Searching for Superchargers Only on Google Maps

[Rocky_H]

Not sure what that's about. I don't find much difference in Tesla chargers, and there's always enough working it's not a problem.

Ah, well then yes, I guess I misunderstood what you were talking about. I thought the point of your need to pre-plan was because you were having to go places that DIDN'T have Supercharger coverage, so you had to look for other unusual charging resources and then route specifically to them, so you had to force your route in detail.

If you're just using Superchargers, why are you needing to do this at all? You're going to feel different on the day of. You're going to get hungry whenever that is, etc. Since all of the Superchargers are already in the navigation map, wouldn't you just stop at whichever one that is along the way when you want to stop?

The built in planner in the car is not able to do "what if" considerations. It gives me a trip and tells me where to stop. If I don't like that, I can take a flying leap. One trip I often take has two main routes to get there. One is a bit more rural with a few (or a lot of) traffic lights, but less congestion and jerk drivers. The other is highway, faster and a bit shorter... unless there's an accident or just plain congestion. The car always tells me to take the highway and if I start the other way, I'm travelling blind because it may not stop telling me to turn around for 50 miles!

Well, you're picking the final complete endpoint to begin with and then trying to force and strain and work to MAKE the car move the intermediate path to something else. I'm sure that doesn't work very easily. Why do that? If you know the path you want to take, just touch the button to make all of the Superchargers visible and pick the one you want to go to. It doesn't have to be a big frustrating ordeal.

it will have me charge near the destination even though I have enough range to reach an intermediate charger on the return leg. That would give me much more time to charge, so I can eat. No way to get it to change its mind other than adding the stop at the food Supercharger and telling it to not stop to charge. It really doesn't like that, showing angry red, so I have to delete the final leg home.

Well...yeah. It's YOUR mind. YOU get to change it. You can use your own sense of what you feel like doing at that time, and pick that spot and navigate to it. The tools are picking a way that is possible. But if it's not what you prefer to do, you can get angry (like you've been doing) or choose to do something else and go there or tell it to stop at a different place. I guess I still don't understand what the problem is.

 

[GtiMart]

I'm only using Tesla superchargers. You're right, they are generally excellent. However, on my last long trip (Quebec <-> Florida) I hit two superchargers that were either completely dead (the car reported it as online) or that gave 10-20kW max. In both those cases I had to relocate, and in both cases Plugshare had a very low rating for them if I remember correctly. Not life-threatening, I was able to relocate, but time lost.

I side with @Rocky_H here, plans are good but things change. I prefer to leave some room for improvisation, stopping when we need to pee, planning for a shorter stretch because we're getting hungry earlier etc. ABRP is great to see that I will indeed make it, to choose the best highway and/or side road, to see where there are supercharging deserts (since I don't have an adapter, this is important to me). For the rest, I live my life one supercharger at a time, to paraphrase the fast and the furious a bit

 

[Rocky_H]

ABRP is great to see that I will indeed make it, to choose the best highway and/or side road, to see where there are supercharging deserts (since I don't have an adapter, this is important to me).

Yeah, I guess that is my point too, which I didn't state specifically. I use external tools more just for a quick check if I need to see if a route is possible. If it is, then that's good enough for the "planning". I can decide how I want to tune it to my preference as I go, rather than having to set something in advance and stay in that straightjacket.

 

[Earl]

I like to have things mapped out before the trips. Lots of the planning has to do with not wasting time charging, but charging while eating.

I can certainly respect folks who like to plan. I tend to plan roughly, then fly by the seat of my pants, adapting to real-time conditions as they occur.
I certainly don't waste time charging. When driving solo, I tend to plan while eating while charging. When my wife and I travel, she tends to optimize the navigation and does much better than any app. We tend to focus on 3 different Superchargers, A stretch one, a nominal one, and a backup one. We'll often set the nav to the stretch one and use the energy graph to see if we'll make it with choices to slow down or change to the nominal one if we won't make it. The backup one will be available if there's a strong headwind or things are looking very dicey. The 3rd target would be one with better food options as often indicated by plugshare or just zooming in on the location on a map.

day/night adjustment on the mirror

I like the auto adjust on the Tesla rear-view mirrors. They are impressive and I've never wished to change their contrast. Each to his/her own, I guess.

no other tool that will let me choose charging locations and optimize my time, rather than optimizing some variable

I'm not sure what you mean here. I certainly drive my own road. I'll use the onboard navigator but seldom follow it (my teachers in school often said I had trouble following direction too . I'll regularly blow off the Tesla recommended Supercharger if I think I can push it a bit farther. I'll also leave a Supercharger early and stop at a place with better food options, should plugshare indicate such a thing.
I've been from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean in 3 days (solo) and done 1,170 miles in a day so, clearly, I'm in fairly good control of my time.
I definitely appreciate your info on ABRP and do look at it on occasion, I just haven't found it valuable enough to actually use.

 

[gnuarm]

Ah, well then yes, I guess I misunderstood what you were talking about. I thought the point of your need to pre-plan was because you were having to go places that DIDN'T have Supercharger coverage, so you had to look for other unusual charging resources and then route specifically to them, so you had to force your route in detail.

Even if Supercharges exist, they are not always plentiful and a gas station does not offer the same activities as a shopping/restaurant area.

If you're just using Superchargers, why are you needing to do this at all? You're going to feel different on the day of. You're going to get hungry whenever that is, etc. Since all of the Superchargers are already in the navigation map, wouldn't you just stop at whichever one that is along the way when you want to stop?

Feel different from what? I can only stop at a Supercharger if I have enough electrons to reach it.

Well, you're picking the final complete endpoint to begin with and then trying to force and strain and work to MAKE the car move the intermediate path to something else. I'm sure that doesn't work very easily. Why do that? If you know the path you want to take, just touch the button to make all of the Superchargers visible and pick the one you want to go to. It doesn't have to be a big frustrating ordeal.

You have missed what I'm talking about. That's ok. I have two routes to choose from. Unless there is something in particular going on, I prefer to use a route the car will (almost) never pick for me. I have to ignore the navigator and drive another way. The navigator will figure it out after I've driven 50 miles or so. Even then, I've seen it continue for 80 miles, to route me far out of my way toward the "big city" which is what I'm trying to avoid.

Well...yeah. It's YOUR mind. YOU get to change it. You can use your own sense of what you feel like doing at that time, and pick that spot and navigate to it. The tools are picking a way that is possible. But if it's not what you prefer to do, you can get angry (like you've been doing) or choose to do something else and go there or tell it to stop at a different place. I guess I still don't understand what the problem is.

I'm simply pointing out the tools are inadequate. Because of the very limited range of Teslas, I like to plan my trips carefully, so I don't have to waste time running side trips to charge unexpectedly. I'm not sure why you characterize my criticism of the limited tools in the car as "angry".

I do understand that you don't understand. That's ok.

 

[gnuarm]

I'm only using Tesla superchargers. You're right, they are generally excellent. However, on my last long trip (Quebec <-> Florida) I hit two superchargers that were either completely dead (the car reported it as online) or that gave 10-20kW max. In both those cases I had to relocate, and in both cases Plugshare had a very low rating for them if I remember correctly. Not life-threatening, I was able to relocate, but time lost.

Are you saying the entire Supercharge facility was down and not reported as such? I've not seen that before. Some stations here have 20 chargers. I guess the power line can have a fault.

I side with @Rocky_H here, plans are good but things change. I prefer to leave some room for improvisation, stopping when we need to pee, planning for a shorter stretch because we're getting hungry earlier etc. ABRP is great to see that I will indeed make it, to choose the best highway and/or side road, to see where there are supercharging deserts (since I don't have an adapter, this is important to me). For the rest, I live my life one supercharger at a time, to paraphrase the fast and the furious a bit

"Things change"? That's not how business works. Yeah, sometimes things are unavoidable, but late to meetings because I had to reroute because my car didn't have enough charge? I don't even want to be home late because of that.

We are still a long way from seeing Superchargers every 10 miles or so along highways. There's a 50 mile stretch on Rt 70 in Maryland that could use a charger or two. When I suggested this in a forum here there was no end of ridicule.

This is why so many people won't even consider electric cars, they don't see enough charger presence. I hate chargers at gas stations, but I think they put so many there because they get a lot of visibility with ICE owners. I think eventually the charging spots will become the BEV equivalent of gas stations, but that's a different conversation.

 

[gnuarm]

I can certainly respect folks who like to plan. I tend to plan roughly, then fly by the seat of my pants, adapting to real-time conditions as they occur.
I certainly don't waste time charging. When driving solo, I tend to plan while eating while charging.

That's what I'm planning. I don't eat 90% of the stuff you find at most charging spots, so I plan where I will eat... and charge.

When my wife and I travel, she tends to optimize the navigation and does much better than any app. We tend to focus on 3 different Superchargers, A stretch one, a nominal one, and a backup one. We'll often set the nav to the stretch one and use the energy graph to see if we'll make it with choices to slow down or change to the nominal one if we won't make it. The backup one will be available if there's a strong headwind or things are looking very dicey. The 3rd target would be one with better food options as often indicated by plugshare or just zooming in on the location on a map.

Please don't share this with anyone who doesn't have a BEV. This is exactly the sort of stuff that turns people off to BEVs.

I like the auto adjust on the Tesla rear-view mirrors. They are impressive and I've never wished to change their contrast. Each to his/her own, I guess.

I'm referring to the inside mirror. I recently discovered that it's not tinted at all. The windows it's looking through are tinted. It's too dark during the day if the light is not strong. It's not dark enough at night to prevent headlights from shining in your eyes. I had cars from the 60s with the flip thing to change the darkness. At least this could fix the night issue. My $26,000 Kia has it. I keep forgetting to check a Pep Boys to see if they have one that will clip over the thing in the car.

I'm not sure what you mean here. I certainly drive my own road. I'll use the onboard navigator but seldom follow it (my teachers in school often said I had trouble following direction too . I'll regularly blow off the Tesla recommended Supercharger if I think I can push it a bit farther. I'll also leave a Supercharger early and stop at a place with better food options, should plugshare indicate such a thing.
I've been from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean in 3 days (solo) and done 1,170 miles in a day so, clearly, I'm in fairly good control of my time.
I definitely appreciate your info on ABRP and do look at it on occasion, I just haven't found it valuable enough to actually use.

You clipped my quote a bit. I was simply saying the ABRP tool lets me optimize what is important to me, while the Tesla tool mostly optimized the time at the actual charger (their best interests). It is much, much better than the built in tool which allows no "what if" since you can't change anything other than where you stop, not even where you charge. With ABRP, if I want, I can say stop here and charge this much. It then uses that charge level to plan the remainder of the trip. You simply can't do anything like this in the car. It is nice that they have, at least, added the use of multiple waypoints.