Recreating the NY Times Road Trip - Feb 15-17, 2013

[cinergi]

Thanks for elaborating. Does anyone on the trip not have heated (i.e., leather) seats? Or not bother using the heated seats? Some of us got textile under the old pricing and thus don't have seat heaters, so I'm curious how much more/less people use the regular heat when they don't/do have heated seats, on long trips like this.

Not me BUT I kept the heat at 74-75 the entire way. And my ending range matched everyone else's (including those actively conserving power via heat cycling or using HVAC range mode).

 

[kendallpb]

@TeslaRoadTrip I want to see a sped up video of you guys brodering round in circles in the parking lot, complete with Benny Hill music

LOL! Every video of the cars coming into a supercharger parking lot, and the parade of cars leaving Rockville, I keep hearing the theme from Rocky! ;-) Dah-dah-dah...dah-dah-dah...dah-dah-dah...dah-dah-dah...dahdahdahdahdahdah...dahdahdah-dahdah-dahdah-dah-daaaaaaaah!

- - - Updated - - -

Not me BUT I kept the heat at 74-75 the entire way. And my ending range matched everyone else's (including those actively conserving power via heat cycling or using HVAC range mode).

Interesting, thanks.

 

[Jack]

My understanding is that the biggest part of the delays are the time it takes to negotiate the leases (having been corrected on this by other TMC members--thanks BTW, you don't learn anything by getting it right). There is little difference in the cost between installing an HPWC or installing Supercharger when viewed as a percentage of the overall cost. Installing both Superchargers and HPWCs make sense for a variety of reasons. Installing just an HPWC doesn't really make a lot of sense--it's not like it will get installed any faster.

Thanks for the dialog - i think this is the one takeaway from my road trip - this dialog needs to happen now and actions need to be taken today. I have no clue about implementation process and options, but feel pretty strongly about the customer and market requirement:

- The problem: you do not want to depend on a remote, slow, insecure, not-well-planned infrastructure that no one is accoutable for after driving 24 hours and making a judgement error about conditions and range when you have your family in the car

- The solution: A safe, secure, well-planned charging infrastructure that allows you to top-off if unplanned events happen - and this seems to be in existing public infrastruture in major roadside service plazas

- Correlary: I'd prefer not to plan my trips around stops in Milford CT and Wilmington - I want to charge where i'd normally sleep (mid-level hotels), eat (mid-town manhattan and not order 2 with rice or noodles in a truck stop), and otherwise be - i don't mind stopping for 15 to 30 minutes to top off if needed, as long as in in a safe, convenience place where someone is accoutable for the outcome.

 

[dsm363]

Don't you mean:

A 'Brodertunity' would be where you were at a perfectly good charging location (or near one) and either left way to early for the range you needed or drove right past one on your trip.

And cheers to all the BroderTrippers!!
--

That's what I was trying to say but maybe adding 'missed' threw it off.

 

[UMD86]

Absolutely agree over time - speed and standarization are valued attributes and the more of each we can achieve the better. The issue is timing. Having completed the road trip - i would like to see some actions taken in the next two weeks, not the next two years. I have no idea of the economics of building and operating supercharging stations versus HPWCs in a public setting - but having ordered an HPWCs, the latter would seem to put a lot less stress on the Tesla marketing budget.

What i needed, and i think would be representative both here in the Northeast, between SF and LA, and the rest of the world is a practical, efficient, well designed infrastructure today - I own this car now, and need to use it today (BTW, wish i had my HPWC - it's now 11 AM and i'm only at 171 at home).

Here's the issue - as part of the learning process, i mis-judged the conditions and impact on conditions on the last leg of a long road trip. We had literally been on the road for 24 hours straight, with no break. The exceptional quality of the Telsa instrumentation gave us fantastic headlights as to what would happen, and the time to correct for our mis-judgement.

But picture yourself having driven for 24 hours, in near-blinding snow that you suddenly drive into, and the knowledge that you need to take action. Your options are two Chargepoint stations in two local restaurants that are in a small town and off road (BTW - here's a planning issue - we had two of these stations with one mile, but none between Hartford and Auburn Mass - some planning and better spacing would seem to make sense). You don't know the location or quality of these stations - and most importance, no one is accountable for the functioning of these stations - if they were inaccessble or inoperable, we would have brodered. Further, both the restaurants were closed, and it was in the low 20's as noted above. We did not look forward to the idea of sitting in the car to 2 hours in a strange town in a high-end car in the middle of the night - by great luck and fortune, the kind manager at the McDonalds - which by chance was across the street (no easy street to cross in blinding snow, however) - broke with policy and allowed us to enter the restaurant at night (it's only open to drive-through after midnight for safety reasons).

What we need - and really need now - is publically supported infrastructure at major road stops. There is a large service plaza just as you enter the mass pike off 84. We need to rip and replace 4 of the 32 petrol bays with HPWC-class stations or better - now, not in 2 years. These should be in every or every other service plaza between Boston, NYC and DC. I needed the security and safety of knowing there is safe, secure public infrastructure that i can easily get to in the conditions i faced - which are real world - it's nice to have done some pioneering - but this is a call to action to the community to start a project TODAY to make this happened. I'd drop plans for more Superchargers in the north east (save perhaps on on the north side of the NJTP for those of us who want to make Boston to DC with only one stop) - and focus on creating the market demand, and legistlative support for HPWC capabilities in service plazas - that is, to have license to operate a fueling station in a publically supported service plaze - you MUST have at least 4 electric bays with 60 MPH capabilties or better.

Let's keep in mind there are < 20,000 electric vehicles on the roadways versus 100 Million ICE cars and over 1,000,000 gas stations. This is a budding industry and it will take time and MONEY to build out the infrastructure. Over time we will get there but it will not happen tomorrow or next week. Also remember the oil industry has a lot of powerful lobbyists in Washington and they're do everything in their powers to SLOW DOWN the electric car market. WHO KILLED THE ELECTRIC CAR?

 

[Jack]

Not me BUT I kept the heat at 74-75 the entire way. And my ending range matched everyone else's (including those actively conserving power via heat cycling or using HVAC range mode).

We were similar to Ben - we kept the climate at 67 all the way (which is what we would normally do and what our house is set to), and did not use the heated seats. I dropped the climate to low when i got in a bit of trouble in CT, but this did not seem to make a difference. Like my colleague from MA, i was mostly in the 75 to 80 range, and did not seem far off from everyone else's statistics.

 

[jerry33]

- Correlary: I'd prefer not to plan my trips around stops in Milford CT and Wilmington

Especially as I'm in DFW.

I want to charge where i'd normally sleep (mid-level hotels)

For me that would be Bed & Breakfasts.

eat (mid-town manhattan and not order 2 with rice or noodles in a truck stop)

Truck stops are often safer than the public stops because there is constant activity.

 

[Bearman]

aaron.s charging complete. Battery level 91%. I have enough juice for 241.97 miles

No range charge? :frown:

 

[bluetinc]

Absolutely agree over time - speed and standarization are valued attributes and the more of each we can achieve the better. The issue is timing. Having completed the road trip - i would like to see some actions taken in the next two weeks, not the next two years. I have no idea of the economics of building and operating supercharging stations versus HPWCs in a public setting - but having ordered an HPWCs, the latter would seem to put a lot less stress on the Tesla marketing budget.

Hey Jack,

Just a quick note. The charging stations that you are recommending don't need to be HPWC's, In fact I would recommend against a Tesla only proprietary plug. The J1772 standard covers up to 80A just as the HPWC's do, the issue these days is that almost all J1772 installations use the cheaper versions that only supply 30A. Add to that that most of the power run to them ends up at 200V instead of 240V, it makes for a fairly crappy charge rate for our S's... Keeping to the EV standard would allow for other EV interests to help in this effort rather than making this a Tesla only thing.

I feel the fastest way to do something that you are suggesting is to convince a major chain (In my mind this has always been McDonalds) that they should install 1-2 charging stations at every McDonalds across the country. If I run the numbers quickly, there are about 13K McDs in the US, and at say 3K and install, that means it would cost about 40 Million to have this done. While at first blush this may sound like a lot, but when a 30 second commercial in the Superbowl costs almost 4 Million, it might end up being the best money they ever spent in terms of long term PR and being known at the progressive, environmental, pro EV company. That sorta thing can last a decade or longer, and force others to just try to catch up.

Who owns the MD tag "KWH2MPH"? I've got the same tag @ Virginia.

Yep, that's me . We should get the cars together sometime for a great couple of pictures!

Peter

 

[dpeilow]

Kinda like McDonalds in Scandinavia are doing.

 

[Jack]

Let's keep in mind there are < 20,000 electric vehicles on the roadways versus 100 Million ICE cars and over 1,000,000 gas stations. This is a budding industry and it will take time and MONEY to build out the infrastructure. Over time we will get there but it will not happen tomorrow or next week. Also remember the oil industry has a lot of powerful lobbyists in Washington and they do everything in their powers to SLOW DOWN the electric car market. WHO KILLED THE ELECTRIC CAR?

If we don't take the appropriate actions to change things now, these ratios will persist - we are so close - we just need a bit more infrastrucutre support

 

[xanderwalker]

little write up from my experience yesterday. Very grateful for the opportunity to ride along. congratulations to everyone involved.

straßenversion: Tesla Road Trip - debunking the New York Times

i shot some "3d" photos as well that i will post later tonight

 

[cinergi]

Surprised at the number of down votes on reddit ... 6 Tesla owners are recreating the Broder drive. They are doing the exact same trip, even leaving their cars unplugged overnight as he did. They just hit the road at the time of this post! The trip is being tweeted live by the cars themselves with telemetry data and charge levels. I Bet they make it! : technology

 

[dpeilow]

Now that's what I'm talking about...

 

[xanderwalker]

Surprised at the number of down votes on reddit ... 6 Tesla owners are recreating the Broder drive. They are doing the exact same trip, even leaving their cars unplugged overnight as he did. They just hit the road at the time of this post! The trip is being tweeted live by the cars themselves with telemetry data and charge levels. I Bet they make it! : technology

reddit automatically generates downvotes as part of their algorithm to keep content on the front page fresh. the downvote counts and percentages are not representative of people's opinion on the post.

 

[stevezzzz]

little write up from my experience yesterday. Very grateful for the opportunity to ride along. congratulations to everyone involved.

straßenversion: Tesla Road Trip - debunking the New York Times

i shot some "3d" photos as well that i will post later tonight

Well done, zanderwalker! Looking forward to your stereo pairs; post them as stereo-X pairs as well as anaglyphs, if you don't mind: I prefer free-viewing pairs rather than donning 3-D glasses.

 

[gg_got_a_tesla]

Not really, Ben; there are still a lot of naysayers out there, even tech-savvy ones on Reddit.

Welcome back, btw; great going yesterday! Thanks for the effort!

 

[dtich]

Surprised at the number of down votes on reddit ... 6 Tesla owners are recreating the Broder drive. They are doing the exact same trip, even leaving their cars unplugged overnight as he did. They just hit the road at the time of this post! The trip is being tweeted live by the cars themselves with telemetry data and charge levels. I Bet they make it! : technology

so much of this reminds me of the apple 'fanboys' v. naysayers feuds that you see on many bbs's. if there is a group of enthusiasts that support a company and product line to the point of being willing to forgive some initial hiccups and growing pains, there is always a group of obnoxious anti-fans with nothing constructive to say but seemingly lots of time to post negatively (almost always without first hand experience of any kind with the product in question) and vote down any positives. ahh, the internet. the great equalizer. the fact is in this day and age it is increasingly difficult to separate the wheat from chaff in online criticism. not all opinions are created equal, some people have nothing to say and say it a lot, and those with something to say often have better things to do with their time than shout in an over-crowded mess hall. as we have seen, true journalism and real constructive criticism are at a critical crossroads in history.

 

[Al Sherman]

Now that's what I'm talking about...

+1 That's just a really nice shot.

 

[xanderwalker]

+1 That's just a really nice shot.

thanks that was with my cell phone. pretty pumped about that one.