Roadster Quiz: Amazing Low Power Consumption

[Johann Koeber]

I can confirm, I was never unrelaxed in the process.

Thanks for all your input - so far.

 

[jordanthompson]

Perhaps you were traveling on a train (relaxing) with your car?

 

[ElSupreme]

I don't know how the roadster calculates speed, but did you monkey with the encoder/axel unit to increase your distance measurement?
Or did you change your final drive ratio? Or swap your wheels for something like these?

I guess changing the wheel size would change your final drive ratio. I was referring to the fixed gearbox ratio.

 

[vfx]

Photoshop?

 

[ElSupreme]

What about putting your Roadster on a barge with a dyno/rollers, that directly powered a paddle wheel/propeller. So you boated it. Kind of like a car powered peddle boat. Sorry I can't seem to find any pictures of this on the internet. Or any record of it.

I need to stop my imagination is going to far.

 

[ElSupreme]

I guess you could have just done a long and sustained burnout, on some old tires. Maybe assisted by some standing water or oil. But I would consider that unrelaxing.

 

[Tommy]

Perhaps he modified his roadster to being a road rail vehicle capable of running on rail tracks as well as on the street. Running the car on rail tracks would account for the high speed, and the low rolling resistance of the rails would account for the low power needed to travel the distance shown.

Example of a road rail car:

 

[T@oo]

You jacked the car up and let it free wheel. Only question is why.

 

[djp]

You jacked the car up and let it free wheel. Only question is why.

Agreed, the car must have been jacked up on a dyno with no load to get those type of numbers. Probably drove to a testing centre and back.

 

[PRJIM]

Did this happen after a firmware update? Was the car serviced by Tesla recently?

 

[strider]

Agreed, the car must have been jacked up on a dyno with no load to get those type of numbers. Probably drove to a testing centre and back.

That's my vote. He went in for his annual "safety inspection" and they dyno'd the car. He was relaxing in the waiting room drinking coffee and browsing TMC.

 

[pgwoosley]

There was a story a few years ago about a stunt in which a car was transported in a plane and the
GPS of the car was used to navigate the plane. Obviously, the car had to be "on" all of the way to allow use of the car's GPS.

 

[daniel]

He says he "relaxed, taking my Roadster 2.5 for a spin." This implies that he was driving it, not sitting while someone else put it on a dyno. And anyway, a testing center would have used a dyno that mimicked road driving and used a similar amount of energy. Maybe just jacking up the rear end could be considered as "taking [his] Roadster 2.5 for a spin," because the wheels would be spinning, but I'd consider that misleading.

Johann: Would you be willing to tell us whether you were actually driving the car on the road?

As for the "prize" of an invitation to Nuremburg, I hereby extend an invitation to visit Spokane to anyone who fails to guess the right answer. (This invitation does not include airfare, other transportation costs, lodging, food, etc. :biggrin: )

 

[jordanthompson]

As for the "prize" of an invitation to Nuremburg, I hereby extend an invitation to visit Spokane to anyone who fails to guess the right answer. (This invitation does not include airfare, other transportation costs, lodging, food, etc. :biggrin: )

Does this imply that Johann's invitation *included* transportation??? :-D :-D

 

[daniel]

Does this imply that Johann's invitation *included* transportation??? :-D :-D

No, it means that his invitation might not be quite as valuable a prize as a casual reading could suggest.

 

[Johann Koeber]

Did this happen after a firmware update? Was the car serviced by Tesla recently?

And the winner is:

PRJIM

is close enough

Actually what happened was:

I drove the roadster to work (the long way, about 90 km). I have the habit of starting a new trip when I get in the car in the morning. Then I parked the car in the company garage. ... Then the ranger came and cleaned the P.E.M. To do this, he interrupted the power supply, not just the 12 V support battery but also the high voltage system. After he was done, I drove a short way home, about 42 km.

Now my interpretation is that diconnecting the power reset the energy consumption and the trip timer. But not the trip odometer.

You could call it a software bug.

Anyhow ... thanks for all the educated guessing - I love the flock intelligence of this forum. Well done.


PRJIM PM me about the details of your visit.

PS.
Now I have to figure out, how to pair my blue-tooth, set my radio stations,... and all the other settings. Next time I will ask the ranger to make a back-up before he deletes all my personal data.

 

[dmckinstry]

Did your car hop on one of those car transport trains for part of the trip?

That was going to be my guess. There's no way under and natural (less than cyclone/etc.) that that speed could be maintained without at least an order of magnitude higher energy use.