Route planners with waypoints and battery level thresholds?

[snovvman]

For a day trip, I may have a few stops, then eventually return home. I am looking for a route planner that supports multiple waypoints and battery level calculations at destination. In this example, at the end of the trip and the destination is home. In other words, I would like to be able to say that by the time I return home, I want the battery to be no lower than 20%. Based on the trip, the app should be able to tell me what the minimum charge amount I need to make that trip and if needed, add charging stops.

I can even live without the minimum end-of-trip battery calculation. The challenge is finding trip planner apps that support multiple waypoints. Tesla's native app does not support waypoints. The only app I found is ABRP (A Better Route Planner). Its UI leaves a lot to be desired.

Does anyone know of any other app that supports way points or some of the functions I described?

Thanks.

 

[MJB-CO]

ABRP is not the easiest app to use, but it does what you're looking for. I use it to plan all my trips.
It tends to be a little conservative in its calculations vs Tesla's on board app which is too optimistic.

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

ABRP.

Use the advanced settings.

 

[snovvman]

ABRP is not the easiest app to use, but it does what you're looking for. I use it to plan all my trips.
It tends to be a little conservative in its calculations vs Tesla's on board app which is too optimistic.

Thank you. I wish ABRP can send the route to the car like you can with Google Maps, although that's just sending a single address.

I also wish i can delete a recent trip plan.

 

[Grabthar]

Waypoints are supported in Tesla Nav in the car. Does that work for you?

 

[snovvman]

Waypoints are supported in Tesla Nav in the car. Does that work for you?

Yes, the waypoints work in the car. I was looking for an app/web solution so I don't have to go down into the car every time I am planning a trip. The native Tesla app now has limited functionality to a single destination. I hope they will later add waypoints too.

 

[Unclepaul]

First World problems

 

[KenC]

I use ABRP. After a while, you get used to the UI.

 

[snovvman]

First World problems

You've pretty much described the entire Tesla community discussions lol.

 

[acoburn73]

I use both, but focus mostly on what the car tells me to do, especially if it's windy.

However, after a long 2000-mile round trip run last week, I'm not horribly pleased with either. And, the trip cost $301 in SC charges vs. a hybrid gas car that would have been around the same spend. I guess next time we take our older MS with free unlimited SC (although the stops are LOONG!).

ABRP using advanced features and real time data from the car - not too comfy with their limited time at each stop vs. what the car says. Worried if I followed ABRP, I'd be dead somewhere in Kansas on I-70. But then again, the car tells me the same SC stops, but significantly longer charge times than ABRP. I can watch the next SC % SOC be 0, 3, 5, then 10% and the car says "you're good to go", only to unplug, start to drive away, and watch the arrival SOC % on the car jump from 10 to 21%. Then I get there and am at around 18%, implying that I stayed too long at the last SC because the car said I needed to stay, only to change the arrival SOC prediction after departure. This inevitably impacts the total trip time - whereas I thought I'd be there in 6 hours, this added time only to see it be too much means it'll be 7+ hours and arriving with 30% SOC (not needed).

Granted, driving in western KS and eastern CO, it's best to always take the over % because those winds can suck the thing dry much faster than the car predicts. This is why I think ABRP is risky on its short stops at the same SCs as the car says to stop at. I just don't like the idea that the car tells me to sit longer than the original predicted SC time (e.g., before the trip I'll punch in the destination on the app, and it shows me 3 stops at 9, 19, and 21 minutes, only to get on the road and see the SC times jump to 35, 45 or even 50 minutes, with no weather and driving the speed limit).

 

[snovvman]

Relatedly, it appears that Auto Club/AAA now offers mobile charge as part of their roadside assistance. I don't recall where I saw it--FB or Reddit, but it may be in limited areas. In any case, the service is likely to expand as more EVs are on the road.

 

[flixden]

Can an ABRP route be downloaded/transferred to the onboard GPS?

 

[snovvman]

Can an ABRP route be downloaded/transferred to the onboard GPS?

I am not aware of a way. That is a key missing feature. You can send it via Google Maps, but that is simply a single address. In order to transfer a route with multiple stops, it would require more a complex API conversation and I don't know if Tesla even provides for it.

 

[flixden]

So people that use ABRP use it on their phone screen while driving?
Sorry if this is a dumb question. I am new to this, still waiting for my ordered MY.

 

[Mr. Nuke]

For a day trip, I may have a few stops, then eventually return home. I am looking for a route planner that supports multiple waypoints and battery level calculations at destination. In this example, at the end of the trip and the destination is home. In other words, I would like to be able to say that by the time I return home, I want the battery to be no lower than 20%. Based on the trip, the app should be able to tell me what the minimum charge amount I need to make that trip and if needed, add charging stops.

As others already said ABRP is the app to use here. Several times a year I do a similar trip to what you're proposing. I'll drive from Omaha to Kansas City for the day (about 400 miles round trip). Especially this time of year, my 3 LR would have no problem getting the 200 miles to KC, and there are superchargers in the area of where I go. However, the V3 super chargers are on the opposite sides of town from where I'm going, and the two more convenient superchargers are only 72 kW urban chargers meaning slower speeds when I'd need to substantially top off my battery for my KC driving and trip back to Omaha.

The quickest strategy for this trip is to charge charge about 60 miles North of Kansas City in St. Joseph Missouri and then hit that same charger on the way back. I'll pre-plan the route in ABRP so that I know what SOC to charge to in St. Joe's on the way down to make it the 120 miles round-trip plus KC driving back to that same SC within my buffer range.

For this trip I'll typically just write down what state of charge ABRP recommended charging to at St. Joe's, the SOC it estimated I'd arrive at St. Joe's with, and watch how well the car estimated the 140 mile drive there. If ABRP or the car underestimated consumption I'll charge slightly higher then what ABRP had recommended.

So people that use ABRP use it on their phone screen while driving?
Sorry if this is a dumb question. I am new to this, still waiting for my ordered MY.

You can, even going so far as @acoburn73 did above, tying ABRP directly into the car so that it will monitor the actual state of charge versus what it was/is predicting on your phone during the trip.

However, a lot of people will just use either the phone app or their website to plan a trip before they go and let the car handle the actual trip itself partially (navigating to superchargers ABRP planned) or completely. Tesla's energy app for trips has got significantly better over the past year or so. And even if you are using ABRP on the phone you are still going to want some form of the route in the car's system i.e. at the very least be navigating to the next supercharger so the battery is pre-conditioned.

 

[DuncanM]

Can an ABRP route be downloaded/transferred to the onboard GPS?

You can use ABRP via the car's web browser; just set it as a favourite.

 

[gtg465x]

When using ABRP, make sure to set your degradation and reference consumption @ 65 mph properly. I have a Model 3 RWD and ABRP defaulted to 5% degradation and 230 Wh/mi @ 65 mph, but I got much more accurate info once I changed to my actual measured values of 1% degradation and 210 Wh/mi @ 65 mph.

 

[snellenr]

I've used EVTO-Tesla on my iPhone for several years to plan long distance (transcontinental) trips. It excels at creating multi-day segmented trips by letting you set your "nominal" leg length (i.e., 9 hours) and displaying where that puts you in the route. I've also tried using ABRP for this, but its "provisions" for segmenting trips as the shoot out of me every time I try to use it for this kind of trip.

I'm attaching a couple of images of a central Michigan to Sacramento CA trip I've done before - creating a new trip and segmenting into reasonable day-drive lengths took me about 5 minutes, and the estimates have generally been very accurate. The first image is for the first leg and shows where my 10 hour drive length lands with +/- bar - the second shows the resulting trip estimate with stops.

 

[flixden]

You can use ABRP via the car's web browser; just set it as a favourite.

Oh, I need to get used to having a computer right there on the dash ...

 

[DuncanM]

When using ABRP, make sure to set your degradation and reference consumption @ 65 mph properly. I have a Model 3 RWD and ABRP defaulted to 5% degradation and 230 Wh/mi @ 65 mph, but I got much more accurate info once I changed to my actual measured values of 1% degradation and 210 Wh/mi @ 65 mph.

Yes, I had to do the same to get accurate prediction via ABRP.