My first "cross country", longer, full day, road trip experience
I just took my longest road trip for me. From Florida to North Carolina and return.
I want to summarize my experience.
I love the car overall and would not want to do that trip in an ICE car. Here's a summary of my experience.
It's a 10 hour trip using google maps, but with the stops I took it was closer to 11+ hours.
About 650 miles one way.
It's a much more difficult trip alone, even in such a good car. Not having someone to talk to really made the drive much more difficult.
Stops and charging approach:
I find if I stop every hour and a half maximum, I'm good for a long trip and it also accommodates charging. I don't get too tired, groggy, bored, sore if I stop for a 10 minute charge more often than I could do otherwise by using more battery range. Also I'm not yet comfortable running the charge down to 10% or less. I never liked to let my gas tank go to the last drop in ICE cars either. So I just stop more often than the trip planner might wish for me. This makes a long drive easier and the electric car does well with this approach. Just add another 10 to fifteen minutes for every 1.5 hours of driving. I found it really important to get out of the car, walk about and stretch some. And with stopping more often, charging is significantly higher rates and shorter times as I'm not filling it up quite as much as I might stretching stops out further. This makes stopping feel like a convenience for me and not a necessity for the car.
AutoPilot, Lane Keeping, Following Automation:
Very few Phantom Braking Events on this trip. But I did have about three. I'm so used to them now and these were not particularly violent like they used to be.
AutoPilot is very useful and works quite well most of the time. I find a lot of relaxation if I “draft” a large truck some of the time. Even at the closest following selection of 2, it's not that close. I can relax and get a kind of a break from driving. On the other hand after many hours of using autopilot I got bored and sleepy. I listened to books on audible and music. All those functions working quite well. Occasionally I had to reconnect Bluetooth to my phone when restarting a trip segment, I don't know why. It was also a little too lax for me in staying at the distance behind the truck I wanted. Sometimes it would allow that distance to grow quite large. It also doesn't recover speed quickly enough. It's worse in slower speed zones but it's true in following on highways as well.
I'm not sure that I really want or need FSD.
I can't see the benefits. I'll have to try it one day when I know that from the day I rent it, it will be available for use. I've read too many horror stories of owners paying for FSD but were not given the right to use it. I don't want to waste money on it. The autopilot did such a good job for me. I don't need it to do more. However there are dangers, real dangers. After ten hours on the road, you get a little tired. You get used to autopilot doing a lot of the work. You have to stay alert. Autopilot slowed down for lights quite a few times. I don't know why and I didn't know it would do that. It can falsely lead you to believe it will stop, but it will not stop at red lights even if it slows way down for them. Just got to watch over it and the several modes where it can get a little confusing. I already know Autopilot really well. And know that sometimes in right curves it can drift dangerously left. So I take over steering in those cases. I've seen my car cross the yellow line in certain conditions. I've had it serviced and Tesla says it's “normal”.
Conditions and state of operations of both highway and superchargers:
The Tesla Superchargers were all operational, which is wonderful, and an ample number of SC stop choices all along my route. However many of them were filthy and unkempt along I 95. They were often at “strange” locations and at run down or deserted stops form days gone past. I 95 is very old school and does not have on highway refueling. The rest areas on that highway are only for bathroom breaks and not fuel. The state of the superchargers appearance was disappointing. It sometimes looked as though nobody ever checked on them visually. They were all quite filthy. And some had erosion problems, etc. But that went along with the entire “charm” of the unkempt and poorly maintained US Interstate highway. I haven't traveled along I 95 in many years, it was deplorable, especially through Georgia and South Carolina. The road was only two lanes, not enough. The road had miles and miles of patches, was bouncy and very noisy worn out aging asphalt. I thought our federal tax dollars were going towards maintaining the infrastructure. I was embarrassed should visitors drive that major highway. The same for many of the stops where the Tesla Superchargers were located. Dirty, messy, and old school locations. Some of the businesses where Tesla SC were located seem to be going out of business and many had. Many abandoned buildings etc. Sometimes there were no bathrooms nearby. Some of the locations were very difficult to find, in the middle of lots, and odd places, the map sometimes didn't easily bring me to it but left me in a lot with no chargers. But there were many, many charging positions at every supercharger center and I never had any concerns about finding an open slot for my car. In fact, sometimes there were 20 plus open charging spaces. Huge numbers of chargers. Seemed like overkill. Possibly there are peak charging times at holidays or something they were planned for?
The charging rate was more variable than I expected.
I would start really fast, close to 150 KWH, at some places. But very quickly begin to drop charging rates. As soon as I got near half full it was already significantly dropping and would continue dropping to in the forties. I try to run my battery 20-85 %. But I found supercharging anything above 65% was getting too slow, so I generally drove off.
It was a lot different at places like the Buc-ee's stations. All clean and brand new, all shiny and kept. I don't care much for their food, all loaded with additives, sweeteners, etc. But I'll take it for the convenience, cleanliness, ease of access, etc. Really nice setups. But Georgia and South Carolina have no Buc-ee's.
Comfort:
I've already rebuilt my Tesla seats. So I am riding in comfort now. A full day like that is not a problem. In the stock OEM seats I would have been in great pain.
Noise:
The car's noise level is too high overall. It's annoying and tiring. I've been working hard at reducing the window noises right near my ears but there's noise everywhere. Road noise and wind noise. After this long trip experience, I'm now planning to put a lot of work into cutting that down more. I've read that the Model Y can be an echo chamber. My little Model 3 can get fairly noisy as well. It was much worse with certain road conditions. Certain asphalt is very noisy against my OEM tires. I assume that asphalt is older and rougher. I have a Performance and it might be more noisy that other models. The road conditions were rough and at times the car was bouncy. The Performance is low to the ground and doesn't do enough to smooth out the roads. Thank goodness I have great seats with lots of suspension in the seats with my custom built seats.
Efficiency was quite good.
Even driving in the mid 70 MPH range, I was never averaging over 295 KWH. I think that's good. I did make certain my tires had proper air before starting the trip.
The Model 3 is normally plenty big.
But depending upon approach can get a little tight.
I brought a spare tire, an inflatable rolled up sleeping mattress, a large suitcase, a backpack, food, and lots of drinks. It was plenty of room for me and my abuse of the room. But the car would be quite tight if we had more than two people in the car. This is only true for such a long trip and because I was “prepared” like a Boy Scout. If you don't bring a spare tire, and I cannot when bringing family on trips, it's got enough room.
I expect these cars to continue to get better and better every year and even every month. With improvements in batteries and better sound reduction and better suspension already coming out, these are really really great cars, only getting better. I wish I had the money, I'd upgrade to a newer model annually. But I'm lucky to have a Tesla and quite thankful.
"Prime specifiche ufficiali della berlina elettrica di massa Tesla Model 3" by automobileitalia is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
Admin note: Image added for Blog Feed thumbnail
I just took my longest road trip for me. From Florida to North Carolina and return.
I want to summarize my experience.
I love the car overall and would not want to do that trip in an ICE car. Here's a summary of my experience.
It's a 10 hour trip using google maps, but with the stops I took it was closer to 11+ hours.
About 650 miles one way.
It's a much more difficult trip alone, even in such a good car. Not having someone to talk to really made the drive much more difficult.
Stops and charging approach:
I find if I stop every hour and a half maximum, I'm good for a long trip and it also accommodates charging. I don't get too tired, groggy, bored, sore if I stop for a 10 minute charge more often than I could do otherwise by using more battery range. Also I'm not yet comfortable running the charge down to 10% or less. I never liked to let my gas tank go to the last drop in ICE cars either. So I just stop more often than the trip planner might wish for me. This makes a long drive easier and the electric car does well with this approach. Just add another 10 to fifteen minutes for every 1.5 hours of driving. I found it really important to get out of the car, walk about and stretch some. And with stopping more often, charging is significantly higher rates and shorter times as I'm not filling it up quite as much as I might stretching stops out further. This makes stopping feel like a convenience for me and not a necessity for the car.
AutoPilot, Lane Keeping, Following Automation:
Very few Phantom Braking Events on this trip. But I did have about three. I'm so used to them now and these were not particularly violent like they used to be.
AutoPilot is very useful and works quite well most of the time. I find a lot of relaxation if I “draft” a large truck some of the time. Even at the closest following selection of 2, it's not that close. I can relax and get a kind of a break from driving. On the other hand after many hours of using autopilot I got bored and sleepy. I listened to books on audible and music. All those functions working quite well. Occasionally I had to reconnect Bluetooth to my phone when restarting a trip segment, I don't know why. It was also a little too lax for me in staying at the distance behind the truck I wanted. Sometimes it would allow that distance to grow quite large. It also doesn't recover speed quickly enough. It's worse in slower speed zones but it's true in following on highways as well.
I'm not sure that I really want or need FSD.
I can't see the benefits. I'll have to try it one day when I know that from the day I rent it, it will be available for use. I've read too many horror stories of owners paying for FSD but were not given the right to use it. I don't want to waste money on it. The autopilot did such a good job for me. I don't need it to do more. However there are dangers, real dangers. After ten hours on the road, you get a little tired. You get used to autopilot doing a lot of the work. You have to stay alert. Autopilot slowed down for lights quite a few times. I don't know why and I didn't know it would do that. It can falsely lead you to believe it will stop, but it will not stop at red lights even if it slows way down for them. Just got to watch over it and the several modes where it can get a little confusing. I already know Autopilot really well. And know that sometimes in right curves it can drift dangerously left. So I take over steering in those cases. I've seen my car cross the yellow line in certain conditions. I've had it serviced and Tesla says it's “normal”.
Conditions and state of operations of both highway and superchargers:
The Tesla Superchargers were all operational, which is wonderful, and an ample number of SC stop choices all along my route. However many of them were filthy and unkempt along I 95. They were often at “strange” locations and at run down or deserted stops form days gone past. I 95 is very old school and does not have on highway refueling. The rest areas on that highway are only for bathroom breaks and not fuel. The state of the superchargers appearance was disappointing. It sometimes looked as though nobody ever checked on them visually. They were all quite filthy. And some had erosion problems, etc. But that went along with the entire “charm” of the unkempt and poorly maintained US Interstate highway. I haven't traveled along I 95 in many years, it was deplorable, especially through Georgia and South Carolina. The road was only two lanes, not enough. The road had miles and miles of patches, was bouncy and very noisy worn out aging asphalt. I thought our federal tax dollars were going towards maintaining the infrastructure. I was embarrassed should visitors drive that major highway. The same for many of the stops where the Tesla Superchargers were located. Dirty, messy, and old school locations. Some of the businesses where Tesla SC were located seem to be going out of business and many had. Many abandoned buildings etc. Sometimes there were no bathrooms nearby. Some of the locations were very difficult to find, in the middle of lots, and odd places, the map sometimes didn't easily bring me to it but left me in a lot with no chargers. But there were many, many charging positions at every supercharger center and I never had any concerns about finding an open slot for my car. In fact, sometimes there were 20 plus open charging spaces. Huge numbers of chargers. Seemed like overkill. Possibly there are peak charging times at holidays or something they were planned for?
The charging rate was more variable than I expected.
I would start really fast, close to 150 KWH, at some places. But very quickly begin to drop charging rates. As soon as I got near half full it was already significantly dropping and would continue dropping to in the forties. I try to run my battery 20-85 %. But I found supercharging anything above 65% was getting too slow, so I generally drove off.
It was a lot different at places like the Buc-ee's stations. All clean and brand new, all shiny and kept. I don't care much for their food, all loaded with additives, sweeteners, etc. But I'll take it for the convenience, cleanliness, ease of access, etc. Really nice setups. But Georgia and South Carolina have no Buc-ee's.
Comfort:
I've already rebuilt my Tesla seats. So I am riding in comfort now. A full day like that is not a problem. In the stock OEM seats I would have been in great pain.
Noise:
The car's noise level is too high overall. It's annoying and tiring. I've been working hard at reducing the window noises right near my ears but there's noise everywhere. Road noise and wind noise. After this long trip experience, I'm now planning to put a lot of work into cutting that down more. I've read that the Model Y can be an echo chamber. My little Model 3 can get fairly noisy as well. It was much worse with certain road conditions. Certain asphalt is very noisy against my OEM tires. I assume that asphalt is older and rougher. I have a Performance and it might be more noisy that other models. The road conditions were rough and at times the car was bouncy. The Performance is low to the ground and doesn't do enough to smooth out the roads. Thank goodness I have great seats with lots of suspension in the seats with my custom built seats.
Efficiency was quite good.
Even driving in the mid 70 MPH range, I was never averaging over 295 KWH. I think that's good. I did make certain my tires had proper air before starting the trip.
The Model 3 is normally plenty big.
But depending upon approach can get a little tight.
I brought a spare tire, an inflatable rolled up sleeping mattress, a large suitcase, a backpack, food, and lots of drinks. It was plenty of room for me and my abuse of the room. But the car would be quite tight if we had more than two people in the car. This is only true for such a long trip and because I was “prepared” like a Boy Scout. If you don't bring a spare tire, and I cannot when bringing family on trips, it's got enough room.
I expect these cars to continue to get better and better every year and even every month. With improvements in batteries and better sound reduction and better suspension already coming out, these are really really great cars, only getting better. I wish I had the money, I'd upgrade to a newer model annually. But I'm lucky to have a Tesla and quite thankful.
"Prime specifiche ufficiali della berlina elettrica di massa Tesla Model 3" by automobileitalia is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
Admin note: Image added for Blog Feed thumbnail
Last edited:
