncle Paul
Well-Known Member
Holiday Supercharger lines often caused by Herd Mentality.
Travelers start out at their homes with 100% charge. Typically drive at highway speeds for around 4 hours, run their batteries low than pull into a supercharger to have bio break/lunch. Most all converge around the same time.
This caused an expected bulge in the snake, where previously empty Superchargers suddenly tend to all fill up around the same time.
Smart drives can often plan around these busy chargers by scheduling their stops at off-peak times.Stop before empty, get an extra 150 miles or so, and bypass the busy charging stations.
Travelers start out at their homes with 100% charge. Typically drive at highway speeds for around 4 hours, run their batteries low than pull into a supercharger to have bio break/lunch. Most all converge around the same time.
This caused an expected bulge in the snake, where previously empty Superchargers suddenly tend to all fill up around the same time.
Smart drives can often plan around these busy chargers by scheduling their stops at off-peak times.Stop before empty, get an extra 150 miles or so, and bypass the busy charging stations.
Yep. We stop for a bio break and exercise break around every two hours depending on Supercharger or Chademo locations. Some are only 10 minute stops. Others 20 minutes. We essentially never stop to charge. We just charge when we are stopped. Then again, we are never on the road for more than 8 hours and we usually hang out in the right lane. Retirement is great.
.Except, exactly not. There’s no statistical relevance (let alone accuracy) to the variables necessary to support the above assertion.
—There’s no way the majority of 2020 Tesla drivers are charging to 100% before their trip. The new average Tesla driver simply doesn’t trip plan like old dogs do and, if we’re honest, the average Tesla driver doesn’t need to. (In other words, it’s unlikely drivers start out with the same amount of range)
—The range of different models combined with all types of driving styles leads to a practical range that’s statistically pretty wide and flat (in other words, it’s unlikely two travelers leaving from the same place will get to the same place)
—Because travelers are all different, the practical range of comfortable leg duration is also going to be wide and flat (in other words, there’s no way the average driver is going 4 hours in a stint)
—The Bay Area and the LA basin are both huge, with upwards of hours of travel to get from one side of the other, so some average time per leg in between the two is going to be very dependent on the starting point and thus will land drivers in very different places for an equivalent amount of driving.
—Following the theme, holiday 5 travelers vary greatly in timeframes, so the peak travel windows for holiday 5 travel are wide and cover multiple days. One cannot significantly outsmart all the other travelers without what most would consider significant inconvenience, like traveling late at night, or planning on stopping at known low traffic chargers like casa de fruita.
As anyone who has actually driven the 5 during holiday travel knows, all superchargers are busy across the wide window of travel hours, over multiple days. And, if one charger is full, most likely so are the chargers upstream and downstream. That simply how it’s worked to date. To be fair, my data set only includes every major holiday since 2015 on the 5 in a Tesla (and near monthly otherwise, at least in the before times); perhaps someone else’s data set is more comprehensive and also somehow justifies relevance of the early days when we had very few options on the 5.
The good news is that the whole point of a 56 stall charger is is to absorb the inevitable surges NOT have to think about where and when to stop.
cpa
Active Member
I might add this assumption: Most owners will rely upon the trip planning function in their car. They just dial in "Mom." Maybe their battery is at 64%. Maybe it is less; maybe more. The navigation will then tell them to stop 128 miles away at Gustine for 25 minutes followed by Harris Ranch for 30 minutes followed by Tejon Ranch, etc. It isn't until they are on the road that they drive past Firebaugh's 56 or Kettleman City's 40 stalls that they become aware of these locations.
I don't use this function, and I have been on at least a dozen trips of >1,500 miles. I further assume that perhaps the software will change course midstream if a planned stop is in heavy use while one that is 50 miles away is more vacant than not, or if the car can utilize the 250kW Superchargers or are limited to 120 or less.
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