Musk says he's delaying cross-country trip to Spring Break

[bonnie]

When an attendee made a snippy generalization about women at TESLIVE the audience skewered the individual. The same standards should apply for making snippy generalizations about "guys".

I'd complain to the moderator, but . . . you are the moderator.

Want me to report myself?

You KNOW I was having a bit of fun, right?? But I'll report myself.

 

[gg_got_a_tesla]

Even Spring break would be too short for a fun cross-country trip for grade school kids (unless Elon's gonna let them miss school). I'd say, plan for a mid-June trip on the second anniversary of the start of Model S production.

 

[mitch672]

Though I wish he would experience driving the Model S in the cold first-hand ...

Yeah, like limited regen when you park outside in cold weather. New to me now that I park in an outdoor lot all day and drive home..
And nice fogging on the front/rear windows, lots of little annoyances compared to warm weather

 

[sayidreddy]

In the third quarter shareholder letter, it said they would enable a cross country trip by the end of the year so I wonder if that information is not up to date or the just the trip is delayed to March and not the actual superchargers.

 

[Kraken]

It makes total sense to delay it for the reasons he stated - he has memories of roadtrips to Mount Rushmore and other places as a kid & wants to recreate that with his kids. Not nearly as much fun when you're freezing and walking around in snow. Short days and snowy Midwest weather doesn't make for a good roadtrip with the kids. He's a dad. That's why he's doing this. Great to get some PR out of it, but let him put his family first.

maybe he did his proper research and found out that the road leading to anywhere that you can actually see Mount Rushmore is closed all winter. This leads to needing to take the dirt logging road that veers off the main road shortly before the road closed barricade. The loggers then give you puzzled looks as you drive past them. Finally you reach the main road again, but this time it is somewhere past the barricade. The last bit of the dirt road, where it meets up again with the main road, includes a steep drop which the Nissan Altima (or tesla model s) handles just fine going down but has no chance of getting back up. Now you drive around the road between barricades blocking the road off, and the dirt road is too steep to get back to. Your good friend (or kids) finally gets to see Mount Rushmore, but you're getting incredibly close to having to call the national park service to let you out from where you are guessing you shouldn't be because the sun is setting fast and early and it's the winter solstice... That's when you realize the barricade on one side is chained but the chain isn't locked (unlike the side you initially tried to come in).

I may or may not have ops tested this one for him...

I have done many winter road trips for fun and family and I see them as a perfectly safe opportunity if you plan ahead and know how to drive in winter conditions. Driving in the snow isn't that scary. Limited daylight just keeps you from over extending yourself, well, not for me, but I digress...

that being said, waiting makes more sense, if you have the option.... And he clearly does.


Winter is coming!

 

[brianman]

He lives in southern California where it doesn't snow. He's a guy. Do I really need to explain further?

Some would say (and have said) that this is reflected in the climate management of the vehicle (prior to the various retrofits and new options).

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Though I wish he would experience driving the Model S in the cold first-hand ...

Agreed.

 

[Owner]

I always thought a winter trip was a little nuts myself for a cross country drive. With cold, snow and short days you can't see nearly as many sights as you can during the long summer days. I've been planning my own cross country trip (at least in my head) but I wouldn't think of doing this until April at the earliest. Just driving would get pretty darn old even in a Tesla.

 

[vfx]

I'm more inclined to call it the "'work Elon" proclaiming, "I'm going to drive across country to show these things work!" then the man who works 100 hours of a 168 hour week (and presumably sleeps a bit) and then comes home to the 'family Elon" who realizes (promted by wife?) that that great PR business idea may not have been a good one in real life and not so important that he could just change the dates. Besides the misery of the trip might make the press in a bad way. (though it could be funny too).

 

[neroden]

It's lack of SuperChargers for the east-west travel. See my thread link:
Looking for Model S owners with a HPWC in Albany, Syracuse and Buffalo NY
I'm basically renting an ICE for a business trip from Boston, MA to near Cleveland, OH, about 685 miles or so. Basically no SuperChargers, I did find a couple CS-90's on the way, thanks to "Sun Coast Highway", but it still makes a 10-11 hour trip in an ICE take at least double that, and my destination(s) hotel and business hardly have anything. A year from now I'd be able to do this in my Model S, not worth it today. I also emailed "ownership" and they are telling me nothing up and running for my Dec 1st trip as well.

Yep.

Mitch, could you please email the Tesla Supercharger team ([email protected]) to provide another voice telling them to put a Supercharger in Erie, PA. I've told them repeatedly but nobody is listening; Erie is not even on the planned 2015 map. This means that your trip will still be impossible in three years, at least in midwinter when range is worst, because you'd have to drive Buffalo-Youngstown and you likely wouldn't make it.

- - - Updated - - -

Some would say (and have said) that this is reflected in the climate management of the vehicle (prior to the various retrofits and new options).

Yep. Some of us are still trying to get retrofits of the new options to compensate for the original design failures. Hopefully Tesla will make good.

- - - Updated - - -

I fully expected this delay the moment he first mentioned this trip months ago. a) winter trip thru Upper Midwest? crazy; and b) no way no how were all the superchargers on his route gonna be ready in time. I bet he puts it off until summer 2014.

Prioritizing superchargers that 1% or less of customers would use never made sense to me. Prioritizing chargers on heavily trafficked corridors (read right and left coasts) makes tons of sense and will push demand. Superchargers in remote Dakotas or Nebraska etc not so much.

If you look at the population maps, it makes sense to finish the west and east coasts, but it also makes sense to get the Midwest - East Coast corridors up and running, as well as the Texas - East Coast corridors. The only really-low-population part of the continental 48 is the Mountain time zone; eventually you want to connect the route through it, too, of course. But the connections between the Midwest and the East Coast are very important.

 

[Odenator]

Would YOU want to take a bunch of young boys cross-country on a road trip in the middle of winter?

This delay is his planned road trip is great news. Hopefully by then, they will have fixed the rear over-heating problem in warm weather and he'll be able to demo the upgrade during the trip for us. Or, he'll make the trip and his kids will bitch & complain about how hot it gets back in the trunk and he'll personally whip Franz into making a STAT upgrade. Either way, win/win.

 

[Lloyd]

ELON, ARE WE THERE YET? :smile:

 

[Owner]

Times Five!

ELON, ARE WE THERE YET? :smile:

 

[PhilBa]

Transcontinental Super Charger Highway

While an MBA analysis would, indeed, say the east and west coasts need to be done first and then focus on population centers, I think that completely misses an incredibly symbolic point that will stick in people's minds. 140 years later, the "golden spike" that connected the first transcontinental railroad is still in the American consciousness. Linking the Super Charger Network to that imagery will help to kill the number one objection to EVs - long distance travel. Regardless of when Elon does his cross country publicity stunt, er trip, having an east-west route will get people's attention. Frankly, I think the family trip is a nice touch but a cross country Tesla Rally would probably be better PR. Maybe it should be called "Cannon Ball Run II" or some such.

 

[vfx]

...a cross country Tesla Rally would probably be better PR. Maybe it should be called "Cannon Ball Run II" or some such.

The Cannon Ball Run still exists. So many name it after the reason for the rally.

 

[Kraken]

maybe he did his proper research and found out that the road leading to anywhere that you can actually see Mount Rushmore is closed all winter. This leads to needing to take the dirt logging road that veers off the main road shortly before the road closed barricade. The loggers then give you puzzled looks as you drive past them. Finally you reach the main road again, but this time it is somewhere past the barricade. The last bit of the dirt road, where it meets up again with the main road, includes a steep drop which the Nissan Altima (or tesla model s) handles just fine going down but has no chance of getting back up. Now you drive around the road between barricades blocking the road off, and the dirt road is too steep to get back to. Your good friend (or kids) finally gets to see Mount Rushmore, but you're getting incredibly close to having to call the national park service to let you out from where you are guessing you shouldn't be because the sun is setting fast and early and it's the winter solstice... That's when you realize the barricade on one side is chained but the chain isn't locked (unlike the side you initially tried to come in).

I may or may not have ops tested this one for him...

I have done many winter road trips for fun and family and I see them as a perfectly safe opportunity if you plan ahead and know how to drive in winter conditions. Driving in the snow isn't that scary. Limited daylight just keeps you from over extending yourself, well, not for me, but I digress...

that being said, waiting makes more sense, if you have the option.... And he clearly does.


Winter is coming!

I'm just going to put this here...

Twitter / elonmusk: Snowed in at Mt. Rushmore ...