And now for the journey home! Some bad, some good, mostly " " which, let's be honest, is perfect when you have a 13 and a half hour drive to undertake. The dull normal is what you want! Only one incident of Phantom braking on the whole journey.
We started off from the little village outside the campsite with a full SoC, and as the first 10 miles was pretty mush all down hill very little fuel was used. However, then the first, and only major problem started. I had planned to do a long 3 and a bit hour drive to the charger at Chateuroux, with the car saying I'd have 15% SoC when I got there and ABRP saying I'd have 12%. About an hour into the journey the estimate had dropped to 6%, I got nervous about it dropping further so did an emergency top up at Limoges. Not sure at all why the estimate was so out? One thing might have been weight, the car was fully loaded and it was a really hilly part of the journey, maybe the car struggled with the calculations? Doesn't explain ABRP though, as I put the extra weight into the app also it was the only part of the trip where it rained, but only showers. No idea why it was so off. I kept within the speed limit (honestly, gov). Does using FSD use a lot more computing power and therefore power power? Th other half always got to here charging stops above predicted SoC and I was always below. We are both "spirited" drivers so the only difference I can think of was I used NoA all the time and she didn't like it.
Anyway, have already described the two charging stops on the way down so on with the trip...
Given my emergency stop at Limoges it's a real PiTA that the Orléans site is currently closed. It would have been a perfect charge stop for a trip from south west France to North East France. Instead it was back up to Chateroux for a long long charge to be able to get to the Rungis supercharger in Paris. Which is in an odd location. in the Novotel at the very back of an area of dirt cheap hotels. Had lunch there, finest french cuisine from Monsieur McDonald then the entirely incident free drive up to the train. Good charging at Calais eurotunnel terminal including an extra boost at the flexiplus lounge with two extra chargers that I didn't know about. Meant I could drive in the manner god intended on the English leg of the journey and use the P of my M3P. Word of warning though, the flexiplus chargers are for Model 3 owners only (or, better drivers than me). The exit is really really tight and if I had a model X I'd not even attempt it!
I few quirks: NoA is scared of cones. It'll try to steer you away from them when you go through roadworks. It's also scared of bends in the road and wants to put two lanes between you and the lorry it's overtaking if they road is bending (left in France, right in the UK). I know it has to err on the side of safety but it is a nervous nelly at times. Getting on to the peripherique in heavy, typically Parisienne traffic gave it a total meltdown and the organic, field on caffeine and biscuits computer had to take over.
Last odd thing: the car is EXTREMELY clever in that it knows that France has two motorway speed limits depending on if it's raining or not and it'll tell you which one to stick to. However it's also extremely stupid. It thinks it's own washer fluid is rain, and reacts accordingly. On two occasions, with the amount of bugs on the screen, I had to use a lot of fluid, and it said "bad weather detected, NoA switching off" Silly car.
That being said, using autopilot and NoA was so much more relaxing than having no driver aids. I got home much fresher than I should have been after a long drive. It gives you time to concentrate on actually more of the road, confident that the car will spot things as much as you will.
Summary: Apart form the software quirks and need to improve the confidence of the NoA the car performed remarkably well for what was asked if it. It's a cheap, small, electric, performance saloon with sports suspension and low profile tyres. It isn't built for doing 13 hour long journeys, certainly not fully loaded with bikes, and all the gear need for a weekend on a campsite. It's not it's wheelhouse at all but it did exactly what was asked if it. It got us there and back without major incident in much more comfort than I was expecting and way more relaxed than any other car I've driven. Even my previous car which was designed for carrying big loads on long motorway journeys couldn't touch this.
