Model X Road Trips

[ecrsail]

I've alluded to a long road trip I took in my P90D X earlier this year and wanted to post some range data from the trip to provide some hard data for those contemplating similar trips.

Executive Summary
The trip took five weeks total and visited Nevada, Arizona (briefly), Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Washington, Oregon, and California. To celebrate the National Park Service's Centennial Year, stops were made at Zion, Grand Teton, Yellowstone, Glacier, and Crater Lake national parks, as well as other national forests, monuments, and state parks. Tesla superchargers, destination chargers, and various third-party and public (non-Tesla) charging stations were used throughout the trip. Drive Assist (aka auto-pilot) was also used when and where appropriate to reduce driver fatigue and increase safety.

Overall the experience was similar to that already posted by others: range anxiety was a non-issue most of the time and was easily dealt with by reviewing the route ahead of time, noting the potential impact of elevation, wind, and temperature on range estimates, and identifying charging opportunities along the way.

If you are thinking about embarking on a similar trip in the western U.S. and worrying about whether your P90D X can get you there, my experience was that it definitely can.

Route - Part 1: San Diego to Boulder

This particular post will focus on the first part of the trip which began north of San Diego, CA with overnight stops at Zion National Park, UT and Glenwood Springs, CO before arriving in Boulder, CO.

The screenshot above is from an iOS based route planning tools used to plan the trip prior to departure -- inRoute. As others have pointed out, EVTripPlanner is an excellent (free) online tool as well. Of particular concern to me during this part of the trip were the climbs in Utah and Colorado. However, with superchargers available at regular and convenient intervals along I-15 and I-70, any range anxiety was unnecessary -- as the charts and graphs below show.

Three travel days of 485 miles, 487 miles, and 194 miles (1166 miles total) made easy work of the projected 1144 mile route. As you can see from the stacked bar graph on the left, I was still learning how to efficiently charge and manage time spent charging in this early phase of the trip and (unnecessarily) charged above well beyond a reasonable 10-15% margin for each leg. The blue portion of each vertical bar represents the amount of battery actually used for the leg, and the green portion represents the range "left over" in the battery at the end of the leg. At this point in my ownership experience, I was still learning when charging to 20% was a good idea and when it was likely to be unnecessary and a waste of time.

Power usage average 336 Wh/mile between San Diego and eastern Utah -- which did include some significant climbing at freeway speeds. Power usage increased to 353 Wh/mile between Zion and eastern Colorado which involved even more climbing. The final leg, which included traversing the continental divide and the descent down to Boulder at "only" 5300 ft of elevation, was the most power efficient thanks to regen.

On this part of the trip, all charging was at super chargers except prior to departure, after arrival in Boulder (which sadly has no supercharger), and at Zion National Park (where a destination charger was used during the multi-day stay).

 

[xkwizit]

I've alluded to a long road trip I took in my P90D X earlier this year and wanted to post some range data from the trip to provide some hard data for those contemplating similar trips.

Executive Summary
The trip took five weeks total and visited Nevada, Arizona (briefly), Utah, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Washington, Oregon, and California. To celebrate the National Park Service's Centennial Year, stops were made at Zion, Grand Teton, Yellowstone, Glacier, and Crater Lake national parks, as well as other national forests, monuments, and state parks. Tesla superchargers, destination chargers, and various third-party and public (non-Tesla) charging stations were used throughout the trip. Drive Assist (aka auto-pilot) was also used when and where appropriate to reduce driver fatigue and increase safety.

Overall the experience was similar to that already posted by others: range anxiety was a non-issue most of the time and was easily dealt with by reviewing the route ahead of time, noting the potential impact of elevation, wind, and temperature on range estimates, and identifying charging opportunities along the way.

If you are thinking about embarking on a similar trip in the western U.S. and worrying about whether your P90D X can get you there, my experience was that it definitely can.

Route - Part 1: San Diego to Boulder

This particular post will focus on the first part of the trip which began north of San Diego, CA with overnight stops at Zion National Park, UT and Glenwood Springs, CO before arriving in Boulder, CO.

View attachment 187252

The screenshot above is from an iOS based route planning tools used to plan the trip prior to departure -- inRoute. As others have pointed out, EVTripPlanner is an excellent (free) online tool as well. Of particular concern to me during this part of the trip were the climbs in Utah and Colorado. However, with superchargers available at regular and convenient intervals along I-15 and I-70, any range anxiety was unnecessary -- as the charts and graphs below show.

View attachment 187253

Three travel days of 485 miles, 487 miles, and 194 miles (1166 miles total) made easy work of the projected 1144 mile route. As you can see from the stacked bar graph on the left, I was still learning how to efficiently charge and manage time spent charging in this early phase of the trip and (unnecessarily) charged above well beyond a reasonable 10-15% margin for each leg. The blue portion of each vertical bar represents the amount of battery actually used for the leg, and the green portion represents the range "left over" in the battery at the end of the leg. At this point in my ownership experience, I was still learning when charging to 20% was a good idea and when it was likely to be unnecessary and a waste of time.

Power usage average 336 Wh/mile between San Diego and eastern Utah -- which did include some significant climbing at freeway speeds. Power usage increased to 353 Wh/mile between Zion and eastern Colorado which involved even more climbing. The final leg, which included traversing the continental divide and the descent down to Boulder at "only" 5300 ft of elevation, was the most power efficient thanks to regen.

On this part of the trip, all charging was at super chargers except prior to departure, after arrival in Boulder (which sadly has no supercharger), and at Zion National Park (where a destination charger was used during the multi-day stay).

@ecrsail - hats off to you for detailed record keeping and an excellent post. Look forward to reading about rest of the trip.

 

[NovemberXray]

@ecrsail Thanks for the details! I'm about to set off from Portland on Friday for an 8000 mile trip across the country to DC, Boston, Montreal and back, and so far in my shorter trips (having had my X P90D for only 3 weeks) I have yet to see any Wh/mile under 400! I occasionally enjoy flooring it, but even on a 300 mile freeway trip on Auto Pilot most of the way at 65 to 70MPH, I'm averaging more like 430 wh/mile. Admittedly I currently do not have range mode turned on, and did not do anything to try and conserve power, but your numbers seem WAY lower. Does Range Mode make that big a difference? Other tips anyone can share, or anyone else getting higher energy consumption on average with a P90D?

 

[RobertSeattle]

I pack the car, get the kids in, start driving. I realize after 5 miles that the key fob isn't where it is supposed to be. But I KNOW that it is somewhere with the car as the NAG would be going off. So I continue driving. I get to a SC and start charging. I look for the fob, can't find it anywhere INSIDE the car. To cut to the chase, the FOB had travelled 100 miles at highway speeds in that little gully between the front windshield and the frunk - had foolishly put it there which packing!

 

[loganintx]

I've updated my Google Sheet to include a few more Google Maps API calls to get Elevation, Duration and Distance information.

Tesla Charging Stations - Distances, Elevation, Travel Times

You can add your own SC stops and select the To and From legs of routes you will take. This will show you hte elevation change between those points, the travel time based on Google Maps and even a link to show you the route.
Make a copy of it to your own Google Docs account if you want to change it up a bit.

 

[ecrsail]

This is Part 2 of a five week road trip taken in P90D Model X in the late spring and early summer of 2016. Part 1 which summarized the charging performance from San Diego to Boulder can be found in an earlier posting within this thread here.


Route - Part 2: Boulder CO to Jackson WY

After spending time in the Boulder area, what was expected to be the most challenging part of the trip (from a charging perspective) lay ahead: Wyoming. Wyoming is the tenth largest state in the USA by area but ranks next to last in terms of population. With almost half of the land owned by the government, most of the state is literally empty. Although Wyoming (currently) includes four superchargers, these stations are all located in the eastern half of the state and appear placed to enable north/south travel between Colorado and Montana and east/west travel along I-90 between South Dakota and Montana. These are important and useful stations, but they are very inconveniently placed if you attempting to reach Yellowstone or Jackson Hole from Colorado (and not headed directly to Montana). No doubt superchargers will be placed along I-80 in the future, but in the interim, your options to traverse Wyoming starting in the southeast and heading to the west or northwest are either to make a long detour through eastern Wyoming and Montana (potentially adding multiple nights to the drive), or venture off the supercharger network and cross central Wyoming more directly. In addition, there are elevation and wind factors to consider when crossing Wyoming from east to west. However, despite these challenges, which initially appeared quite formidable, the P90D X was easily up to the task.

Tesla Super- and Destination charger locations within Wyoming (USA) as of July 2016 per www.tesla.com

After a some research and route planning, the following route was determined as the most reasonably safe and fastest way to reach Jackson Hole from Boulder using current charging infrastructure:

Route Plan: Part 2 - Boulder to Jackson

This route requires you leave Boulder with enough charge to reach the supercharger in Cheyenne WY. If you're leaving from Denver, Cheyenne is easily reachable from the Denver supercharger. Otherwise you may need to use public charging options in Boulder or Fort Collins. Cheyenne and Casper are the only convenient spots to pick up water or food in eastern and central Wyoming, so if you don't depart the Boulder/Denver area with everything you need to reach the overnight at Riverton, be sure to pick up some supplies in Cheyenne just to be safe.

After Cheyenne, the supercharger in Lusk, WY is the next stop. This leg is also the easternmost drive of the entire five week road trip and brings you so close to Nebraska and South Dakota that the temptation to add one or two states to the adventure via a short detour may arise; however, with 621 miles to cover in a day, and the traverse of central WY still ahead, cooler heads prevailed (this time).

Eastern Wyoming

There's not a heck of a lot to do to pass the time in Lusk (although there is a Subway a short walk from the supercharger). Much of the growth in the state of Wyoming is focused in Teton county in the west, and projects in neighboring states to the east have pulled many in eastern Wyoming away. According to Wikipedia, about half of the counties in Wyoming are losing population. This seems very apparent in Lusk -- which is located in the least populated county in the state. BTW, this is the sort of interesting info you learn about the areas you are driving through when you spend time researching routes and looking for alternative charging options. Not only does it makes the whole trip more interesting, but a better understanding of the area you are driving into means you'll make better charging decisions the day of your drive.

Supercharger in Lusk WY

Abandoned ICE station in Lusk WY

With the rest of the day comprised of the extended drive due west to Riverton (where an official Tesla Destination charger awaited), Lusk was the first location in the trip to-date where I felt a 100% full charge was a good idea. There is an (unadvertised) destination charger in Casper, but our goal was to make it to Riverton so as to enable both another full overnight charge to cross the Continental Divide again (note the elevation peak at almost 9800 ft in the route plan above) and also an early morning arrival in Teton County the next day.

We left Lusk with 245 miles of rated range in the battery and arrived in Casper with 142 mile of predicted range remaining. With the destination charger at the Hampton Inn in Riverton WY only 118 miles away, this left 24 miles of margin. Later in the trip, I would have probably skipped Casper and carefully managed the remaining charge. But knowing that there were no other charging options along the way and remembering the 15-25 mph headwinds that had been forecasted all day, we pulled into the shared parking lot of the Hampton/Hilton Inn and plugged in. Neither front desk was concerned about our charging, and knowing I would be staying at a Hampton Inn in Riverton that night, we walked to a local steakhouse and had dinner while charging. Topping off in Casper meant the drive to Riverton could be taken at speed and without any range anxiety.

Another approach to the Wyoming east-to-west traverse would have skipped Lusk -- and head to Casper directly. But even if you leave Cheyenne fully charged (~247 miles for my P90D), the ~178 mile distance between the Cheyenne supercharger and the Hampton Inn in Casper means you do not have enough range to make it to Riverton. So instead of (optionally) topping off in Casper, you're forced to charge up from about 25% of your battery to at least 50% and more likely 65% to ensure some margin to reach Riverton. The charger in Casper only puts out 30 A (circuit limited), so you'll be stuck in Casper for at least 4.5 hours. Hence the shortcut to Lusk will likely cost you an hour or two of total travel time (you'll save a little on total distance travelled and charge time in Lusk). Further, if your goal is to reach Jackson the next day, and you don't make it to Riverton that night, you'll face another slow charging stop in Riverton before you're ready to head into the Tetons. So, my advice is: until Tesla installs superchargers in Casper or along I-80, top off in Lusk before heading west.

The last leg of this part of the trip was a morning drive from Riverton to Jackson Hole, climbing up and over the Continental Divide again, this time from east to west. Utah and Colorado had already treated us to some beautiful views, but it was impossible not to pull over several times along the drive to enjoy the stunning natural beauty of western Wyoming. Although everyone has seen pictures of the Grand Tetons, seeing this majestic range in person for the first time with the morning sun illuminating the peaks on a clear day was one of the most memorable moments of the entire trip. Many days of hiking awaited in the next few days, but before the X arrived in Jackson, we had already been treated to amazing sights of unspoiled natural beauty -- and all via electric propulsion!

View stop after entering Grand Teton National Park

Two travel days of 465 and 179 miles (644 miles total) slightly exceeded the predicted 621 mile route. Some (but not all) of this was likely due to a grocery store detour in Cheyenne. The fact that the remaining green portion of the stacked column for Leg 13 (Lusk to Casper) is larger than the used blue portion of the stacked column for Leg 14 (Casper to Riverton) shows that I did arrive in Casper with enough charge to actually make it to Riverton without charging in Casper, but it would have been very close.

Power usage averaged 319 Wh/mile between Boulder and Riverton -- significantly lower than the first part of the road trip. This is likely due to two factors: relatively flat terrain and a driver focused on conserving range as much as possible while crossing Wyoming. Power usage was undoubtedly much higher on the legs after Riverton due to the significant climb and the many stops to take pictures that were made that day.

If you've read this far and are indeed studying the range analysis graphs, you'll note that I failed to record the battery usage on the very last leg of this part of the trip. My apologies, but the pronghorns hanging out in the hills before the Continental Divide, the amazing views of the snowcapped Grand Tetons, the herd of bison blocking the road entering the park all distracted me enough that by the time we reached Jackson (with plenty of range to spare), I failed to record the battery state.

 

[ohmman]

@ecrsail, thanks again for the beautifully written and informative post. That route is one we plan to attempt next year - it'll be interesting to see how the charging landscape has changed by that time.

 

[pkumar]

My first Road trip experience (SF to LA)


It has been a few months since I got my Model X 90D. I have not had any issues with my Model X. I finally made my first road trip from San Francisco Bay Area (Mid-Peninsula) to LA (Palos Verdes).


The total distance (one-way) is 400 miles. I knew I had to charge at least twice to get to my destination. I left home on a full charge (261miles). I decided to take 101S all the way to LA. It was a longer and slower trip, but I decided to take this route because there are many alternative charging options en-route.


The first segment after leaving the SF Bay Area was perhaps the longest stretch – 196 miles to Atascadero on Highway 101. I managed to get to this supercharger site with 9% remaining. The charging rate was average (at 215 mi/hr). The supercharging site was very convenient with a number of restaurants nearby. From Atascadero, the next stop was at the Oxnard supercharger. This site was in a mall parking lot, and it was very busy. We managed to get the last empty stall. The charging rates were very low (approx. 160 mi/hr). We had to spend extended time at the mall till we had enough charge to get to our destination.


The worst experience was at the destination – a resort in Palos Verdes. I had to use their ChargePoint station. You pay for charging and it was charging at 16mi/hr. I had to leave it at the charging bay overnight.


On my way back from LA, I decided to take the fast route via Interstate 5. I relied on the Tesla Trip Planner to do the planning for me. The first charging stop was at Buttonwillow. The charging rate was at 269 mi/hr. There is a Denny’s, Starbucks and a Subway nearby. The next stop was at the Gilroy supercharger. That distance was about 188 miles, but I ended up using 209 battery miles because of the heat and the elevation changes on Highway 152 towards Gilroy. The charging rate at Gilroy was at 225 mi/hr. This was the stretch that created the most ‘range anxiety’ for me – as I reached the Gilroy supercharger with just 36 miles left. I had to keep turning the cooling on/off to make sure that I can get to the destination. If I had to do this again, I would probably recharge at the Harris Ranch Supercharger.


Overall Feedback:

1. The supercharging rates are much lower than those advertised. This is true even in places where there were 2 or 3 cars charging at the same time.

2. I did not need to use the sunshade even though the temps were high. The front windshield tinting did a great job blocking the sun.

3. The Trip Planner needs improvement to allow users to select alternate routes (select one freeway over another, most use of highways, shortest route etc).

4. The Trip Planner should take into account elevation changes to provide more accurate energy usage. This is especially important in areas where there is a significant changes in the terrain.

5. There were stretches on Interstate 5 where the road was paved with concrete, and the lane markings were not clear. The Autopilot had difficulty staying in lane. There was one instance, when the ModelX Autopilot decided to follow the exit because the exit lanes had very clear lane markings compared to the road. I had to take control and steer it back to the road while travelling at 75mph on Interstate 5.

6. The traffic-aware cruise control worked very well. My wife preferred using traffic-aware cruise control over the Autopilot feature. For me, Autopilot was the way to go.

7. Tesla should continue to add superchargers to fill in the gaps. From my experience there should be more superchargers on Hwy 101 and Interstate 5, after you leave the San Francisco Bay Area.

8. The Tesla app worked very well to check on the charging status and also to turn on interior cooling just before you make it back to the vehicle.

9. While supercharging, my Model X made a heck of a noise. I can hear it from across the street. It sounds like a loud sound coming from the fan – even though the interior cooling is turned off. Maybe it is trying to cool the battery after 3 hrs of continuous driving.

10. I don’t like the idea of backing into a space to charge the vehicle. This is just a personal preference. I am beginning to see supercharger sites with options to back into a parking space and also to drive into a parking space.

 

[xkwizit]

My first Road trip experience (SF to LA)


It has been a few months since I got my Model X 90D. I have not had any issues with my Model X. I finally made my first road trip from San Francisco Bay Area (Mid-Peninsula) to LA (Palos Verdes).


The total distance (one-way) is 400 miles. I knew I had to charge at least twice to get to my destination. I left home on a full charge (261miles). I decided to take 101S all the way to LA. It was a longer and slower trip, but I decided to take this route because there are many alternative charging options en-route.


The first segment after leaving the SF Bay Area was perhaps the longest stretch – 196 miles to Atascadero on Highway 101. I managed to get to this supercharger site with 9% remaining. The charging rate was average (at 215 mi/hr). The supercharging site was very convenient with a number of restaurants nearby. From Atascadero, the next stop was at the Oxnard supercharger. This site was in a mall parking lot, and it was very busy. We managed to get the last empty stall. The charging rates were very low (approx. 160 mi/hr). We had to spend extended time at the mall till we had enough charge to get to our destination.


The worst experience was at the destination – a resort in Palos Verdes. I had to use their ChargePoint station. You pay for charging and it was charging at 16mi/hr. I had to leave it at the charging bay overnight.


On my way back from LA, I decided to take the fast route via Interstate 5. I relied on the Tesla Trip Planner to do the planning for me. The first charging stop was at Buttonwillow. The charging rate was at 269 mi/hr. There is a Denny’s, Starbucks and a Subway nearby. The next stop was at the Gilroy supercharger. That distance was about 188 miles, but I ended up using 209 battery miles because of the heat and the elevation changes on Highway 152 towards Gilroy. The charging rate at Gilroy was at 225 mi/hr. This was the stretch that created the most ‘range anxiety’ for me – as I reached the Gilroy supercharger with just 36 miles left. I had to keep turning the cooling on/off to make sure that I can get to the destination. If I had to do this again, I would probably recharge at the Harris Ranch Supercharger.


Overall Feedback:

1. The supercharging rates are much lower than those advertised. This is true even in places where there were 2 or 3 cars charging at the same time.

2. I did not need to use the sunshade even though the temps were high. The front windshield tinting did a great job blocking the sun.

3. The Trip Planner needs improvement to allow users to select alternate routes (select one freeway over another, most use of highways, shortest route etc).

4. The Trip Planner should take into account elevation changes to provide more accurate energy usage. This is especially important in areas where there is a significant changes in the terrain.

5. There were stretches on Interstate 5 where the road was paved with concrete, and the lane markings were not clear. The Autopilot had difficulty staying in lane. There was one instance, when the ModelX Autopilot decided to follow the exit because the exit lanes had very clear lane markings compared to the road. I had to take control and steer it back to the road while travelling at 75mph on Interstate 5.

6. The traffic-aware cruise control worked very well. My wife preferred using traffic-aware cruise control over the Autopilot feature. For me, Autopilot was the way to go.

7. Tesla should continue to add superchargers to fill in the gaps. From my experience there should be more superchargers on Hwy 101 and Interstate 5, after you leave the San Francisco Bay Area.

8. The Tesla app worked very well to check on the charging status and also to turn on interior cooling just before you make it back to the vehicle.

9. While supercharging, my Model X made a heck of a noise. I can hear it from across the street. It sounds like a loud sound coming from the fan – even though the interior cooling is turned off. Maybe it is trying to cool the battery after 3 hrs of continuous driving.

10. I don’t like the idea of backing into a space to charge the vehicle. This is just a personal preference. I am beginning to see supercharger sites with options to back into a parking space and also to drive into a parking space.

Great post and though I agree with most of your feedback the point about choosing the alternate routes is something I have also felt the need on every trip we have made with either of our two Teslas.

 

[ohmman]

The Trip Planner should take into account elevation changes to provide more accurate energy usage. This is especially important in areas where there is a significant changes in the terrain.

Just an FYI, it does include elevation changes and generally does a good job, but only if:

• You aren't having to run climate at high levels (cool or especially heat)
• You aren't exceeding the speed limit
• You aren't dealing with head- or cross winds
• It's not wet/raining

Those items can really throw off the estimates.

In ideal weather, I still nearly always charge to where Trip Planner says I have 15-20% remaining when I reach the destination. That way I can stick with the flow of traffic and still have a buffer for headwinds.

From the things I've read in the Firmware 8.0 thread, it looks like there are some more changes coming to Trip Planner.. we'll see how those work. I really would like the option to select my Supercharger as a waypoint instead of having the car pick the Supercharger it deems necessary. For now, I work around it by just using the Supercharger as my destination, then creating a new "trip" to the next stop I plan to make.

 

[Super_Popular]

My first road trip when I get my X will be to Palm Springs.

 

[aesculus]

My first Road trip experience (SF to LA)

Great post.

From my limited time with Tesla my conclusion for long trips is that it is better to sip than drink. So yes, you probably should have charged at Harris Ranch for a few minutes at least so you would not have to charge as long later (better to fill at the bottom than the top). Also the charging rate would be better for you too to get out faster and actually helps everyone at the supercharger because it frees up spots quicker. Long charges don't help anyone and should only be done if absolutely necessary.

Playing with EVTripPlanner a bit with the same trip and adding more chargers can help you get the idea.

 

[napabill]

Two rules to live by:
Speed kills
Live in the bottom half of your battery

 

[vjlvjl]

Did a 2 week, 3500+ miles round trip, San Jose to Banff/Jasper – Canadian Rockies. Model X performed flawlessly. I will spare you all the usual touristy things and instead focus on planning, charging, and performance. My average for the 3500+ mile trip was 341 Wh/mi. The chart below captures all the trip charging details.


Planning:
I used EV Trip Planner (www.evtripplanner.com) – and it was accurate to the T. I used Model S P85 21” wheels, with a speed factor of 1.2 for US, and 1.1 for Canada portions of the trip, Cabin temp at 70, outside temp at 72, load at 600. In the chart, I have highlighted what the EV Trip Planner predicted and what I actually got. The variances are due to winds. For winds, I used www.teslawids.com application

In the attached chart, TW = Tailwinds, CW = Crosswinds, HW – Headwinds; FC = Full charge

Charging:
I used SC for 90% of the trip. At Banff, charged overnight at the Bear Street Parkade with a 30A charger – free charging, and free parking. In Jasper, charged at the Sawridge Conference Center with a Tesla Destination Charger – 80A. In Valemount, charged at the Best Western with a 48A charger. Thank you Sawridge Jasper, and Best Western Valemount

I charged up to 150% of the miles needed for the next destination. As such, never had any range anxiety. In fact, this allowed me to drive the way I normally drive. My average speed on highways was 80 Mph for US, and 65-70 mph for Canada, except of course for in-city driving.

Superchargers availability was excellent except at Mt Shasta SC, both going up and down. On the way up, I was the third one in, and was relegated to getting about 90 mph/hour. On the way down, same thing except it didn’t matter because I was spending the night there.

Autopilot:
Drove on Autopilot 75% of the time. The other 25% of the time I actually wanted to drive the car to experience its performance on unending S curves on I-5 in Northern CA and Southern OR, and on Hwy 1 in Canada. It was pure joy to see the car respond instantaneously. It was F-U-N to drive.

Couple of interesting facts – 1) On an undivided highway, Auto Pilot is restricted to 5 mph over the posted speed limit. 2) On a divided 4 lane highway, in the Auto Pilot mode, if you manually increase the speed so that you are 20 mph over the posted speed limit, the dash lights up with red hands and beeps to immediately take over the driving.

The Auto Pilot for me did malfunction one time – going on Hwy 1W in Canada from Lake louise to Banff, on a divided highway, very light traffic, Auto Pilot swerved into the left lane and then immediately corrected itself - scared the heck out of me. There were no other cars in front, behind or side of me at that time. Sent a Note to Tesla with my coordinates at that time.

This was my third long distance trip since I got the car in March, but the first one where I kept detailed logs of each segment of the trip. The spreadsheet was on my Google drive so it was easy to just punch in the numbers at each stop. Can’t wait for my next long distance trip. Happy Model X trails. . .

Chart data - Canadian Rockies trip data

 

[Fluxed]

My wife, 2 kids and I just completed a 3,100 mile trip from Texas to Wisconsin and back.... we went to Fond du Lac for a family wedding.

Some stats from my trip computer for those who may be interested:

Car: P90DL, 7 seater, 22" wheels.

TX to WI: 1,377 mi. Av energy 411 wh/mi

Total trip (TX to WI, one week in WI, then return trip back to TX): 3,118 mi, Av energy 412 wh/mi.

We had a lot of stuff in our car. Two kids (aged 2 and 6) with car seats, 4 suitcases of stuff, food for the trip, emergency gear (small compressor, tire inflation kits etc) and also camping gear. We filled up the trunk, and frunk with stuff. We also had 2 iPhone and 2 iPads connected to the USB ports, and a Cradlepoint IBR600 wifi AP connected to the rear 12V connector.

Weather was horrible most of the trip.Very hot, mostly around 100F and higher through TX, OK, KS and parts of IL.

I used autopilot most of the trip, when it was safe. Depending on road conditions, I used 4 - 7s following distance. There was one incident where it did an aggressive full braking event when it noticed the car in front suddenly slowing down (approaching a work zone in IL). Although it seemed excessive at the time and the car behind had to swerve to avoid hitting us, I feel that it was a good decision made by the software. There were 5 other incidents where the car slowed down suddenly (not heavy braking though) because it was confused: twice when I was passing a large semi on the left and the shadow cast on the road in front of me appeared to confuse the car. And twice when I was passing under a bridge, and the shadow of the bridge on the road appeared to have confused the car. These incidents happened in bright sunlight. The fifth incident was a puddle on the side of the road under a bridge that reflected something that confused the car into thinking a collision with an imaginary car in our lane was eminent. These occasions were the only times I felt the car was not performing in a totally safe manner, as the cars behind us certainly did not expect us to brake.

I typically used AP with one or both hands on the steering wheel. Twice during the trip, the car inexplicably swerved to the right for no apparent reason (no offramp or anything like that). AP definitely reduces driver fatigue. I found especially in windy conditions when the other vehicles on the road were struggling to stay in their lanes, the autosteer did a great job. But I personally would not recommend using autosteer much without your hands on the wheel, and be prepared to step in immediately, things can go wrong really quickly. I personally consider it to be augmented driving, not autonomous driving.

Range assurance: I was mostly pleased with the navigation and range assurance. However, we found that we always used more energy than expected (combination of our payload, outside temp and possibly speed on the highways when going slightly over the speedlimit). After cutting it a little too close for comfort, we came up with a new algorithm: we would charge at the supercharger stops until the trip showed 20% reserve at the destination. Upon leaving the supercharger, we would drive 5 mph under the speedlimit, until passed by a large vehicle, which we would then follow and keep this up until we were behind a large vehicle that was travelling at a decent speed (often around 5mph over the speed limit). We found that drafting behind a truck provided a good 20% improvement in our energy usage. We were being conservative due to the fact we were travelling with small children through sparsely populated and very hot parts of the country.

No mechanical or reliability issues the entire trip, the car performed flawlessly.

We desperately needed a sunshade though! We got sunburnt the second day driving east, and ended up wearing hats the remainder of the trip.

And the AC does not work to cool in the interior while supercharging when it is hot outside.

 

[bak_phy]

Thanks. I'm surprised that you couldn't use the AC while super charging. I'm pretty certain that I can do that in my S.

 

[DFibRL8R]

Thanks. I'm surprised that you couldn't use the AC while super charging. I'm pretty certain that I can do that in my S.

If the pack is very hot, the car will prioritize cooling the pack over cooling the passenger compartment when supercharging since supercharging is going to generate that much more heat. Model S does this as well.

 

[vangogh]

Great idea of drafting to extend range....It would be nice if there were always fast trucks around...

 

[Fluxed]

If the pack is very hot, the car will prioritize cooling the pack over cooling the passenger compartment when supercharging since supercharging is going to generate that much more heat. Model S does this as well.

Yes, the threshold seemed to be with an ambient temp of over 90F or so. Above that, the amount of AC available for cabin cooling was diminished. And with an ambient temp over 100F there was minimal cooling (although it seemed to keep the cabin below 95F at least).

 

[ecarfan]

We found that drafting behind a truck provided a good 20% improvement in our energy usage.

Thanks for your informative report about your trip. When you were "drafting behind a truck", how close were you to the truck? The safety of that practice has been the subject of contentious debate in the past on TMC.