Long Road Trip Advice - Ottawa, Canada to Naples, FL

[surfaholic]

Always second guess the route the car gives on the fly. It will not always give the best option. One time it had me going the longer way around to a supercharger at a further exit. It clearly looked faster to take the approaching exit, so I just went for it. I was correct, and shaved off any easy 6-8 mins and about 4-5km of driving. Of course, this might not always work out, but in general I think it is worth the gamble.

Another time, as I was about to head out from the Martinsburg, VA supercharger, it was about to route me down to Fredrick, MD, then back up to Harrisburg, PA. I quickly stopped and checked if something happened on the highway for it to do this. Nothing, no accidents to be seen and it was sunny weather. I then cancelled the current route and forced it to take me to specific supercharger(Carlsie, PA) on my previously planned route instead. I’m sure this saved me 1-2 hours of extra driving. Again, always second guess the Nav.

I highly suggest comparing routes on google and abetterrouteplanner.com. Sometimes Google will also give a route that might, for example, only be 5-10mins longer but 50km less driving which the car won’t (it only picks the fastest driving time). In my opinion, take the shorter km option, as in some cases, the 5mins extra driving will be saved time in better efficiency(wh/km) and charge times (less km). Plus, it usually ends up being a more scenic relaxing drive if the weather is nice (I wish this was feature the car nav had!). Also, the Car nav will pick up the secondary Google Nav option as soon as the it becomes the faster option, in this case, about 5 mins into the drive.

When possible take a look ahead and pick shorter stops with superchargers that don’t require a detour. On my return trip I shaved off a bunch of charge time by picking some of the stops better and using the lower and faster charging by charging between 7% - 50%


My Current General Charge Profile on 2015 P85D

2-15% - 129-100KW -If I got over 120 it would only last for about 3 minutes – Generally just over 100
15-25% 100-80kW
25-35% - 80-60kW
35-45% - 60-55kW
45-55% - 55-45kW
55-75% 45-35kW
75-85% 38-33kW

*Spent (9 hours charging to drive down and 7.5 hours to drive back)

 

[Uncle Paul]

As you go along your trip, you most likely will chose alternative stops due to your own individual circumstances. No reason to blindly follow the recommendations of the planner. That is most likely only concerned with optimizing charging times. Sometimes you will change selected chargers to avoid rush hour traffic, take a more senic route, or segway to some interesting spot along the way.

When you stop to eat, charge a bit longer and enjoy the meal, while maybe stopping for less time at a more inopportune location.

Enjoy your trip... be flexible.

 

[Target]

Just a heads up, sometimes the car routes past charging stations that have many cars heading into them. For example, it will have you charge up to a high state, and skip a location because if you do try to stop there it will almost certainly have all of it's bays full. I have ignored it's advice in this regard and paid the price of waiting in line. The station wasn't full when I decided to head there, but it was when I arrived.

 

[user212_nr]

Tesla navigation isn't very good compared with Google Maps. I don't complain about it because you have to give them credit for the massive undertaking to develop a map and nav system from scratch (or whatever they are doing), but its a hard task and they are no where near perfection.

Even the simplest feature of ability to select a route appears to be missing. Just the other day, I was exiting a parking lot with "no left turn" sign. The map showed that I needed to turn right onto the road and then left, but Tesla nav says "turn left". It discarded the compass reading that I was at a 90 degree angle to the road, and thought I was driving on it. Hopefully they are working on these things.

 

[M3BlueGeorgia]

For long trips, we use abetterrouteplanner.com to plan the route, which helps choose the overnight stops. Then use the Tesla Navigator during the trip, sometimes overriding its recommendations.

From Ottowa, consider the I-81 route, which misses the high levels of traffic congestion in the NorthEast corridor (NYC, Phili and W.D.C), then cut East/SouthEast to I-95 south of W.D.C.