Road trip report

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:

• 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.

Gary

 

[wadood]

@wadood Can you clarify: is Navigate on Autopilot part of the base configuration? Or do you have EAP or FSD? The Tesla site is a bit unclear but it looks like NoA is part of the $5000 EAP package.

Navigate on Autopilot is part of EAP package.

 

[ElectricAnt54]

CAR:

• 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.

@Colorado Y , Hands on the wheel is the law of the road here in California. I assume same in Colorado. Tesla tech is not approved for usage without hands on the wheel & driver not looking at the road. Hence why Tesla has a system to nag people who might forget. I have driven hundreds of miles without being nagged. I suspect in time you’ll learn how to make the system happy. gotta keep the NHTSA agency happy & all the concerned citizens who are sceptical of a car’s ability to do more than basic cruise control. Also since it is Tesla, even more scrutiny.

 

[wadood]

@Colorado Y , Hands on the wheel is the law of the road here in California. I assume same in Colorado. Tesla tech is not approved for usage without hands on the wheel & driver not looking at the road. Hence why Tesla has a system to nag people who might forget. I have driven hundreds of miles without being nagged. I suspect in time you’ll learn how to make the system happy. gotta keep the NHTSA agency happy & all the concerned citizens who are sceptical of a car’s ability to do more than basic cruise control. Also since it is Tesla, even more scrutiny.

There is no such law. GM super cruise, Ford Blue Cruise are all fully hands-free self-driving technologies. Their cars are on California roads for many years with a better safety record than Tesla. The same is true for Open Pilot, a company based in San Diego—which is fully hands free. Of course, these Self-driving technologies monitor your eyes and make sure they are always on the road. GM Supercruise has the best safety record in the country.

Tesla should have implemented driver monitoring from the day one instead of this very annoying nagging but now with FSD at least they have some sort of in-cabin monitoring. Hopefully, Tesla nag will go away in some not so distant release.

 

[Gray Man]

Fabulous report, cant wait to get my hands on the car and do my own road trips. The wait is ridiculous!!

I'm almost at the end of my wait... just a week away (OD 4/26), but I swear time gets slower as I get closer!!!

 

[tivoboy]

CAMPING

• 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

The car will lose a lot of internal HEAT from the inside and bring in a lot of COLD from the outside through the windows. Something like this might help quite a bit actually

Amazon.com

 

[ElectricAnt54]

There is no such law. GM super cruise, Ford Blue Cruise are all fully hands-free self-driving technologies. Their cars are on California roads for many years with a better safety record than Tesla. The same is true for Open Pilot, a company based in San Diego—which is fully hands free. Of course, these Self-driving technologies monitor your eyes and make sure they are always on the road. GM Supercruise has the best safety record in the country.

Tesla should have implemented driver monitoring from the day one instead of this very annoying nagging but now with FSD at least they have some sort of in-cabin monitoring. Hopefully, Tesla nag will go away in some not so distant release.

I’m surprised it is not a law but now that you mention it, my dad used to drive by turning the wheel with his legs as I sat in his lap when I has a child. Safety was better in the old days . Ok forget the law Debate. Here are quotes from the online tesla manual. but y’all drive however ya want.

Note
Autosteer is a BETA feature.

Warning
Autosteer is a hands-on feature. You must keep your hands on the steering wheel at all times.

Model Y Owner's Manual | Tesla

Learn about Autosteer and its specifications.

www.tesla.com

 

[wadood]

Driver is fully responsible for driving of the vehicle. In case of Auto-Pilot accident it wouldn’t matter if your hands were on the wheel or not. Neither you can sue Tesla for the shortcomings of Autopilot nor police would slap an extra ticket on you for not holding the wheel.

Actually, there is no official self-driving in the law. All are considered driver assist features like old school cruise control. Tesla has been sued in the court several times for their misnomers. Other groups also want Tesla to stop marketing these features as self-driving and choose names what other companies have chosen for their autonomous driving features. For example, GM Supercruise is similar to Auto Pilot but they don’t call it auto or self anything and by name it sounds like only an extension of the regular cruise control, which sends a different message to the driver.

 

[AGNL]

I'm almost at the end of my wait... just a week away (OD 4/26), but I swear time gets slower as I get closer!!!

Absolutely, the anguish and the clock both seem to be asynchronous in getting the old ticker going

 

[BitJam]

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.

You can get insulated "sun shades" for the windshield, all the windows, and for the roof. I got a set from eBay for everything but the roof for $40 (now it's $50). These make a big difference in keeping the car toasty at night. There are also products from EVinsulate to help keep your car warm in the winter. They can cut your wintertime range loss in half.

 

[Colorado Y]

@Colorado Y , Hands on the wheel is the law of the road here in California.

I actually don't object (much) to the hands-on requirement. It's the "kick me every 15 seconds and force me to joggle the wheel" that drives me nuts after a few thousand times. I'll have to work on the "continuous slight pressure so it never nags" technique.

The car will lose a lot of internal HEAT from the inside and bring in a lot of COLD from the outside through the windows. Something like this might help quite a bit actually

Those are actually the exact shades I was considering. I like that they have a bit of insulation and reflectivity and not just sun shading. But I wasn't too worried about heat loss through the windows -- the air temp was OK. But the walls were cold enough to really chill your feet or whatever contacted them.

There are also products from EVinsulate to help keep your car warm in the winter. They can cut your wintertime range loss in half.

The EVglass product at EVinsulate looks very interesting. The roof glass gets **HOT** in the sun here, almost too hot to touch. That results in baking my head, which is not comfortable. I had intended to get a roof shade, but I couldn't find any with insulating properties. I assume the EVglass wouldn't insulate either, but it would increase the temp isolation of the roof without losing the see-through effect. You could leave it in year-round to improve your range-loss and hot/cold discomfort summer & winter.

Don't think it's worth almost 5x the shade I was considering though: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09ZH6DSTX/

That's smart of them to measure and advertise the improvements in range loss. I'd bet most top shades would do similar, but they don't market it.

 

[BitJam]

The EVglass product at EVinsulate looks very interesting. The roof glass gets **HOT** in the sun here, almost too hot to touch. That results in baking my head, which is not comfortable. I had intended to get a roof shade, but I couldn't find any with insulating properties. I assume the EVglass wouldn't insulate either, but it would increase the temp isolation of the roof without losing the see-through effect. You could leave it in year-round to improve your range-loss and hot/cold discomfort summer & winter.

That's smart of them to measure and advertise the improvements in range loss. I'd bet most top shades would do similar, but they don't market it.

Don't think it's worth almost 5x the shade I was considering though: https://www.amazon.com/Sunshade-Window-Insulation-Sunroof-White（Set/dp/B09ZH6DSTX/

I got a SUMK shade from Amazon similar to the one you are considering. I was very happy with it. A shade does a much better job at keeping the interior cool in the summer compared to EVglass. OTOH, I think EVglass does a better job of keeping the car warm in winter. In addition, their product to insulate the battery and associated fluids contributes significantly to increasing wintertime range.

The EVglass does insulate because it makes the roof double pane. On a sunny day the temperature of the EVglass is more than 20F less than the temperature of the roof alone.

Overall, I agree with you. I think a two part shade, like the one you are considering, is the most cost effective solution. It should help immensely in the summer and provide significant benefit in the winter as well. Many folks don't realize how much hotter the sun is at the higher elevations of Colorado and the high desert of New Mexico.

 

[Colorado Y]

The EVglass makes it a "double pane" by trapping a layer of air. Why wouldn't a fabric shade do the same?

What do you like about the SUMK? I liked the light color of the one I linked.

 

[ElectricAnt54]

I actually don't object (much) to the hands-on requirement. It's the "kick me every 15 seconds and force me to joggle the wheel" that drives me nuts after a few thousand times. I'll have to work on the "continuous slight pressure so it never nags" technique.

I remember when I first started using Autopilot that it would often remind me to keep hands on wheel & eyes on road when indeed my hands had been on the road and eyes on road, mostly . Over time, I must've adjusted how I hold the wheel because the car rarely nags me anymore. Not sure what I did. Hopefully same happens for you if you are new to Autopilot.

 

[BitJam]

The EVglass makes it a "double pane" by trapping a layer of air. Why wouldn't a fabric shade do the same?

One difference is the EVglass gives you a consistent air gap. Again, the shade is better for the summer. It's possible the shade is just as good in the winter but I doubt it. Also, shipping for EVglass to the US is very expensive. IMO the shade is a more practical solution unless you live much farther north.

What do you like about the SUMK? I liked the light color of the one I linked.

I like the dark color. I think it's better for keeping the cabin dark while camping. And I imagine it is less noticeable despite my white interior. I previously had a one piece shade and it would flap a lot when the windows were open even when I used the magnets to prevent flapping. The wire on the SUMK is really thick. This makes it difficult to collapse but it is sturdy which I like.

IMO if you like the lighter color then you should go for the one you linked to. It looks very similar to the SUMK. The key thing is having two pieces and a sturdy frame.

 

[Colorado Y]

Also, shipping for EVglass to the US is very expensive. IMO the shade is a more practical solution unless you live much farther north.

Ooof, yes. The cheapest shipping is $23 more than the price of the shade I linked! I think the shade will do fine for me.

 

[HenryDog]

I've had the phantom braking issue on my new Model Y (I took delivery in mid-October 2022). It is alarming (to say the least) and totally unsafe. I have the base configuration Autopilot. At this point I'm not likely to spend the $$$ for the Enhanced Autopilit package. EAP has some interesting features that I would probably like, however, I have more important things on which to spend money.

Autopilot is a terrific concept! I'm hoping that given enough time and user feedback, Tesla will get it working more reliably. Right now it feels like I'm driving a vehicle that is constantly in Beta test with erratic and, therefore, not entirely trustwothy, behavior.

 

[RichAZ/CapeCod]

I've had the phantom braking issue on my new Model Y (I took delivery in mid-October 2022). It is alarming (to say the least) and totally unsafe. I have the base configuration Autopilot. At this point I'm not likely to spend the $$$ for the Enhanced Autopilit package. EAP has some interesting features that I would probably like, however, I have more important things on which to spend money.

Autopilot is a terrific concept! I'm hoping that given enough time and user feedback, Tesla will get it working more reliably. Right now it feels like I'm driving a vehicle that is constantly in Beta test with erratic and, therefore, not entirely trustwothy, behavior.

What baffles me is why some Tesla owners are reporting this very serious phantom braking issue and others aren't impacted. Our MY (Nov 2020) demonstrates none, nor does our M3 SR (end of August 2022).

Bizarre.

Rich

 

[ElectricAnt54]

I've had the phantom braking issue on my new Model Y (I took delivery in mid-October 2022). It is alarming (to say the least) and totally unsafe. I have the base configuration Autopilot. At this point I'm not likely to spend the $$$ for the Enhanced Autopilit package. EAP has some interesting features that I would probably like, however, I have more important things on which to spend money.

Autopilot is a terrific concept! I'm hoping that given enough time and user feedback, Tesla will get it working more reliably. Right now it feels like I'm driving a vehicle that is constantly in Beta test with erratic and, therefore, not entirely trustwothy, behavior.

I just drove my car on autopilot with auto steer beta in heavy rain & medium amount of fog while on the freeway. Surprisingly, it did fine. I didn’t leave it on for long. I’m one of the drivers which doesn’t experience phantom braking. I use autopilot on major freeways / highways. Will have to try more rural areas one day.

 

[WADan]

I just drove my car on autopilot with auto steer beta in heavy rain & medium amount of fog while on the freeway. Surprisingly, it did fine. I didn’t leave it on for long. I’m one of the drivers which doesn’t experience phantom braking. I use autopilot on major freeways / highways. Will have to try more rural areas one day.

I have not had phantom braking lately (they had happened earlier on at the beginning of my 3 years of ownership). I found that autopilot drives better than I can at night or under heavy wind on the freeway!

 

[electric_three]

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:

• 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.

Gary

View attachment 870671

Gary, reading that review I was expecting a 30-something, what a surprise! (Not in a bad way) excellent review and a lot of the same problem I experience in my 21 Model Y. Great work and well done