Thoughts after 650 mile one-day Tesla drive

[acoste]

No. There are 5 superchargers on that route. I’m glad I’m not your guest. As much as I’d want to see all those great places, if someone took me on a death march like that, I’d never come back!

Most of my visitors are here for just once in their life. They don't care about being tired. Their goal is to visit everything but not the superchargers. We usually sleep 6-7 hours per night.

With one of my visitors what happened is that we got to Grand Canyon at 5pm and it was pretty rainy. We checked the weather forecast and decided to swap locations and come back to Grand Canyon later. Rescheduled the hotels and at 2am we were already in San Diego.


I have to say I was able to handle these trips better when I was younger. My record is 1860 miles in 48 hours from back then. That was in Europe and half of it in Germany averaging 120mph.
In the US once we did 1900 miles in 2.5 days, 2 drivers.

 

[Candleflame]

I've found that 700 miles or so is probably the limit for me, mostly thanks to the stops required for charging, and the slightly lessened intensity needed when you're on AP.

surely with AP you could drive all day on a lonely interstate?

 

[Candleflame]

Most of my visitors are here for just once in their life. They don't care about being tired. Their goal is to visit everything but not the superchargers. We usually sleep 6-7 hours per night.

With one of my visitors what happened is that we got to Grand Canyon at 5pm and it was pretty rainy. We checked the weather forecast and decided to swap locations and come back to Grand Canyon later. Rescheduled the hotels and at 2am we were already in San Diego.


I have to say I was able to handle these trips better when I was younger. My record is 1860 miles in 48 hours from back then. That was in Europe and half of it in Germany averaging 120mph.
In the US once we did 1900 miles in 2.5 days, 2 drivers.

Dunno, my parents (German) say the roads used to be a lot more empty and easier to navigate 30 years ago.

 

[ModelNforNerd]

surely with AP you could drive all day on a lonely interstate?

If I was solo, probably. The wife is less tolerant of such long trips. Longest we've done in a 24 hour period was 750 miles, and we split it up. That was back in the ICE days, though.

 

[Sw0rdf1sh]

I've found that 700 miles or so is probably the limit for me, mostly thanks to the stops required for charging, and the slightly lessened intensity needed when you're on AP.

In the United States even Truck Drivers are required to drive for only 11 hours at a time (with a 10 hour rest) so that is a pretty good rule of thumb of what is considered the average optimum time behind a wheel without possible degradation of driver abilities.

It would take approximately 16 hours for someone to drive 900 miles. That can't be good on your body.

 

[Candleflame]

you cannot compare a truck driver to the average person driving a car a long distance once in a while. not the same thing.

 

[jelloslug]

The problem will be in a year or two as more EV's are sold is that arriving at a SC location may be a long wait just to be able to start a charge.

People have been saying that for years now and other than in a few specific locations that have always been congested, it has never turned out that way.

 

[Sw0rdf1sh]

you cannot compare a truck driver to the average person driving a car a long distance once in a while. not the same thing.

I beg to differ. They are both human, in vehicles for extended periods of time. The same symptoms that occur from extended driving would happen to both. My point has nothing to do with vehicle (car, truck, electric, ice) and only about what is considered typically safe for extended driving by a human.

Also I was not talking about once in a while but weekly extended driving, which I participate in.

 

[Seattle]

Drove from Salt Lake City to Kansas City in our 2016 P90D X. Not a pleasant experience for me. I generally like to drive as far and fast as I can when in an ICE car. The Tesla limited me to 100-150 miles between stops. Not great by my standards. Problems caused by 9a0+ degree heat, strong winds on the plains which increased our consumption significantly. Had to keep the AC around an uncomfortable 72degrees, and speed below 75. The route planner was way optimistic about our range and instructed us to slow below 65 mph to reach the planned charger. Thank goodness there was one closer where we had to stop to charge. Also, many of the chargers were not working or working very slowly. At almost every stop I had to change to a different charger and notified Tesla that the charger was either not working or working very slowly. All in all, I ended up charging longer than suggested at every stop as I learned not to trusts the route planner and overall the trip took 4-5 hours longer than previous trips in an ICE car. So even though I love my X, I don't consider it a great traveling car yet. And don't even get me started about winter driving. Going to a ski camp this February in Colorado and I'm taking my 2013 VW Golf R, no way repeating my Tesla experience in
Colorado winter conditions. Batteries don't like cold and after sitting outside all night in winter cold, the battery doesn't even begin to charge for 25-30 minutes and then it charges really really slowly. So I think we are a long way before ICE cars are history.
Just traded in my leased P90D X for a 2018 100D (both leased) which has a bit more range and smaller tires, so we'll see if long distance and winter driving improve.

That would be frustrating, but I've never encountered those kinds of problems in almost 6 years ods ownership. Superchargers always just work. There is the fact that sharing with another car halves your power. That's what the letters are for 3a and 3b are shared, so if 3a is charging rapidly 3b will be slower. I've driven extensively in the winter but you do have to mind distances. I've driven from Seattle to many ski areas, like Whistler, crystal MTN, Mt hood, snoqualmie pass, Mt Baker, all in the winter. But you should use an advanced planner like evtripplanner.com, you sure don't want to get stuck.

 

[Peteski]

In the United States even Truck Drivers are required to drive for only 11 hours at a time (with a 10 hour rest) so that is a pretty good rule of thumb of what is considered the average optimum time behind a wheel without possible degradation of driver abilities.

It would take approximately 16 hours for someone to drive 900 miles. That can't be good on your body.

I agree. Most safety guides to driver fatigue say 8-10 hours per day driving is about the limit without compromising safety. 900 miles with minimal stops is plain ridiculous and I'm amazed how many people here think that's just fine! But then again you only have to look at how unhealthy most people are these days. I was going to say each to their own, but I don't want to be sharing roads with zombies who have been driving for double digit hours without a proper break. No wonder there are so many fatigue related accidents.

 

[chronopc]

I agree. Most safety guides to driver fatigue say 8-10 hours per day driving is about the limit without compromising safety. 900 miles with minimal stops is plain ridiculous and I'm amazed how many people here think that's just fine! But then again you only have to look at how unhealthy most people are these days. I was going to say each to their own, but I don't want to be sharing roads with zombies who have been driving for double digit hours without a proper break. No wonder there are so many fatigue related accidents.

I can see doing 900 miles with EAP. If you're driving manually for that long, it's going to be a huge strain on your health.

 

[Peteski]

I can see doing 900 miles with EAP. If you're driving manually for that long, it's going to be a huge strain on your health.

I can see people falling asleep at the wheel with EAP on a monotonous long haul drive too. Proper FSD is the only way you could do it safely within any sensible guidelines and even then it wouldn't be good for your health sitting in one spot for all that time.

 

[acoste]

I beg to differ. They are both human, in vehicles for extended periods of time. The same symptoms that occur from extended driving would happen to both. My point has nothing to do with vehicle (car, truck, electric, ice) and only about what is considered typically safe for extended driving by a human.

Also I was not talking about once in a while but weekly extended driving, which I participate in.

It is a lot more tiring driving a truck. The loud noise makes people exhausted. It isn't the same as sitting in a comfortable and quiet car.

 

[Peteski]

It is a lot more tiring driving a truck. The loud noise makes people exhausted. It isn't the same as sitting in a comfortable and quiet car.

A comfortable quiet car where you can doze off quite easily if you are tired, especially on AP. There have been dozens of studies on driver fatigue and it's quite a real problem. Some people just don't know when to stop and take a proper break for the good of their physical health and safety. You can say the same about many other aspects of modern life!

 

[acoste]

A comfortable quiet car where you can doze off quite easily if you are tired, especially on AP. There have been dozens of studies on driver fatigue and it's quite a real problem. Some people just don't know when to stop and take a proper break for their good of their physical health and safety. You can say the same about many other aspects of modern life!

I agree about the AP. More and more car makers are leaning towards skipping the phase in the autonomous driving where the car would give back the control to the driver in case of an event. Study shows it takes 6 seconds on average to understand the traffic situation and react in the right way in case someone was not paying attention. Audi came out with a level 3 autonomous system in their A8 but doesn't enable it due to this issue.

 

[MaryAnning3]

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.

So true. My experience is the same. Superchargers are clean and pleasant, unlike gas stations. I enjoy stopping at them and I am rarely ready to go before my car is. Driving a model 3 with autopilot is dramatically different and better than driving any ICE car.

My slogans:
Tesla model 3 heralds the end of the ICE age.
or
The ICE age is over: Tesla model 3.

 

[MaryAnning3]

I would run into problems on the very first day. From Bay Area to Santa Barbara on Highway 1. There are 2 chargers on the way, one in Gilroy and one in SLO. We never stop at any of these locations. Same applies for most of the days on the trip.
Second issue: heat in the desert decreases the range, and there are very few chargers there.

Most people take 101. Taking 1 is beautiful, but really impractical in any car.

 

[fuelsman]

In August drove from Jacksonville FL to Seattle WA with an overnight drive from Sioux Falls SD to Seattle WA - 1500 miles with stops at Mt. Rushmore and Little Bighorn Battlefield. Left Sioux Falls SD at 6 am and arrived next day in Seattle WA 1 pm - only busy Supercharger was Ellensburg WA, I had no wait luckily, filled with Seattlites going out for the weekend. The trip continued the Whistler BC-Calgary AB, Glacier Park MT, Yellowstone, Tetons, Golden Spike, Arches National Parks, through Colorado and back home to Jacksonville, FL - three weeks total. Rushed out for a wedding and then took time to see the sights traveling back home. Superchargers are great but better is a hotel with a 30A charger to charge overnight to the max that allows extra range before needing to charge.

 

[markofwbl]

When I took my first long trip in my Model S 100D I had a similar experience. Drove from Minneapolis/St. Paul to my home in the Phoenix area - over 1,800 miles of driving spread across three days. Having never taken a long trip in an EV before, I'll admit I had some range anxiety as my wife and I began our trip. However, the drive was the most comfortable and and enjoyable we've ever made between those locations. Superchargers were conveniently located and always available. Charging stops came at welcome intervals to get out of the car, stretch, have a meal, check email, etc. I heavily utilized Autopilot on the generally empty roads we traversed which made the drive even more relaxing. All in all, it was a wonderful trip. EVs definitely introduce a different road trip paradigm than ICE vehicles. What I learned on this trip is that it is a clearly superior paradigm.

 

[MaryAnning3]

Most of my visitors are here for just once in their life. They don't care about being tired. Their goal is to visit everything but not the superchargers. We usually sleep 6-7 hours per night.

With one of my visitors what happened is that we got to Grand Canyon at 5pm and it was pretty rainy. We checked the weather forecast and decided to swap locations and come back to Grand Canyon later. Rescheduled the hotels and at 2am we were already in San Diego.


I have to say I was able to handle these trips better when I was younger. My record is 1860 miles in 48 hours from back then. That was in Europe and half of it in Germany averaging 120mph.
In the US once we did 1900 miles in 2.5 days, 2 drivers.

True. Visitors do like the highway 1 route. I think they are almost the only ones who take it. I don't know one person in the bay area who would drive highway 1 to Santa Barbara.