Impressed with the car - after first long (Tahoe) trip (500miles total)

[phaduman]

I have read other Tahoe trip reports - so this is just a few points that I thought was worth sharing.

• From south bay (San jose) to North Tahoe (squaw valley) was 240miles each way. Family trip (2 adults, 2 kids) and decent luggage for 2nights/3-days.
• Charged car to 90% from home (7,000ft climb in the last 70 miles of the trip). Had turned on the "range mode" in the car - and kept the AC ON the whole time, temp set to 72deg - wife doesn't like it cold. The Car did a pretty decent 335watts/mile - considering the climb - pre-climb, it was 288wpm, the climbing section was more like 430wpm I think - with one supercharging at Rocklin (that was super fast BTW - 20mins got me 100+miles, quite a busy supercharger, next to SC), and then I topped off at Truckee (behind Safeway, kind of shady corner, was not busy at all)- just in case the destination charging didn't work. I was not really keeping up with the recommended speeds (< 70Mph) - I went similar to other cars' speeds.
• Destination charging at Resort at Squaw Creek is fantastic - there are 3 chargers (16KW) just behind the main building (closer to your room), so you can get back and forth between car & room if you like (access from 2nd floor). The other 3 chargers are at the regular (far) parking lot (quite full, and cars are parked close to each other). Note: Destination charging isn't free - it is part of Valet service ($35/night) :-(. So you may want to valet on the last night of your trip to fully charge before taking off (or use Truckee supercharger - barely 10miles from the resort). Next time, I may not do valet. BTW, Valet kept the keys, but the app was quite useful to access the car without going to bell desk.
• On the way back, I did get pretty low watts/mile. Had charged to 95% before starting return journey (destination charging). Total 500mile trip averaged out to be exactly 290Watts/mile. I was quite amazed - very close to rated miles for the 75D. I think the dual motors do a fantastic job with efficiency, even with the speeds I was going at.
• I did not drive at 65Mph. I went with the regular speeds that other cars drove. The highway 5 segment was 70mph speed limit and many cars were going at 79Mph.
• There was no snow on the road - that could have helped with efficiency too.
• The return journey (240miles) - car said I would reach home with 6% remaining without any supercharging - and it was quite accurate. Even though, the car did remind me (on both the screens to keep speed to 65Mph to reach destination) - the higher speeds didn't seem to burn the battery down any faster than what the system predicted at the beginning. I never the less did a 15min supercharge at the fremont factory supercharger facility - don't like the car to run that low when reaching home (man - that was backed up 6cars when I left).
• Really liked the real-time monitoring of the supercharger usage through the Nav - was very helpful when I had to select between two supercharger options close-by.
• autopilot: the stretch of I-80 climbing up/down in winding roads - I used TACC instead of AP as AP1 sometimes didn't find lanes (there were none actually in some stretches because of heavy snow season wear & tear I think) - TACC itself is really useful. Driver just has to remember that they are on TACC and not AP - I know it is easy to figure out by looking at the blue circles, just need to be mindful. AP worked great on well marked highways - which was most of my journey (no truck lust or anything).
• Slacker worked fine all the time - no LTE signal issues anywhere during the drive or at Squaw valley.
• the trunk space is enormous for a sedan (is MS a sedan or a hatchback by definition?).
• The back seats headrests are rather more protruding (we have premium seats) - wasn't quite comfortable for long drives for adults I would think - adjustable headrests for back would have been good.

All in all - quite impressed with our first long journey that required a supercharger. And the latest Tesla blog on more superchargers only increased our confidence to go out more often with the MS. We are new to this - and I have read many cross-country reports here at TMC, all it takes is a drive or two ourselves to bring all that together.

 

[ecarfan]

the trunk space is enormous for a sedan (is MS a sedan or a hatchback by definition?).

It's a "hatchback sedan".

Glad you had such a positive experience and welcome to the brave new world of EV motoring!

 

[davinci2017]

Good fun, the drive to Tahoe is a nice one with some good roads along the way. I wonder though how much traffic did you run into? Was it mild-average or high?

My experience with AP2 Auto-steer has been good so far when there is either very little traffic or tons of traffic. The intermediate scenario's worry me quite a bit with vehicles moving steadily near speed limit and on either side of you. Somehow the car doesn't induce a lot of confidence in such scenarios. Its also terrible near 18 wheelers that are close to lane markers and ends up driving right next to them and almost drifting towards in a way.

But overall its still very useful as long as you still pay attention and disengage and re-engage it as necessary and not just rely on it completely, although I do hope it improves significantly over the next couple months to the point of being really confident and assured under most scenarios

 

[phaduman]

I faced all traffic types. Going (Friday) was relatively easy - so most AP times were with fast-moving vehicles. I usually try to be on the left most lane and it only has to work hard on the right side traffic - and it does a good job. If I am in the middle lane, I do pay somewhat more attention and if I see a car (or cars) just cruising at same speed and along my sides, I just press the accelerator to free that space up on both sides...

AP1 on rare occassions takes a bit of time to detect vehicles on the sides, and I have seen it get close then move away to other lane side, only to detect another vehicle and re-adjust. So a bit of swaying happens - and at highway speeds might be disconcerting. But my hands are on handle and I didn't have to take over at anytime - except as I said, depress the go pedal to give AP1 some breathing room.

On the way down, had more traffic at certain locations (merging from 5 and yosemite on 205) - and AP1 is the best at high traffic/low speed situations. so many bored drivers peek into my car and give me a look when they see the relaxed look on mine..

Also - when I am outside bay area, I frequently wave at other tesla drivers - and 100% of the time I have get back waves.

 

[Kant.Ing]

We have driven to Squaw several times since Thanksgiving. We don't stay in the resort, we always parked and charged the car at Cornice Cantina for free (I guess it's the one you mean far), and took Far East!