I just traveled to Great Barrington, Mass. and Winsted CT and return and the trip planner was flawless. All of the percent battery left predictions were conservative and I had usually 5% more than predicted despite "spirited" driving and A/C on. Went there via Kingston, Syracuse (stayed there overnight) and Albany chargers. Return via Albany, Syracuse and Buffalo chargers. Even on the return rerouted my via the Rainbow bridge due to heavy traffic at Lewiston border crossing.
Will be travelling to north of Philadelphia in 2 weeks. We'll see how it does.
In certain areas it works fine. But in many cases it is completely wrong, even in areas well covered by Superchargers. I was travelling between Kamloops and Hope, BC when all of a sudden it decided that I had to return to Kamloops. Mid-trip! Despite the prediction being for an arrival with 11% battery remaining. (Not a huge buffer, but enough).
And anyone on the prairies or in northern Ontario will recognize what idiocy is involved in the algorithm. It takes a simple, straightforward trip from Dryden to Kenora, for example, and turns it into an impossible 1053 km trip through the Duluth supercharger. I pretty much had to wait, every time, for it to finish its lunacy, hit "TRIP", hit "Remove charging stops", and then wait again for it to recompute. Meanwhile, the rest of the user interface is frozen.
Honestly, I could have implemented a smarter algorithm and more responsive user interface with both hands (and one brain) tied behind my back.
- - - Updated - - -
Unfortunately the trip planner is a total fail. What you end up doing is hitting the "remove chargers" button, and manually selecting Superchargers as your destination.
Even that doesn't work, as it will occasionally suddenly decide mid-trip to alter your route, including sending you back to the Supercharger you just left.
I think the problem here is that the Trip Planner is sort of kludged on top of the already weak Navigon system. It lets Navigon calculate a route, then it tries to find Superchargers near that route, then starts Navigon again with these Superchargers as new waypoints. The problem with that approach is that it misses major route alternatives that have convenient Superchargers. What they need to do is start out looking for all Superchargers even remotely near a straight-line route, then the calculate routes through those waypoints and then pick the optimum based on (a) success and (b) total trip time.
Good insight, excellent analysis. I expect that you're spot on.
P.S. I still love the car.
