NYT article: Stalled on the EV Highway

[JRP3]

If the tire diameter was smaller the speedometer would have read higher than what he was actually doing, so if he thought it said 45mph he would have been going slower. Instead he claims 45mph but he was actually going faster. The 19 inch rims with all seasons would have to be taller than the 21's with summer tires to skew it the other way.

 

[rolosrevenge]

Wouldn't having smaller tires make the actual speed LOWER than indicated speed if the speedometer was still calibrated for the larger tires?

Btw, I don't buy it anyways.

That's the funny part. His, oh, my notes said I was plugged in for that long. Huh, I don't know why the logs say I was driving faster than I said.

 

[Rodolfo Paiz]

Agreed. You can talk about everything else until the cows come home, and it all might be debatable, but he left the last Supercharger for a 60-mile drive when the car said it could only go 32 miles. He could have easily stayed longer, but didn't. He claims that he was trying to mimic an "average driver" but no average driver would ever do that... all reasonable people would overcharge, or overfill, to make bloody sure they had enough charge/fuel for the trip. He could have complained about how long it takes to charge on a road trip; but having stalled the car because he ran the battery to zero range is 100% his own stupid fault, or malicious intent. There are no other options IMHO.

 

[ntam]

"Certainly, and as Tesla’s logs clearly show, much of my driving was at or well below the 65 m.p.h. speed limit, with only a single momentary spike above 80. Most drivers are aware that cars can speed up, even sometimes when cruise control is engaged, on downhill stretches."

He is grasping at straws now! Tesla's cruise control should never exceed the set speed even when it is going down hill. In fact, when not in cruise control, the regenerative braking would slow down the car so much on downhill roads that if you don't press down on the accelerator, the Model S would cruise around at ~ 20mph.

Please stop your lying and admit that you were set out to smear Tesla!

Nelson

 

[dsm363]

he claims that he was following advice - "The Tesla personnel whom I consulted over the phone – Ms. Ra and Mr. Merendino –told me to leave it connected for an hour, and after that the lost range would be restored. I did not ignore their advice." - assuming that advice was given, is it possible the Tesla people mistakenly thought the Charging Station was higher power than it was? Or they assumed that the car's range was more than reported to the driver?

If Broder is telling the truth, they must have been telling him an hour on a 30A charger would replenish the range he lost sitting there for 30 min warming the car then driving to the charger (which it did since it got him back to over 30 miles). He took that to mean that driving at highway speeds will get me the extra 60 miles I lost when I parked at night at 90 miles (again, assuming he is telling the truth).

I am finding it hard to believe an experienced automotive journalist would have spent at least an hour prepping for the story and learning about the car even if Tesla didn't tell him anything. He treated the trip like a kid who just got their first toy and wanted to play with it.

- - - Updated - - -

Agreed. You can talk about everything else until the cows come home, and it all might be debatable, but he left the last Supercharger for a 60-mile drive when the car said it could only go 32 miles. He could have easily stayed longer, but didn't. He claims that he was trying to mimic an "average driver" but no average driver would ever do that... all reasonable people would overcharge, or overfill, to make bloody sure they had enough charge/fuel for the trip. He could have complained about how long it takes to charge on a road trip; but having stalled the car because he ran the battery to zero range is 100% his own stupid fault, or malicious intent. There are no other options IMHO.

Exactly, especially after all the uncertainty and loss of range he had overnight you think he would have at least waited until he hit exactly 65 miles of charge because he only needed to go 65 miles. If he had done that then I could maybe chalk that up to an inexperienced EV driver that didn't understand that number didn't mean 65 miles regardless of speed or weather conditions. No, he took off with only 32 miles or range.

 

[vfx]

I call BS

Certainly, and as Tesla’s logs clearly show, much of my driving was at or well below the 65 m.p.h. speed limit, with only a single momentary spike above 80. Most drivers are aware that cars can speed up, even sometimes when cruise control is engaged, on downhill stretches.

Without ACC my Roadster sticks EXACTLY at the set CC speed. Never wavers more than a mile even on the steepest hill. An advantage of electric (again).

 

[JRP3]

It does seem he may have been given some improper advice at times.

 

[Blurry_Eyed]

I thought his statement about the cruise control was particularly suspicious. I use the cruise control on my Model S a lot, on downhill stretches (and we have a fair amount of hills in the Seattle area) and the Model S sticks to it's set speed like glue because of the regen. I don't think there is any downhill grade that would cause the speed to creep up as he tries to imply.

 

[dsm363]

It does seem he may have been given some improper advice at times.

If he is telling the truth, he was given advice by Tesla employees almost everyone who reads this site wouldn't give. I find that very hard to believe. If it is true, Tesla needs to have a small team of media specialists working with an engineer as a team who coordinate test drives, monitor their progress and make themselves available for advice on the trip.

 

[SFOTurtle]

I agree with this, and also think that the next time this reporter tries to write anything bashing EVs (let alone Tesla), even the apologists/defenders will be careful to side with him.

I agree that Tesla wins but for different reasons. At this point it doesn't really matter who did what. Tesla has taken a bad review and turned it into a discussion of the review process and successfully brought other journalists on board to complete the journey that Broder failed to complete: DC to Boston. That is what everyone will be talking about at the end of the day (or week) and it will prove the usefulness of the supercharger network. Plus educate a whole bunch of people. You can't buy publicity like this.

- - - Updated - - -

But hey, "his notes" and "memory" say otherwise. Who or what would you believe? What a joke for the NYT to stand by and defend the original article as anything but a hit piece.

I call BS



Without ACC my Roadster sticks EXACTLY at the set CC speed. Never wavers more than a mile even on the steepest hill. An advantage of electric (again).

 

[jerry33]

If the tire diameter was smaller the speedometer would have read higher than what he was actually doing, so if he thought it said 45mph he would have been going slower. Instead he claims 45mph but he was actually going faster. The 19 inch rims with all seasons would have to be taller than the 21's with summer tires to skew it the other way.

Both tires have the same RPM because the 21 inch tires have a 35% aspect ratio and the 19 inch tires have a 45% aspect ratio.

 

[mattjs33]

This whole incident is quite interesting and the response from Elon and in this thread are exactly what I would have expected. But it does illustrate to me something else...

Elon builds this great electric car, one that he says will do anything a gasoline car will do, which he says asks no compromises of its owner/driver. Oh, but here are all the things you need to remember about using it, and a few things you should avoid...

You give a person a device that looks like a car and performs like a car, and then you tell them to use it just like a car, you can't really act surprised when they do. Especially when you arranged the test. In the Real World, people drive cars 75 mph (here in the Chicago area, it's 80 or you should just stay on the surface streets). They drive when it's really cold. And they don't always remember or have time to "fill up" all the way.

Tesla seems to want to put the onus on people to learn how to use their product, to fit their needs around the way the car works. I'm not sure that flies with some people, especially when you call them out publicly to tell them they didn't know what they were doing.

My iPhone is the most fantastic bit of engineering I've ever had the pleasure of using. It asks nothing of me other than to plug it in when the little battery icon is running low. I can do that while I sleep, or even while I drive. I never have to worry about it. It will do anything a corded phone will do, with the added features of a corded computer, and it does those things better than either in most cases.

As great as the Model S is, it's not quite that revolutionary EV that everyone's hoping for, because the general public will still see the adjustments they have to make in their usual way of doing things to accomodate it. This article just adds fuel to that fire, and we can argue here ad infinitum the fairness of this or that point or statement. What we can't argue that making the drive required the use of the supercharger network twice, which was the test. And his point is, doing so took a lot more knowledge and effort than he expected for the seamless, carefree, typical gasoline car (or iPhone-like, if you will) operation that Elon promised.

It's possible that EV's won't hit it big until someone builds one that you can literally drive until you're too tired to do so, and then fully recharge while you sleep. Or at the very least recharge in the typical 10-15 minute fuel/food/pee stop that people are used to now.

 

[nolngrgrsngslde]

I thought his statement about the cruise control was particularly suspicious. I use the cruise control on my Model S a lot, on downhill stretches (and we have a fair amount of hills in the Seattle area) and the Model S sticks to it's set speed like glue because of the regen. I don't think there is any downhill grade that would cause the speed to creep up as he tries to imply.

What downhill, this is not San Fran , nor Seattle.

The sounds sounds the same as his excuse: Nobody told me to plug it in a night in 10 degree weather.

 

[dpeilow]

I call BS



Without ACC my Roadster sticks EXACTLY at the set CC speed. Never wavers more than a mile even on the steepest hill. An advantage of electric (again).

+1

I was amazed at how accurate the Roadster CC is. The Ampera is pretty precise too.

Again, he's appealing to the ICE crowd with this one and I call BS.

 

[Owner]

CNN retracing his steps now. Follow it on twitter:

Abigail Bassett (AbigailBassett) on Twitter

 

[montgom626]

He would do much better if he would just come clean. Until the NYT understands the concept of integrity and forces him to come clean, he will continue to hope that something else comes up in the next two weeks that will distract us from his apparent fraud.

 

[jerry33]

He would do much better if he would just come clean. Until the NYT understands the concept of integrity and forces him to come clean, he will continue to hope that something else comes up in the next two weeks that will distract us from his apparent fraud.

News media and integrity haven't belonged in the same sentence for many years.

 

[strider]

People can dispute the data all they want but sometimes facts are facts. It doesn't take away the fact that Broder never did what he said he intended to do and that is a test of the Supercharger network. He did a 90% charge then a 70% charge and complained he didn't make it far enough. You really think this was a fair look at the performance of the Model S?

So then why not just stick to that? As I noted earlier, Tesla's childish antics are really damaging. That whole line about driving in circles to kill the battery. Are you freaking kidding me? Guess, what, I did THAT EXACT SAME THING trying to locate the Gilroy Supercharger. I drove through the parking lot 3 times trying to find it. At the time I had plenty of charge and just wanted to try it out (and needed to pee) but if I had been low on charge it would have been quite distressing. There is no signage; no way to find the thing. The Tesla website just gives the address of the outlet mall which is not a small place. They should add "Behind the Sony(TM) store" or something. I've never been to Milford but have to say that the reporter's response that he was circling while trying to find the supercharger is quite plausible.

I say again, making an accusation that the reporter was driving in circles just to kill the battery is serious stuff. You better be damn sure that's what he was doing.

Tesla should have stuck to the line that he didn't fully charge at each stop and therefore didn't make it. Keep it simple. That can be related to by an ICE driver as it's the equivalent of stopping for gas, not filling up, and running out before your destination. The logs are also irrefutable in this case (unlike the driving in circles).

Tesla needs to grow up and start acting like an established company. They aren't going to be given passes on this kind of stuff forever.

 

[Zas]

I wonder if Elon will follow through with Margaret Sullivans (NYT public editor) request to release the data logs..

"Mr. Musk has not returned my call, made at about noon on Thursday. I eventually intend to ask him to fully release and “open source” the driving logs, along with whatever other data might be necessary for better understanding and interpretation."


...as the data Tesla has provided has not yet been verified, and this may become an issue.

 

[dsm363]

I agree. If they have proof he drove around in circles for that long then they can say it but if that's what they are guessing from their GPS data then best to stick to the simple numbers. It's very clear he didn't charge like he should have but like everything else, Broder blames Tesla saying 'they told be to do this or that' even if if went against all common sense.