# First road trip in my Model Y LR



## BrianC (Aug 14, 2021)

This was our first road trip in my new Model Y LR. My wife and I took an overnight excursion from Phoenix to Flagstaff. The interesting element is the elevation change of +5900 ft. Was also my first time using the Supercharger network so that was also new. We had no specific timetable to keep, so got to just enjoy the ride. Here's the numbers:

PHOENIX TO FLAGSTAFF
69.93 miles driven, 110.33 rated miles used, 23.0 kWh used
Charge - added 16.96 kWh, 67% -> 88%
83.26 miles driven, 122.60 rated miles used, 25.6 kWh used

TOTALS: 153.19 miles driven, 232.93 rated miles used, 48.6 kWh used = 65.77% efficiency, 317.25 Wh/mi

FLAGSTAFF TO PHOENIX
108.97 miles driven, 111.21 rated miles used, 23.2 kWh used
Charge - added 58.2 kWh, 11% - 85%
39.47 miles driven, 45.80 rated miles used, 9.57 kWh used

TOTALS: 148.44 miles driven, 157.01 rated miles used, 32.77 kWh used = 94.54% efficiency, 220.76 Wh/mi

You can clearly see the uphill climb took extra battery and the downhill trip took much less, I didn't drive slower than normal, maxing out Autosteer at 80mph (75mph speed limit) for a lot of the trip.

The drive itself overall was really nice. Used Autopilot most of the way up, had one phantom braking incident, but it was just momentary. The route is divided highway so no oncoming traffic. Autosteer really wants to favor the right line when in the right lane and there is an onramp merging in. I wish it would stick with the dotted line of the left of the right lane in these situations. 

Didn't charge at all in Flagstaff and left for the drive back down to Phoenix with ~144 miles estimated left for a 150 mile trip. I didn't want to cut it too close, but I did want to see how much regen would extend the range, knowing I could charge at the halfway or 3/4 point in the trip as needed. I ended up charging at the 3/4 point, with 11% left in the battery and almost exactly the number of miles of range left that was remaining in the trip. I 'probably' could have made it, especially if I had decided to drive slower for that last section, but kept with the relaxed mood and just juiced up. 

Again used Autopilot on the way down with a bit more hassle from phantom braking. There were two instances where I was coming up to the top of a gentle rise and the sudden appearance (from its perspective) of cars in the left lane (as they became visible to it when peaking the top) made it want to brake until it sorted it out. A bit of the go pedal solved it, while it sorted out the situation. Had one harsher incident where there was a sweeping right turn. No cars anywhere within a couple hundred yards and it braked hard, for no reason I could see. The only thing that 'may' have fooled it was part way through the turn a guardrail started on the left side of the road... no idea. In either case there was nothing there that required braking. 

I did have one 'Take control immediately' occur that you could say was false, but I don't fault it at all. A large black garbage bag was swept into my lane. It saw it as an obstacle and started to brake but then very quickly gave up and told me to take the wheel. I'm glad it reacted, even though hitting an empty garbage bag would not have been a problem. I don't expect the car to be THAT smart.

I also spent some time in stop and go traffic on a 2 lane road. We took a detour through Sedona and the road in and road out is packed with cars on the weekend. Autopilot was a bit herky-jerky when doing creep and stop. I didn't play with follow distance at all, which could have helped but I couldn't remember how to change it (new owner here). Turns out it was set at 2, so setting it higher could possibly make it more palatable. As it was I just took over driving until we were out of the two-lane stop and go.

Here's my biggest complaint about the whole experience... no auto lane change. Driving up the mountain with only two lanes to choose from means you either follow the slow cars and semi-tractors or you need to do semi-frequent lane changes to go at a more normal speed. Disengaging and re-engaging Autopilot/Autosteer every time is an annoyance. I sure as hell won't pay 12 grand to get it, but I would pay something. It really reduces the convenience of the feature. Great for flat sections where you really don't need to change lanes often, or when there's more than two lanes and you can just park yourself in the middle lane and let other cars go around, not great for my use-case here. I envy those folks that got the version with lane-change but not FSD.


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## FRC (Aug 4, 2018)

BrianC said:


> Here's my biggest complaint about the whole experience... no auto lane change. Driving up the mountain with only two lanes to choose from means you either follow the slow cars and semi-tractors or you need to do semi-frequent lane changes to go at a more normal speed. Disengaging and re-engaging Autopilot/Autosteer every time is an annoyance. I sure as hell won't pay 12 grand to get it, but I would pay something. It really reduces the convenience of the feature. Great for flat sections where you really don't need to change lanes often, or when there's more than two lanes and you can just park yourself in the middle lane and let other cars go around, not great for my use-case here. I envy those folks that got the version with lane-change but not FSD.


Tesla used to offer EAP (Enhanced Auto Pilot) which included lane change with blinker at much less than 12K. EAP was discontinued about 2.5 years ago. It is my belief that this discontinuation happened because EAP was sucking the blood of FSD. Auto lane change is the only "must-have" feature of FSD, if it was included in AP or offered ala carte very few FSDs would be sold.


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## BrianC (Aug 14, 2021)

FRC said:


> Tesla used to offer EAP (Enhanced Auto Pilot) which included lane change with blinker at much less than 12K. EAP was discontinued about 2.5 years ago. It is my belief that this discontinuation happened because EAP was sucking the blood of FSD. Auto lane change is the only "must-have" feature of FSD, if it was included in AP or offered ala carte very few FSDs would be sold.


Yep, that's it. Couldn't remember the name. I am sad to have missed the EAP window but oh well. I guess we can hope that once FSD is actually worth the price they are charging for it (define 'worth it' however you like) then maybe they will again sell EAP for something less than that. I have no intention of wanting my car to be a robo-taxi, but for those who do 12k is probably not a big deal to recoup.


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## Ed Woodrick (May 26, 2018)

We can definitely see range anxiety kicking in. Charging twice during a trip that you could have maybe not charged at all.
The uphill and the downhill runs tend to just about cancel each other out. Just need to make sure that you can reach the top before charging the battery back up on the way down.

As to the phantom braking, it takes a little bit to get used to it. It really isn't braking, it's just slowing down. Doing nothing is often the best thing to do. 

Definitely push the follow distance out. 2 is basically for LA Interstates where you don't want to leave a gap wide enough for people to get into. On a 2 lane road, stretch it out to 7. You aren't going to get there any faster, so give a little gap.

On a 2 lane road, it's not a lane change. It's passing. I doubt as if that feature will be implemented by anybody for a long while. There are so many people today that are too scared to do it anyway.
Automatic lane change only activates on 4+ lane, limited access, divided highways (i,e, Interstates). 2 lane mountain roads are a pita no matter what.

Welcome to road tripping, you need to do a lot more of them.


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## BrianC (Aug 14, 2021)

Ed Woodrick said:


> We can definitely see range anxiety kicking in.


First time getting anywhere near draining the battery, so maybe a little. In my defense, even ABRP and Tesla's navigation had me charge on the way up. 


Ed Woodrick said:


> Definitely push the follow distance out. 2 is basically for LA Interstates where you don't want to leave a gap wide enough for people to get into. On a 2 lane road, stretch it out to 7. You aren't going to get there any faster, so give a little gap.


Yes, I suspect that will help a lot.


Ed Woodrick said:


> On a 2 lane road, it's not a lane change.


I probably wasn't clear up above. I was wanting it specifically for 2 lanes in each direction on a divided highway. I love technology, but I'm definitely not going to trust a car to do a pass on a 2 lane (1 each way) road any time soon.


Ed Woodrick said:


> Welcome to road tripping, you need to do a lot more of them.


Oh yeah.  Planning a cross country drive (AZ to OH) to visit relatives sometime this year. That's around 2000 miles each way so it'll be the full experience. Probably do some model Y camping then as well.


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## TrevP (Oct 20, 2015)

I’ve been a long proponent of Tesla bringing back EAP and leaving FSD as a third tier but that’s not happening.


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## Bigriver (Jan 26, 2018)

BrianC said:


> Planning a cross country drive (AZ to OH) to visit relatives sometime this year. That's around 2000 miles each way so it'll be the full experience.


For that, definitely plan to pay for a month of the FSD subscription. I think the lane change feature on that long of a trip would be worth the $200.

Thanks for sharing your first road trip. I didn't interpret your charging as range anxiety. On routes I know well and travel often, I may push it a bit. But when there are many unknowns, an extra charge is sometimes wise. And I often will stop at a new supercharger just to see what it is like. Some of them do have their own character.


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## FRC (Aug 4, 2018)

Bigriver said:


> For that, definitely plan to pay for a month of the FSD subscription. I think the lane change feature on that long of a trip would be worth the $200.
> 
> Thanks for sharing your first road trip. I didn't interpret your charging as range anxiety. On routes I know well and travel often, I may push it a bit. But when there are many unknowns, an extra charge is sometimes wise. And I often will stop at a new supercharger just to see what it is like. Some of them do have their own character.


I have to agree with @Bigriver's approach. I've banked about 70K road trip miles, and I don't skip superchargers very often. Usually, 2 15-minute charger stops will yield significantly more range than a single 30-minute stop. For the most part, I keep my range between 10 and 70%. And the more stops (no matter how brief) you make, the quicker the trip seems and the less tiring the trip is. For me, at least, adding charging stops increases my enjoyment of road trips.


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## BrianC (Aug 14, 2021)

Bigriver said:


> *For that, definitely plan to pay for a month of the FSD subscription. I think the lane change feature on that long of a trip would be worth the $200.*
> 
> Thanks for sharing your first road trip. I didn't interpret your charging as range anxiety. On routes I know well and travel often, I may push it a bit. But when there are many unknowns, an extra charge is sometimes wise. And I often will stop at a new supercharger just to see what it is like. Some of them do have their own character.


I hadn't thought of buying a month of FSD, that's a great idea.

Appreciate your comment on the range anxiety. I wanted to make sure it was a good experience, so I didn't want to test any limits too much. I've made the trip to Flagstaff many times, and the drive can be challenging. Having driven the Volt as my daily driver for many years, I spent a lot of time trying to see how far it would go on a charge, and how efficient I could be. The difference being I always had the gas engine backup there so range anxiety wasn't a real thing. I did also try to stretch the fuel mileage as well a few times.


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