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How pairing at Supercharging works
- Thread starter David99
- Start date
I do get a chuckle out of "To maximize power, park at a Supercharger shared with a car that is nearly done charging".
I know. The whole paragraph really doesn't help understanding what is really going on. Since Tesla car have no way of showing their state of charge when the car is locked, I don't know how one would know which car is almost done charging. Even more so when driving up on a half full Supercharger.
But the cars know, and they talk to the mothership all the time. That's why I'm expecting to eventually see Tesla work in a firmware update to help this situation, where the car is given a "best" stall based on data from the other cars via the mothership when it approaches a SpC site, and pops that up on the center screen, likely with a detailed site map showing your relative position (or a number in queue if there's a waiting list.)
There are other solutions. Tesla may upgrade the chargers so all cars get full speed. I have not been able to find an internal wiring diagram of the chargers so I don't know if this would just be a simple addition or not.
The equipment and power line needed to upgrade all the stalls would be most of the investment in building another site of the same size or doubling the number of stalls at this site. Which of those would be more useful to owners?
That's why I don't think you'll see Tesla moving away from the split/sharing architecture - it makes sites cheaper while allowing more cars to move through faster compared to a similar investment using a non-shared approach.
I agree it would overall be better to have twice as many stalls than only each stall having full power. But in terms of how much work it is, that's significant. To give all stalls a dedicated charger would require additional cabinets and chargers, but all wiring to the stalls remain the same. There might already be enough space to add the extra chargers in the cabinets. Doubling the number of stalls requires serious work, breaking ground, and at many sites the extra parking spaces might not be available.
If Tesla had a very simple way to tell me which stalls have the most power when I arrive at a station would help tremendously.
Joshker
Member
This seems like the most logical choice. We can already view how many vehicles are charging at each supercharger, now just specify which stall is best on or arrival.
I wonder if that information is available with existing SuperCharger installations. Maybe the Superchargers only feedback to Tesla is 1) in use/not in use 2) working/disabled. Programming the optimal stall would be a guess at best since they don't know how long any car will be there.
But that's why this is not based on the stall communicating anything. All of the cars have internet connections and communicate with Tesla's servers frequently. So this could be mostly deciphered from the cars that are connected, what states of charge they have, what destination is set in Nav, etc.
Sure until you go to the 40 stall stations and have to figure out the difference between the Umbra and the Rust pairs in the dark or maybe the chartreuse and light pear pairs in setting sunlight...
;-)
Yeah the color thing probably doesn't work so well. If Tesla would at least stick to the same layout, that would be helpful. If A and B would always be next to each other!
Maybe a simple green light on those stalls that have 72 or more kW available. I think that's a very easy way to find a good stall and it would work quite well. Even if a stall is paired with another car, once there is 72 kW available it means the other car is already tapering down quite a bit and in a matter of a short time will drop down more bumping the other side up to 108.
The biggest issue is locals supercharging.
I understand they "paid for it" but still annoying for those on road trips.
I'd support an algo to give priority charging to Tesla's outside of their "home zone".
I understand they "paid for it" but still annoying for those on road trips.
I'd support an algo to give priority charging to Tesla's outside of their "home zone".
We have had this discussion many times here. Tesla is putting Superchargers in cities and urban areas more and more. They do that to serve the demand in these areas. Superchargers are not only for long distance traveling any more.
cpa
Active Member
I have suggested before to change the illuminated "TESLA" logo at the top of each stall. Now that nearly all locations have been retrofitted with the illuminated signs, this should be easy enough to do.
An arbitrary way would be: TESLA = 80+% maximum charging speed available
TESL = 60-79% maximum charging speed
TES = 40-59% maximum charging speed
TE = 20-39% maximum charging speed
unlit = out of service
No need to crawl through the parking spaces to look for an unpaired stall. No need to chase down the owner of the car that is "nearly done Supercharging" like we are supposed to know whom and where. No need to crane our necks to see what the numbering schematic is.
I presume that this would work for color-blind people as well.
An arbitrary way would be: TESLA = 80+% maximum charging speed available
TESL = 60-79% maximum charging speed
TES = 40-59% maximum charging speed
TE = 20-39% maximum charging speed
unlit = out of service
No need to crawl through the parking spaces to look for an unpaired stall. No need to chase down the owner of the car that is "nearly done Supercharging" like we are supposed to know whom and where. No need to crane our necks to see what the numbering schematic is.
I presume that this would work for color-blind people as well.
Are the signs illuminated during the day? If so, I guess I've never noticed!
I was supercharging at night in Custer, SD over the weekend and realized that in a year and a half, I've never supercharged when it was 'dark' before and haven't ever seen the signs illuminated in person.
cpa
Active Member
Yes to the best of my recollection as they stand out during daylight hours in cloudy and foggy conditions. But you do have a point, as the illumination can be difficult to detect during the brightest times of day or when the sun is directly behind the stations.
Semaphores might do the trick. Vertical = power reduced to <40%; horizontal = power between 40-70%; missing = >70%.
For a moment I was with you on the illumination of the TESLA logo chracters. But yeah, full sunlight brightness...
Now I’m back to the in-car display of data.
How about the top-3 list of available chargers on the central screen, sorted by descending charge rate? As a ranking list and those ranks projected on a map of the charging site.
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