Did another road trip in my '18 LR 3 over the holidays with a few interesting observations.
First, in the past my Wh/mi was generally around 250. On this trip on the way there it was over 350, and about 280 on the way back. Most of my roadtrips before were in the hot summer with no more than 3 people. This one we had a loaded car with 4 adults, and temps a bit cooler, but still 50s-70s overall. I think the main difference is that I just got new Michelin P.S. AS4's 18". The ride feels nicer, but I think I'm taking quite the hit in range. The difference between the outbound and return is likely wind. I noticed on the way back that we had a good tail wind for most of the drive, and likely a prevailing head wind on the way there, but I didn't really pay much attention to that at the time. My main concern was that on past road trips when the car said I'd arrive at the next charger with 20% it was usually +/- about 2% unless I had significant rain. On my first leg the estimate at the next charger started out at 32% and had dropped down to about 15% before I had even gone 50 miles. That was a bit concerning as I had close to 200 miles still to go, but it leveled off after that. All legs on the trip there overestimated the arrival % by at least 5-10%. On the way back it was the opposite where I would gain a few percent along the way.
Next for FSD, this was my first trip with the pure vision AP - did pretty good but a TON of phantom braking on the way there - way, way more than I had had in the past with the radar system. So much so that my wife kept "telling" me to stop using it as it kept freaking her out. It wasn't usually the drastic kind where it would drop 30+ mph, but maybe a 5 mph drop most of the time. My biggest gripe now with the vision AP is the 80 mph limit. The speed limit much of the way was 80. Trucks were going 80, which meant either multi minute passes where you back up a lot of faster vehicles, or having to drop out of AP to pass and then reengage. I know several times I accelerated beyond 80 while still in AP, but never got punished for it. I believe I was on 2021.36.8.8 for that part, so whatever FSD version that was.
While I was in Tucson my car updated to 2021.44.25.6, which surprised me because I wasn't on wifi while I was there. So I got about 16 hrs of time to play with the new UI on the way home. Most of the changes I don't have much of an opinion on other than the fact that the function was moved so I didn't know where to look, much like when Windows or Office updates and you can't find anything. Waypoints were a nice bonus for the ride home. Phantom braking was MUCH improved, I think I only remember about 3 cases on the way back, and none of them significant speed drops. One thing I did notice both ways happened driving at night. I kept noticing the screen flashing and realizing it was the notification to move into the passing lane. It was night in the middle of nowhere. There wasn't a vehicle in front of me for at least a half mile and it would continually tell me to move into the faster lane, just briefly, then the message would disappear - often before I could even read the message. I was wishing I had the earlier version of FSD where it boxed all the things it was avoiding so I could see what it thought was getting in the way. I'm wondering if this and the phantom braking are caused by the same issue?
Twice the screen froze up and the car quit charging while I was at a SC. Had to reboot and things returned to normal. Never had that issue in the past, though I have had if freeze up once or twice while driving before.
All in all the car did great as always. I have not really used FSD in the city too much because frankly, it has been pretty bad. Or I'm just impatient. Hoping for continuous improvement there over the next few years.
First, in the past my Wh/mi was generally around 250. On this trip on the way there it was over 350, and about 280 on the way back. Most of my roadtrips before were in the hot summer with no more than 3 people. This one we had a loaded car with 4 adults, and temps a bit cooler, but still 50s-70s overall. I think the main difference is that I just got new Michelin P.S. AS4's 18". The ride feels nicer, but I think I'm taking quite the hit in range. The difference between the outbound and return is likely wind. I noticed on the way back that we had a good tail wind for most of the drive, and likely a prevailing head wind on the way there, but I didn't really pay much attention to that at the time. My main concern was that on past road trips when the car said I'd arrive at the next charger with 20% it was usually +/- about 2% unless I had significant rain. On my first leg the estimate at the next charger started out at 32% and had dropped down to about 15% before I had even gone 50 miles. That was a bit concerning as I had close to 200 miles still to go, but it leveled off after that. All legs on the trip there overestimated the arrival % by at least 5-10%. On the way back it was the opposite where I would gain a few percent along the way.
Next for FSD, this was my first trip with the pure vision AP - did pretty good but a TON of phantom braking on the way there - way, way more than I had had in the past with the radar system. So much so that my wife kept "telling" me to stop using it as it kept freaking her out. It wasn't usually the drastic kind where it would drop 30+ mph, but maybe a 5 mph drop most of the time. My biggest gripe now with the vision AP is the 80 mph limit. The speed limit much of the way was 80. Trucks were going 80, which meant either multi minute passes where you back up a lot of faster vehicles, or having to drop out of AP to pass and then reengage. I know several times I accelerated beyond 80 while still in AP, but never got punished for it. I believe I was on 2021.36.8.8 for that part, so whatever FSD version that was.
While I was in Tucson my car updated to 2021.44.25.6, which surprised me because I wasn't on wifi while I was there. So I got about 16 hrs of time to play with the new UI on the way home. Most of the changes I don't have much of an opinion on other than the fact that the function was moved so I didn't know where to look, much like when Windows or Office updates and you can't find anything. Waypoints were a nice bonus for the ride home. Phantom braking was MUCH improved, I think I only remember about 3 cases on the way back, and none of them significant speed drops. One thing I did notice both ways happened driving at night. I kept noticing the screen flashing and realizing it was the notification to move into the passing lane. It was night in the middle of nowhere. There wasn't a vehicle in front of me for at least a half mile and it would continually tell me to move into the faster lane, just briefly, then the message would disappear - often before I could even read the message. I was wishing I had the earlier version of FSD where it boxed all the things it was avoiding so I could see what it thought was getting in the way. I'm wondering if this and the phantom braking are caused by the same issue?
Twice the screen froze up and the car quit charging while I was at a SC. Had to reboot and things returned to normal. Never had that issue in the past, though I have had if freeze up once or twice while driving before.
All in all the car did great as always. I have not really used FSD in the city too much because frankly, it has been pretty bad. Or I'm just impatient. Hoping for continuous improvement there over the next few years.
