Not sure where to post this, hopefully this is OK ...
I just took my first road trip in my 2022 MYLR. I drove over 2100 miles in 3 one-day legs (900mi northern CO to NE IA, 720mi to Devil's Tower in NE WY, 350mi back to CO, plus day trips in IA), with a first experiment of sleeping in the car. Any comments or recommendations?
CAR:
CAMPING:
I just took my first road trip in my 2022 MYLR. I drove over 2100 miles in 3 one-day legs (900mi northern CO to NE IA, 720mi to Devil's Tower in NE WY, 350mi back to CO, plus day trips in IA), with a first experiment of sleeping in the car. Any comments or recommendations?
CAR:
- I gotta quit planning trips that involve 12-16 hour drives. Ugh.
- Autopilot is The Bomb for hundreds of miles of mind-numbing interstate. I can see that they've improved it a bit since I got my car in July -- e.g. merging lanes still make it jumpy, but it doesn't dive over to the new lane like it used to. It still scares me sometimes, kinda like riding with a 15-yr-old driver. IMHO it waits way too long before turning when you enter a curve, which is nervous-making (especially if there's another vehicle in your way), but so far it hasn't killed me. I still don't trust it on really curvy roads, and I think they recommend not using it on roads like that.
- I'm frankly amazed how well AP sees the road. At one point I was driving in the rain after dark. **I** could barely see the lane, especially with oncoming car headlights reflecting off the wet road. I didn't think AP would be able to see, but it followed the lane like a champ. Damn impressive.
- The "keep your hands on the wheel" nag is a real pain. Really obnoxious. Sometimes it goes as long as 40 seconds between nags, but mostly it's 15 seconds. Which means it prodded me over TWO THOUSAND TIMES on the long day from CO to IA. Gets really ****ing old. Especially since you have to constantly watch for the alert out of the corner of your eye, and if you miss it, it penalizes you by disabling AP. Fortunately it's pretty quick/easy to fix, just annoying. I wish they would make it adaptive: if you respond quickly to the alerts (meaning you're paying attention), they should lengthen the nag interval.
- The navigation software needs a LOT of work. I got wrong directions several times -- Google Maps **NEVER** does that. Also, it doesn't give enough verbal warning for an upcoming turn. It often says "Now turn at XXX" when you should already be turning, without any warning to get in the right lane. It's also pretty bad at pronouncing street names. Like "enter-pis" for Enterprise, or worse. Weird thing is, it's not consistent. E.g. there's a Willox street near my house. It reads the name several times while negotiating the turn, and sometimes it says "Willox" and a minute later it says "Will oakes."
- I only got one mild phantom-brake on the first 900mi leg. But the car did NOT like Wyoming. I lost track but I think I had EIGHT major phantoms on the Devil's Tower - CO leg, mostly "full stomp on the brakes"-level events. Annoying, and dangerous if anyone's tailgating you.
- IMHO the auto hi-beams are dangerous. They're stupidly dangerously bright, and the auto system needs work. C'mon guys, cars don't just pop into and out of existence in front of you, so flicking the brights hi/lo/hi/lo/hi/lo is NEVER the right thing to do. But it does it a LOT. Also it often leaves the hi-beams on while meeting or following another car. I'm sure I blinded a lot of oncoming drivers, and I got flashed many times. They should drop to low-beams if they have any suspicion there's a car ahead, and KEEP them low until they're SURE there's no car ahead. I think the low-beams are as bright as the hi-beams on any car I've driven, so it's safe to keep them low if you're not sure. I would have driven with low beams the whole time, except Autopilot forces auto hi-beams. Several times I dropped out of AP because I felt bad about blinding other cars.
- I was surprised how much my mileage dropped on the trip. Driving around town I usually use about 250 Wh/mi. On the trip it took 340 Wh/mi. Obviously the air resistance at freeway speeds, and the lack of regen braking, really put a hurt on the efficiency. They've also jacked up the Supercharger rates -- I averaged $0.39/kWh. Between the two, the drive was significantly more $$ than I expected. Should be 0.34 kWh/mi * $0.39/kWh = $0.133/mi, and I actually saw about $0.165/mi. Home charging would be 0.25 kWh/mi * $0.135/kWh = $0.0335/mi, so Supercharging is currently about 5x more per mile than my home charging -- ouch. My Saab got about 30mpg on premium, which is currently about $4.20, so $4.20/gal / 30 mi/gal = $0.14/mi ? Current Supercharger rates are higher than gas !??
CAMPING:
- I need a bit more prep & equipment (better pads, better insulation, window covers), but overall it's fine. It's definitely not a luxe hotel, but it's a GREAT way to save $75-$100 or more per night!! I parked at an interstate rest stop, and I was surprised how little of the adjacent road noise came through.
- It's a bit cramped. I doubt there's room for two back there. Maybe smaller people could fit, but I'm 6'4". I slept diagonally a lot. I think I'm going to work out some boards to place under my pads/bag, extending over the rear footwell, so I can push the front seatbacks forward and get more length. Suggestions?
- It got to 28°F overnight, and Camp Mode only used about 10% of my charge. Camp Mode keeps it from freezing at night, but it does NOT keep it toasty. The air temp was chilly but OK but the walls of the car are cold. Not much of a problem on the sides, but my feet were forced down into the hatchback door, and it's cold down there! I'll have to stick a comforter or similar insulation down there to protect my feet.