So I drove from Los Altos CA to Portland OR on Tuesday, a drive of over 650miles. My thoughts:
(1) ICE cars are so screwed. The entire negative story about EV’s is that their long re-charging times and range limitations make them impracticle for long trips. But, I drove this trip in a Tesla in about the same time I used to drive it in ICE cars, even though I spent far more time charging the EV than I used to spend pumping gas. Why? I had to stop periodically for human reasons: restrooms, food, stretching my legs, checking email; all of these things had to be done, no matter what drive train the car used. On this trip, it was simple to do that while charging. In fact, there were times when the car was ready to move on, but I wasn’t. The entire argument that EV charge times (at least at Tesla rates) is a barrier to adoption is just FUD fakery that won’t survive contact with reality. Customer experience will destroy this so-called problem.
(2) At least between the SF Bay area and Portland, there are enough chargers to make the trip stress-free. But, additional, NICER locations would be great. As is, you get off the highway, there is a charger right there, you charge, grab some fast food (maybe) and you get back on. But that isn’t always what you want. For example, there are fun places to eat in downtown Grants Pass OR, but the Tesla chargers at Grants Pass there are near I5, miles from downtown. No way to eat downtown while I charged. Slower destination chargers, at nicer stop points (better food, better shopping) would be a great addition to the charger network for travelling. Tesla is already on the right track with destination chargers: they just need to keep going!
(3) It wasn’t clear to me when penalty charges would apply. My charge during lunch was done before I could get back to my car. There were plenty of open spots, so nobody was being prevented from charging if I was late. But did the $1 a minute penalty apply? Yes? No? I couldn’t tell. I would have liked to know if I needed to rush getting back from lunch or not.
(4) The trip planner works too hard to minimize the number of stops. It planned the drive with only two. I manually targeted additional (but shorter) charge stops just to give me opportunities to get out of the car (see 1 above). It would be nice to be able to tell the planner that I don’t really want 4 to 5 hours of driving between stops. More stops is often better than fewer stops.
(5) ICE cars are so screwed. I’ve never had a more pleasant time on that drive, even without my suggested improvements, and even without AutoPilot, which would have fit that drive like a glove.
(1) ICE cars are so screwed. The entire negative story about EV’s is that their long re-charging times and range limitations make them impracticle for long trips. But, I drove this trip in a Tesla in about the same time I used to drive it in ICE cars, even though I spent far more time charging the EV than I used to spend pumping gas. Why? I had to stop periodically for human reasons: restrooms, food, stretching my legs, checking email; all of these things had to be done, no matter what drive train the car used. On this trip, it was simple to do that while charging. In fact, there were times when the car was ready to move on, but I wasn’t. The entire argument that EV charge times (at least at Tesla rates) is a barrier to adoption is just FUD fakery that won’t survive contact with reality. Customer experience will destroy this so-called problem.
(2) At least between the SF Bay area and Portland, there are enough chargers to make the trip stress-free. But, additional, NICER locations would be great. As is, you get off the highway, there is a charger right there, you charge, grab some fast food (maybe) and you get back on. But that isn’t always what you want. For example, there are fun places to eat in downtown Grants Pass OR, but the Tesla chargers at Grants Pass there are near I5, miles from downtown. No way to eat downtown while I charged. Slower destination chargers, at nicer stop points (better food, better shopping) would be a great addition to the charger network for travelling. Tesla is already on the right track with destination chargers: they just need to keep going!
(3) It wasn’t clear to me when penalty charges would apply. My charge during lunch was done before I could get back to my car. There were plenty of open spots, so nobody was being prevented from charging if I was late. But did the $1 a minute penalty apply? Yes? No? I couldn’t tell. I would have liked to know if I needed to rush getting back from lunch or not.
(4) The trip planner works too hard to minimize the number of stops. It planned the drive with only two. I manually targeted additional (but shorter) charge stops just to give me opportunities to get out of the car (see 1 above). It would be nice to be able to tell the planner that I don’t really want 4 to 5 hours of driving between stops. More stops is often better than fewer stops.
(5) ICE cars are so screwed. I’ve never had a more pleasant time on that drive, even without my suggested improvements, and even without AutoPilot, which would have fit that drive like a glove.
