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Intelligent supercharger routing FAIL
- Thread starter yobigd20
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- Model S User Interface
I ran into a mild form of this strange routing 3 weeks ago, driving up on 101 Atascadero via Gilroy to home on the peninsula. Tesla insisted that we drive across to I5 to charge at Harris Ranch, although I had plenty of charge (full at 200 mi rated) to make it to Gilroy, based on prior bad experience driving north on 101 against headwind. We arrived in Gilroy with a little less than 40 mi left, as expected. We can't make it home without Gilroy in our MS 60.
The trip planning wanted us to return to Paso Robles, along 41 to I5. Later, it insisted on cutting across on 198, a seriously windy road. Only after Gilroy was closer than Harris Ranch it reconsidered. Of course, while charging at Atascadero it suggested that we could stop charging at something like 175 miles, which can be cutting it very close on 101.
The main problem with all of this is of course that while it's being stupid, it won't tell me the remaining distance to Gilroy to be able to keep track.
Range anxiety avoidance not ready for prime time ...
The trip planning wanted us to return to Paso Robles, along 41 to I5. Later, it insisted on cutting across on 198, a seriously windy road. Only after Gilroy was closer than Harris Ranch it reconsidered. Of course, while charging at Atascadero it suggested that we could stop charging at something like 175 miles, which can be cutting it very close on 101.
The main problem with all of this is of course that while it's being stupid, it won't tell me the remaining distance to Gilroy to be able to keep track.
Range anxiety avoidance not ready for prime time ...
Sosius
a.k.a. Uptown Frunk
OK, I think this is a pretty severe Supercharger routing fail. This happens to me every time I try this route.
Let's see: 209 miles of range, Check.
Want to go to the Mobile, AL Supercharger. 129 miles away. Press button to navigate there. Check.
The Tesla nav then gives me this convenient route, through Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, Nebraska, Wyoming, South Dakota, Iowa, Wisconsin, etc. That's right, 3,889 miles! A whopping 3,760 miles out of my way.
I do want to do the Great American Road Trip one day, but this day I just wanted to travel 129 miles to a Supercharger! So, yes, I agree with the majority of posts here that Supercharger routing needs a bit of work. I won't be trusting it any time soon, that's for sure.
Cliff
Let's see: 209 miles of range, Check.
Want to go to the Mobile, AL Supercharger. 129 miles away. Press button to navigate there. Check.
The Tesla nav then gives me this convenient route, through Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Colorado, Nebraska, Wyoming, South Dakota, Iowa, Wisconsin, etc. That's right, 3,889 miles! A whopping 3,760 miles out of my way.
I do want to do the Great American Road Trip one day, but this day I just wanted to travel 129 miles to a Supercharger! So, yes, I agree with the majority of posts here that Supercharger routing needs a bit of work. I won't be trusting it any time soon, that's for sure.
Cliff
Clearly this is a fail, but equally the 129mi shown when you enter the destination is straight line. What's the distance by road (i.e. if you tell it to remove all charging stops what distance does it think you will have to drive to get to the Mobile SC? If that's up near to 200mi then the car is basically routing so that you never go below 10% SOC, perhaps. It's wrong, obviously, but at least it can be understood!
maybe you should face your car east instead of west before punching in the destination, lol
Andyw2100
Well-Known Member
Sosius
a.k.a. Uptown Frunk
Andyw2100
Well-Known Member
True, it's "beta" and not perfected yet, but it's interesting how much "anxiety" is caused by "doing away with range anxiety" isn't it? I wonder if Mr. Musk actually uses his navigation system.... I posit that if he did, this would have been fixed a long time ago. At least I am not alone in this as per my previous thread: Deleting inappropriate Supercharger recommendation from route
My concern is that I can't be sure that anyone at Tesla is actually looking at this kind of thread and trying to do something with it.... If they want to relieve some of the anxiety, they should acknowledge the problem or, at least, let us know that it's being worked on. As I and others mentioned on another thread regarding this problem, it seems that EVTrip Planner has virtually solved the problem.
Guess I have to keep my iPhone or iPad to use Waze for navigation, and use EVTrip Planner (written by an teenager who has not even entered college yet) to calculate refueling stops. I guess one day Tesla will get it right..... The kid who programmed EVTrip Planner asks for donations toward his college fund, maybe Tesla should buy his program and send a promising, deserving, smart young kid to college - maybe even offer him a job!
My concern is that I can't be sure that anyone at Tesla is actually looking at this kind of thread and trying to do something with it.... If they want to relieve some of the anxiety, they should acknowledge the problem or, at least, let us know that it's being worked on. As I and others mentioned on another thread regarding this problem, it seems that EVTrip Planner has virtually solved the problem.
Guess I have to keep my iPhone or iPad to use Waze for navigation, and use EVTrip Planner (written by an teenager who has not even entered college yet) to calculate refueling stops. I guess one day Tesla will get it right..... The kid who programmed EVTrip Planner asks for donations toward his college fund, maybe Tesla should buy his program and send a promising, deserving, smart young kid to college - maybe even offer him a job!
Cyclone
Cyclonic Member ((.oO))
While I completely agree with your sentiment here, I just want to point out that Ben is now in college. He also recently lost his dad (Cliff), so he hasn't had an opportunity to be active on the site or these forums in a while (-- understandably so!).
Thanks for the update on Ben. Of course I am so sorry about his loss.
My comments were really aimed at Tesla. Since they don't have anyone who openly participates in this forum, to my knowledge, I worry to what extent they may be aware of the problem. I would hope very much so, but we have no way of knowing.... anxiety about anxiety relief, I guess.
At least when Allen Wong wrote his Apple Watch and iPhone/iPad apps (Remote S) they did contact him and offered him a job. He couldn't accept it because of his impending major operation. Turns out that Allen is recovering well and wants them to call him back. I hope they do. He seems to understand how the whole system works and would be a real asset to their programing department.
All that aside, these absurd navigation/refueling recommendations don't make Tesla look good. Let's hope they get this worked out soon as I would look forward to using it as long as it was reasonable.
Andyw2100
Well-Known Member
A minor point, but unless you have some additional information, I think Ben is probably about to start college. He still has this posted on his site:
"UPDATE: On December 12, 2014, I was officially accepted to Stanford University!"
So I expect he'll be starting as a freshman in a few weeks.
Cyclone
Cyclonic Member ((.oO))
Doh! Makes sense. Summer classes recently started here as the college kids are driving around now, but I accidentally thought this was the regular school year. I need to get out of rock! Lol
That's good to hear... I don't blame them for keeping out of the fray and lurking on the sidelines. Glad that they are listening - and responding. Relieves some of my "anxiety" :smile:
mknox
Well-Known Member
Sorry if this is a repeat, but I've recently noticed that if I plan a trip with one Supercharger between me and my destination, it will always route me there whether I need it or not. Often it will say I need "0 minutes" of charging at that stop! The problem with this is that if you're not paying attention, this can take you out of your way because Superchargers are often a bit off of the direct path.
I wonder whether this is all to do with contingency. Keeping zero risk around capacity is an impossible challenge; a zero minute stop can be adjusted during the journey to allow for enthusiastic pre SC driving or changed conditions post the stop. It creates an option.
if it isn't needed of course it is an inefficiency to the journey.
I believe the cars software tries to keep the minimum charge at 20%. So if you're arriving at your next supercharger with 19% charge (for example), it'll route you to a supercharger on the way for a 0minute charge. (the charging time is in increments of 5 minutes, and you obviously don't need 5 minutes of charging, so it probably rounds down to 0-minutes, anticipating that you'll charge for 1-2 minutes, and get to your next supercharger with 20+%).
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