Planning first Road Trip in my SR+ , going from Toronto to Boston and back. It's about 900 KMs / 560 Miles one way. In addition to Tesla Route planner I'm using ABRP (A Better Routeplanner ) for route and supercharging planning , the route suggested by ABRP pasted/attached below. Has anyone used ABRP for planning and how accurate is this for rated KMs ? Looks like Tesla/ABRP plan does not take into consideration the additional battery drain due to possible lineup at border crossing (most of the time you end up 45 mins to an hr at the slow moving border crossing traffic, or sometimes hit heavy traffic jam on your way). Worried about battery drain due such unexpected circumstances and also weather. Appreciate your tips, shared experiences , advises and call-outs , if any . thank you
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SR + First Road Trip - any tips ?
- Thread starter GTA2011
- Start date
darth_vad3r
Well-Known Sith
That’s good to consider border times. Unless you have the AC cranked super cold, an hour going 1km/hr in the border lineup won’t add much (or subtract much). If the AC is maintaining temp on a not-too-hot day, you might see 1kW usage, which would be 750Wh for 45 minutes, or 1.5% on an SR+. Worse case hot day might be 3-4kW or 6-8% if you do that for an hour sitting still.
What speed did you choose in ABRP? I usually choose 125-130% and then I know I have a big cushion by slowing down to the speed limit
What speed did you choose in ABRP? I usually choose 125-130% and then I know I have a big cushion by slowing down to the speed limit
Definitely won’t be a problem to sit still at the border. Like darth_vad3r mentioned, worst case scenario you’ll see a couple percent loss. The other way to think about it is that energy needed to move a 2 ton car is way more than running an air compressor (AC) so you’ll be good.
Also good call @darth_vad3r on tweaking the ABRP settings to make sure you get worst case scenario planning and set appropriate expectations.
One final note, try to find a supercharger near your destination to charge as soon as you arrive. It’s summer now so this is less pressing, but the battery likes to be juiced up after it’s been warmed up and primed - which means right after you very exciting road trip.
I used to live in the Victor, NY area - it’s a gorgeous trip. I think you got it all down. Update us with how the trip went! I’m sure you’ll have a ton of fun.
Also good call @darth_vad3r on tweaking the ABRP settings to make sure you get worst case scenario planning and set appropriate expectations.
One final note, try to find a supercharger near your destination to charge as soon as you arrive. It’s summer now so this is less pressing, but the battery likes to be juiced up after it’s been warmed up and primed - which means right after you very exciting road trip.
I used to live in the Victor, NY area - it’s a gorgeous trip. I think you got it all down. Update us with how the trip went! I’m sure you’ll have a ton of fun.
That’s good to consider border times. Unless you have the AC cranked super cold, an hour going 1km/hr in the border lineup won’t add much (or subtract much). If the AC is maintaining temp on a not-too-hot day, you might see 1kW usage, which would be 750Wh for 45 minutes, or 1.5% on an SR+. Worse case hot day might be 3-4kW or 6-8% if you do that for an hour sitting still.
What speed did you choose in ABRP? I usually choose 125-130% and then I know I have a big cushion by slowing down to the speed limit
Here are my settings on ABRP , shall I change Ref speed to 125% ?
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@darth_vad3r @PlainKay , thanks for your responses. I'll not use AC , and currently on ABRP my ref speed is 100% , shall I bump it up to 125-130% ? any other changes you suggest ?
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Yes , I have considered charging in Dedham Tesla supercharger as soon as I reach Norfolk MA , thanks for this tip
@darth_vad3r @PlainKay - as soon as I changed ref speed to 125% , the route plan on ABRP changed indeed. pasted below for your ref. Now it has added one more stop at Guilderland NY
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I did a similar 500 mile one-way trip from DC to Asheville, NC this spring in my SR+. ABRP worked well, along with the in-car navigation. If you get to a point where you're worried about battery capacity, just slow down. Going from 70 to 60 has an amazing impact on range. Enjoy the trip!
With a 15% margin at each stop, I'd say that ref speed of 125% is a little on the high side, I prefer 115% (but I also never exceed 8-9 MPH over - the last thing I need is a ticket that will bump up the insurance premiums). I also came from a Leaf where range was a real issue and so I'm comfortable with cutting my margins down to 8-10%, but I wouldn't do that if it will cause you anxiety on the trip. My driving experience is I always arrive with more than what the car predicts I will have at the outset, but do what you're comfortable with!
With a 15% margin at each stop, I'd say that ref speed of 125% is a little on the high side, I prefer 115% (but I also never exceed 8-9 MPH over - the last thing I need is a ticket that will bump up the insurance premiums
). I also came from a Leaf where range was a real issue and so I'm comfortable with cutting my margins down to 8-10%, but I wouldn't do that if it will cause you anxiety on the trip. My driving experience is I always arrive with more than what the car predicts I will have at the outset, but do what you're comfortable with!
darth_vad3r
Well-Known Sith
How fast do you drive on the freeway when it's 80, 90, 100 km/h limit?
If the answer is 100, 112.5, 125, then 125% is the right number for you
@MrMassTransit, thanks for the advice, I have experienced that speed definitely is the one of the key factors of battery drain. I am planning to drive around limit+10 miles/hr mostly on traffic aware cruise control. Hope that will give me optimum drive efficiency
Got it @darth_vad3r , this makes sense and I will keep it to 125% to be conservative. And as I said I usually use Traffic Aware Cruise ControlHow fast do you drive on the freeway when it's 80, 90, 100 km/h limit?
If the answer is 100, 112.5, 125, then 125% is the right number for you
HG Wells
Martian Embassy
From my experience abetterrouteplanner is great. Maybe, a little conservative. The key is to put the most accurate info as possible in it, then adjust the speed up a little for sensitivity analysis.
So, I think 100% reference speed only works, if you really plan to drive the speed limit. Most people are driving 110% to 120% of the speed limit, no? Whatever speed you actually plan to drive, then add 10% for sensitivity, to get an idea of whether you might have any pinch points. The 10% is also a good cushion, if you get rain, cause that'll add 5% to your estimate. And, we don't know what the wind will be like, presumably, you'll get a tailwind, but who knows, you might have a headwind and that can easily add 10% to any energy estimate.
As for your border stop, you can put a waypoint in at Niagara Falls, and let it know you'll stop for an hour. Like darth pointed out, it could be a 1.5% to 2% hit to your SOC%age, and by doing that, abetterrouteplanner should adjust by that amount. It really is very accurate for planning, but a tad on the conservative side, as you'd want it to be.
If you don't have destination charging, then set your goal arrival charge to whatever %age you think you need, and it'll add in a charge at Dedham. Of course, you can always just drive over to Dedham SC while in Norwood., since it's only 5miles away.
Also, the web browser in the car can run abetterrouteplanner while you drive, with your car's data.
So, I think 100% reference speed only works, if you really plan to drive the speed limit. Most people are driving 110% to 120% of the speed limit, no? Whatever speed you actually plan to drive, then add 10% for sensitivity, to get an idea of whether you might have any pinch points. The 10% is also a good cushion, if you get rain, cause that'll add 5% to your estimate. And, we don't know what the wind will be like, presumably, you'll get a tailwind, but who knows, you might have a headwind and that can easily add 10% to any energy estimate.
As for your border stop, you can put a waypoint in at Niagara Falls, and let it know you'll stop for an hour. Like darth pointed out, it could be a 1.5% to 2% hit to your SOC%age, and by doing that, abetterrouteplanner should adjust by that amount. It really is very accurate for planning, but a tad on the conservative side, as you'd want it to be.
If you don't have destination charging, then set your goal arrival charge to whatever %age you think you need, and it'll add in a charge at Dedham. Of course, you can always just drive over to Dedham SC while in Norwood., since it's only 5miles away.
Also, the web browser in the car can run abetterrouteplanner while you drive, with your car's data.
willow_hiller
Well-Known Member
We took our SR+ on a 1,300 roundtrip road trip from DC to Montreal last month. Used ABRP on the way up and just the in-car navigation on the way back. ABRP is absolutely recommended (used 5 stops of less than 30 minutes each, while the in-car nav used 3 stops and tried to charge us up to 100% on one supercharger that took over an hour).
Here's a tip that I don't see too often, but can save you from getting stranded: If you're watching the trip chart while charging and your arrival percentage is 5% or less, do not depart yet. The trip chart factors in slow-down warnings until you get to 6%. (e.g. the first moment it reports 5% it will assume you can keep it under 45, and then it will assume you can keep it under 55, and so on). Until the ending percentage reads 6%, you will not be able to travel at full speed (according to the estimated range).
Here's a tip that I don't see too often, but can save you from getting stranded: If you're watching the trip chart while charging and your arrival percentage is 5% or less, do not depart yet. The trip chart factors in slow-down warnings until you get to 6%. (e.g. the first moment it reports 5% it will assume you can keep it under 45, and then it will assume you can keep it under 55, and so on). Until the ending percentage reads 6%, you will not be able to travel at full speed (according to the estimated range).
thanks for the advise @KenC , the idea of waypoint is good, I will add that in ABRP. And yes, I will be charging in Dedham SC once I reach Norwood., although my Hotel in Norwood has a destination charger (don't wanna rely on that). However I am not sure about Browser in car, mine is SR+ and does not have LTE connectivity, so haven't seen browser option in my car
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Oh, yeah, didn't realize you don't have a LTE connection. Anyhow, I run abetterrouteplanner on my phone, and the Tesla trip graph on the screen. If you're driving more efficiently than the prediction, you can speed up, and vice versa. The more trips you take, the better you'll understand the strengths and weaknesses of any trip planner prediction, and adjust accordingly.
srs5694
Active Member
My advice: Don't overthink it. ABRP is a useful tool to get a general idea of what you'll need in the way of charging time; however, it doesn't take human needs into account. You can of course manually add stops for eating or whatever, but in my experience with road trips generally, the optimum time to stop for your own needs may not be 100% predictable when you start. Tesla's navigation system will help you find Superchargers with minimal fuss, although if you're driving alone you may want to pull over to plan a stop so you can check out what amenities exist at one site vs. another one.
That still seems really high. From a 70 mph base, that is 87.5 mph, which most people would not generally be speeding that much. I did just notice a slight difference between EVTripplanner and ABetterRoutePlanner on this. The reference speed from EVTP is based on the average speed of traffic, not on the speed limit. But ABRP does use speed limit as their reference speed. So EVTP will have that extra 5-7 mph over built in to their speed ratio estimates at a 1.0 ratio.
darth_vad3r
Well-Known Sith
I dunno, I set mine to 128%, LOL.
80 km/h => 102.4 km
90 => 115.2 (this matches most of my commute target)
100 => 128 ... it is “fast” but bursts up to 130-140 are even almost “common” here. If you go +40 over though your car will be impounded if you get a ticket.
In mi/h this maps roughly, rounding to rounder speed limit numbers, to:
50 => 64
55 => 70
60 => 77
110 is more rare here ... that’s 68. Still not at your 70.
Still, 110, I could easily see cruising at 140.8, so 70 => 90. Is that too fast?
It's percentage scaling, so a percent increase of a small number isn't that much of an increase. Your examples of 50, 55, and 60 miles per hour seem like incredibly low speed limits for highway travel, from a United States Perspective. So for plotting distance routes, we would very rarely have numbers that low. So sure, 125% of that would be more reasonable. But a lot of the states in the western U.S. have 75 or 80 mile per hour speed limits, and I've seen people throw out that idea of using a 125% ratio, which yields 100 miles per hour (161 km per hour) and then they are shocked why the driving range estimate looks so short. So with highway speeds here, 1.1 ratio is a bit more normal for typical speeding behavior at higher speed limit highways.
And about the 70 speeding to 90 miles per hour? That is going pretty risky. Some people do it, but it is very likely to get an expensive ticket. There is a saying around people who know police officers that some officers even use themselves about their decision thresholds for levels of speeding:
"8, you're fine. 9, you're mine." So if you're about 9-10 miles per hour over the limit in a lot of places, that really increases the chances of getting ticketed.
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