Thanks for straightening me out, Tom. It would make sense for Tesla to build some sort of safety net in the batteries beyond the Range Mode barrier to prevent accidental ruining of the battery pack.
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Thanks for straightening me out, Tom. It would make sense for Tesla to build some sort of safety net in the batteries beyond the Range Mode barrier to prevent accidental ruining of the battery pack.
Unfortunately, in many circumstances the battery will die outside of Tesla's control, e.g. come home with just a handful of electrons left and natural leakage will take care of those, the car would need to reach out and plug itself in
The fix from Tesla would be to do what MINI do; don't give you access to anywhere near the full batteries ability; I think they're being quite open in giving us this amount of control IMO. Careful with that axe Eugene.
tomsax
Member
There are a number of Tesla owners who can tell that story. Roadsters seem to have a pretty high rate of carnage in those first few months of ownership.
I got a pretty good dose of healthy caution when Cathy and I flew down for a test drive in September 2007. I was driving VP10 down from Alice's Restaurant with Zak Edson in the passenger seat. I was trying to push the prototype Roadster but also being cautious in an unfamiliar car. As I was getting the feel of the power and how well it held the road, I wanted to blast around the curves, but part of my brain kept reminding me that you never know what might lie around the curve that could require a full stop. Sure enough, we rounded a corner and there were a half dozen guys playing catch with a football in the middle of the road! I was very glad I wasn't pushing the car as fast as it could go around those curves.
tomsax
Member
Unfortunately, in many circumstances the battery will die outside of Tesla's control, e.g. come home with just a handful of electrons left and natural leakage will take care of those, the car would need to reach out and plug itself in
The fix from Tesla would be to do what MINI do; don't give you access to anywhere near the full batteries ability; I think they're being quite open in giving us this amount of control IMO. Careful with that axe Eugene.
That wouldn't actually solve the problem, it would just postpone it and deny us full use of the battery pack. If you leave your car sitting in extreme temperature conditions and not plugged, you'll eventually destroy your battery pack. It will use power to maintain acceptable temperature until it has no power, then the battery pack will die, even if you started this experiment with a full charge.
To protect your battery pack, make sure it never runs out of energy to maintain proper temperature. Always make sure you get plugged in before the car needs more energy than what's in the battery pack.
I experienced the same yesterday, when at 32 Km (driving in range mode) the car displayed an error message, telling me that it could not estimate the remaining km's anymore..
From that moment on the display showed "0 Km", and dashes on the VDS. Luckily i only had to drive a few km's before i could plug in.
After charging the car over night it showed 317 km's of ideal range. I have never seen such a high number for a normal charge. The battery meter was also completely green. Normally i get around 298-304 km for a normal charge.
To add to what Tom said I think it just takes getting in the habit of plugging in every time you come home (or to some sort of stopping point for a few hours) once the battery is near X number of miles left on the pack. If you don't have a very long commute, maybe just plug it in around once week.
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Why wouldn't you just plug it in every time you come home? It takes maybe 10 seconds to do (and 10 more to unplug the next morning), and everything stays happy.
Tdave
Member
10 seconds? What do you do for those extra 6 seconds?
I can't speak for bolosky but I stare at the ring of LEDs ;-)
10 seconds? What do you do for those extra 6 seconds?
Walk over to my high-tech charger holding station (an unused plastic kayak) pick up the end of the cord, and put the mail that I've carried in from the mailbox down so I can use both hands to attach the charger.
I could see how you could shave off a few seconds with a different kind of kayak. :smile:
That is probably the best thing to do. However, I've never seen an official word from Tesla saying when they recommend plugging the Roadster in.
Have they actually come out and said something to the extent of "Plug it in every night, if possible"?
To quote the Tesla document "Charging Your Vehicle, Roadster 2 / Roadster Sport":
Designed to be plugged in
The Tesla Roadster is designed to be plugged in when not in use. This ensures that the next time you use the vehicle, it is fully charged and ready to go. There is no advantage to waiting until battery level is low before charging. Plugging in every night eliminates the risk of damage that could be caused by over-discharging the battery.
When plugged in, the vehicle optimizes the lifetime of the Battery by managing its charge level and temperature. The vehicle wakes up every 24 hours and, if needed, automatically initiates the charging process to keep the Battery at an optimum charge level.
Talkredius
Member
just another thing you shouldn't do :
don't start without soft top on on a German "Autobahn" in the dark.
Be sure, the rain (you didn't see coming) will start exactly when you are miles away from the next exit or a safe place to put the soft top on.
Luckily you can go to top speed on the "Autobahn" and try to avoid the rain drops this way.
Okay, that's the theory, in practice you should be prepared for a shower.
BTW : Is it save to drill a small hole in the bottom of the car ? At least this was the solution for this problem in the old days... ==)
don't start without soft top on on a German "Autobahn" in the dark.
Be sure, the rain (you didn't see coming) will start exactly when you are miles away from the next exit or a safe place to put the soft top on.
Luckily you can go to top speed on the "Autobahn" and try to avoid the rain drops this way.
Okay, that's the theory, in practice you should be prepared for a shower.
BTW : Is it save to drill a small hole in the bottom of the car ? At least this was the solution for this problem in the old days... =
=)
The Mythbusters did a show on this "myth", and as I recall it ended up in the "confirmed" category. It does work, as long as you're going at highway speeds. You don't even need Authobahn speeds for it to work.
Nice! To summarize, at 70 mph there was some moisture, but at 90 mph the interior stayed perfectly dry. So you do need the Autobahn after all.
Officially they called it, "Plausible but not recommended" because they felt it was dangerous to actually do it.
Talkredius
Member
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