# Long Road trip report



## atod (Nov 25, 2018)

So,

We just got back from a Major road trip. We did Montreal-Key Largo and back through Miami and Orlando. Total 6500 Km. I must have driven a total of 3-4 hours during the whole trip, EAP handled the rest. No one complained about the ride, or comfort, except that there were long days in each direction. Longest was 18 hours including charging. Honestly, Totally different way of travelling. Here are a couple of key things I learned on the way there and corrected on the way back, in no particular order:

1. Align your bladder with supercharging stations. Dont care if there are 4 people in the car, make sure you drink lots of liquid only in the last 30 minutes before you hit the supercharger. Else you are wasting time twice. If you have kids and can't control this, use service areas when you can and play the "fastest pit stop game". Works every time.
2. Trust the Tesla plan. If it says 25 minutes charge, it might take 30 if the stall is slower than planned, but when it says "GO" you go. Dont add 2 extra percent just because. You are wasting precious time. Computer knows better.
3. If you see a supercharger stop in your route that seems to be busy, try to re-route. We got screwed twice and the stalls were full so we got 60KW. It basically took twice the time.
4. Optimal speed is around 60mph. But everyone south of DC drives 80+mph. It does kill your efficiency, but it is still faster in the end.
5. When driving 80mph with everyone else, you have to be careful not to slam the gas and go over 90 in a passing maneuver. It will disable EAP until you park. Happened to me twice and it is annoying.
6. You will need standard mode on LRAWD. There are plenty of idiots and you need to react quickly on the road. Do not stay in chill.
7. Panera Bread. Panera bread. I can't say that enough, There is one almost at every station. And order for pick-up from the car if your scheduled charging session is less than 30 minutes.
8. Tire pressure- when you start in Montreal in -20 weather, by the time you get to Georgia, you need to release some air, or you will be riding on 48 PSI.
9. Stay away from Savannah Georgia stalls at the airport. Only 6 stalls and plenty of locals. You might have to wait to charge and there is nothing around there.
10. Tesla Autopilot wants to take an express lane on turnpikes even when they are closed at night. Do not be surprised if the car tries to go there. I ended up moving to middle lane and disabling lane change with no confirmation at night.
11.New neural net for auto-wipers is ten times better and now actually works quite well.
12. phantom breaking: overpasses do it sometimes still, interchange short distance speed changes will do it ( and no one follows them except Tesla EAP)
13. Trouble with right lane exits and EAP are almost gone now. The only time it would happen is when the exit lane line on asphalt disappears the last 30 feet at the merge point. Car sometimes still tries to hug the outer line so you have to take over. Happened only 3 times in the whole trip.
14. Car does detect drivers hugging your line in the neighbouring lane and changes its position to be hug the other end of your lane really well. 
15. ETA on Tesla in-car trip planner ended up being 1 hour off. On every day (12-18 hours of driving) we would end up accumulating about an extra hour, between slightly longer charging times, extra pit stops etc. each time it was an extra few minutes, but over 6-8 charges it adds up.


Avg. energy consumption for me was 170WH/km across, which is not bad at all considering the speed I was going at.

Anyways, Just a bunch of things I thought people would appreciate to know.


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## Needsdecaf (Dec 27, 2018)

#5 - cancel EAP quickly, if you can, before attempting pass. If you're not using EAP when you go over 90, there is no EAP repercussion. 

My commute home takes me on a highway for about 25 miles with a 75 MPH limit. Cruising speed is 80-82. So very easy to hit 90. If I need to maneuver, I'll just disengage EAP first.


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## Birdman (Apr 18, 2018)

Nice write-up 

"2. Trust the Tesla plan. If it says 25 minutes charge, it might take 30 if the stall is slower than planned, but when it says "GO" you go. Dont add 2 extra percent just because. You are wasting precious time. Computer knows better. " - For this one I would say, it depends. There have been many times when I added an extra 7 or 8% charge and I was awfully happy I did - especially in the cold weather and with faster speeds. 

" 4. Optimal speed is around 60mph. But everyone south of DC drives 80+mph. It does kill your efficiency, but it is still faster in the end. "

I agree that going 80 + kills efficiency, but when you say "it" is still faster in the end - do you mean, going 80+ with the speed of traffic and killing efficiency, is still faster, or going the optimal speed at around 60 and getting better efficiency is faster in the end?


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## atod (Nov 25, 2018)

Birdman said:


> Nice write-up
> 
> "2. Trust the Tesla plan. If it says 25 minutes charge, it might take 30 if the stall is slower than planned, but when it says "GO" you go. Dont add 2 extra percent just because. You are wasting precious time. Computer knows better. " - For this one I would say, it depends. There have been many times when I added an extra 7 or 8% charge and I was awfully happy I did - especially in the cold weather and with faster speeds.
> 
> ...


for charging, I found in the north it simply changed the stops when i went out of bounds. There were plenty of supercharger stations, so me trying to be smart was of no use. If the stations are really spread out i agree with you. 
for speed - i mean going faster (80+mph) and charging slightly more often ends up being faster overall.


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## potatoee (Aug 26, 2018)

Any opinions about the plan recommendations for road trips for Abetterrouteplanner vs. built in planner? Personally I use ABP prior to a trip but my bladder, stomach or the vagaries of the trip cause me to end up relying on the built-in planner as opposed to using ABP via the car browser.


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## atod (Nov 25, 2018)

potatoee said:


> Any opinions about the plan recommendations for road trips for Abetterrouteplanner vs. built in planner? Personally I use ABP prior to a trip but my bladder, stomach or the vagaries of the trip cause me to end up relying on the built-in planner as opposed to using ABP via the car browser.


I compared the routes for both and they were ostensibly same. I ended up not bothering with betterroute planner, because it was easier to just use the in-car one. The only difference was in the first leg of the trip, I had high wattage, so the in car one adjusted to a stop at a charger in plattsburgh about half way to the border. Honestly if you have no big temperature changes, i would not see any value in going to better route planner. The tesla one just doesn't take cold weather into account, so if you are driving in winter all the way it might not be best and it might end up re-routing to nearby stations all the time.
PS a consideration worth mentioning is that east coast ( where we drove) is loaded with superchargers. In an area where this may not be the case, one might care more....


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## potatoee (Aug 26, 2018)

atod said:


> I compared the routes for both and they were ostensibly same. I ended up not bothering with betterroute planner, because it was easier to just use the in-car one. The only difference was in the first leg of the trip, I had high wattage, so the in car one adjusted to a stop at a charger in plattsburgh about half way to the border. Honestly if you have no big temperature changes, i would not see any value in going to better route planner. The tesla one just doesn't take cold weather into account, so if you are driving in winter all the way it might not be best and it might end up re-routing to nearby stations all the time.
> PS a consideration worth mentioning is that east coast ( where we drove) is loaded with superchargers. In an area where this may not be the case, one might care more....


Interesting. It's nice to know that the in-car planner will adjust the charging plan based on real time battery status. I haven't seen that yet on my long trips but it's nice to know that. In my case, when I was driving conservatively going down the East Coast corridor, I didn't (yet) experience it skipping SCs. IMO it should do so when appropriate to get to a lower SOC for better charging efficiency when I eventually do stop.

BTW, took my wife up to Montreal from Boston for a great weekend. Love Montreal!


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## atod (Nov 25, 2018)

hmmm... you raise a good point. I saw it shift to a supercharger earlier when it sees the estimated state of charge will fall below 11% at the initial charger stop that was planned.
However i didnt see it skip one because i never really got to a point that i gained more than a percent or two over what it planned initially.


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## potatoee (Aug 26, 2018)

Precisely... I haven't seen it "skip a SC" either. If memory serves, when it was rather obvious that I could defer charging (e.g. heading down through NJ), I manually cancelled the routing and restarted the nav to get it to shift to charging later in the trip. At the time, I attributed it to some hysteresis in the software and was hopeful that it would eventually adjust (especially when I saw your post). 

Perhaps it won't support deferring charging but will only shift to earlier charging based on real time range checks. 

Alas, something to keep in mind...


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## garsh (Apr 4, 2016)

potatoee said:


> Any opinions about the plan recommendations for road trips for Abetterrouteplanner vs. built in planner?



If you don't want to overthink everything, stick with the built-in planner. It makes sure you arrive everywhere with a reasonable buffer, and tells you if you need to slow down to make it to the next charger.
If you prefer to micromanage because you want to arrive with < 5% SOC in order to maximize supercharging speed, then ABRP is the tool of choice. You can tweak it to better match your driving style and preferences.


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## FRC (Aug 4, 2018)

I've got a bit more than 30,000 miles of road trips under my belt and have never used anything other than the in car system. While not exactly idiot proof, I think the in-car system is not-terribly-smart proof. Using the energy graph and heeding the in-car warnings will get you to your next charging solution. I disagree with those who say charge to the level the car suggests, however, unless you plan to drive at 5mph under the speed limit. Personally, I use charging time to plan my next charging stop and add 30% over the required miles as a buffer. Even then, if the car warns me to slow down, I do so. Finally, never ever pass a supercharger unless you are 100% certain of your ability to reach the next one. Even when it turns out that you could have made it, the anxiety is not worth it. The more road trip miles you drive, the better you will come to understand the limitations of your car, and the more accurately you'll be able to predict your range.


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## Bigriver (Jan 26, 2018)

I find the in-car planner good most of the time. It is a great thing to have all the SC locations easily shown and the car's interpretation of whether I can get there, and I agree that it won't leave you stranded. But it occasionally does some bizarre things:

A number of times I have had it suggest going to a SC that is really a stretch goal, bypassing other options on the way. From the beginning it tells me I need to limit my speed to make it. I usually play along with it (but don't limit my speed) to see how long it takes for it to decide I should stop at the obvious SC I know I will be stopping at anyway. Conversely, I've had it tell me that I was only going to be at 5% at a SC that I knew I should have plenty of charge to get to. I seriously considered altering my route an hour out of the way to make it to another SC. But I went with the original plan and got there with about 20%. No idea, then or looking back now, the reason for the pessimistic prediction.



FRC said:


> I disagree with those who say charge to the level the car suggests, however, unless you plan to drive at 5mph under the speed limit.


Not my experience. I often stop supercharging when it says there's 5 minutes left to continue my route. That usually gets me to the next SC with 15-20% charge. I typically drive 75 mph in the 70 mph zone. This is for the routes I travel often. For a new route, I do follow the car's guidance because I never know if it's accounting for some terrain or road condition that I'm not aware of. I don't think I've ever arrived at the next SC with substantially less charge than the car predicted.



potatoee said:


> Any opinions about the plan recommendations for road trips for Abetterrouteplanner vs. built in planner? Personally I use ABP prior to a trip but my bladder, stomach or the vagaries of the trip cause me to end up relying on the built-in planner as opposed to using ABP via the car browser.


When I have a long, complex trip to plan with various options of routes and how I want to break it up over multiple days, I use ABRP to consider the options. May not be how I actually execute the trip, but it definitely helps me consider the possibilities. I have had it suggest different routes than either Tesla or google maps.... one through the middle of Illinois that ABRP suggested had my elderly mother asking if we were lost as the road kept getting narrower and narrower and we hadn't seen another car in quite awhile. But we eventually reached civilization again. 😊


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## atod (Nov 25, 2018)

FRC said:


> I've got a bit more than 30,000 miles of road trips under my belt and have never used anything other than the in car system. While not exactly idiot proof, I think the in-car system is not-terribly-smart proof. Using the energy graph and heeding the in-car warnings will get you to your next charging solution. I disagree with those who say charge to the level the car suggests, however, unless you plan to drive at 5mph under the speed limit. Personally, I use charging time to plan my next charging stop and add 30% over the required miles as a buffer. Even then, if the car warns me to slow down, I do so. Finally, never ever pass a supercharger unless you are 100% certain of your ability to reach the next one. Even when it turns out that you could have made it, the anxiety is not worth it. The more road trip miles you drive, the better you will come to understand the limitations of your car, and the more accurately you'll be able to predict your range.


I wonder if the experiences we are sharing are also a function of sw versions. In other words experiences from 2 SW versions ago may no longer apply. Welcome to true CI/CD SW development. MY experience is the exact opposite of yours, but based on this trip and 2019.50 SW. You clearly have a lot more data points, but if many of them are from older SW, stuff may have changed since then making those data points not relevant today. Sadly, i dont think there is a way to tell if they changed something in the planner over time...


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## Nom (Oct 30, 2018)

Nice post to start the thread.

On longer trips I have ignored warnings to slow down in order to conserve battery, confident that there were super chargers along the way I could use. 

I’ve been surprised at how resistant the Tesla maps program is to readjust and use a closer charger. I often give up and change it myself.


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## tencate (Jan 11, 2018)

atod said:


> 2. Trust the Tesla plan. If it says 25 minutes charge, it might take 30 if the stall is slower than planned, but when it says "GO" you go. Dont add 2 extra percent just because. You are wasting precious time. Computer knows better.


Not so in the cold, gusty, high-wind desert Southwest. The computer doesn't take weather into account and wind and cold make a significant dent in your range. The stretch from Childress TX to Dallas TX was a real tough one in bad weather. One of the few times I had to actually turn around and charge again. :-( I now occasionally go to weather.gov and check out the wind speed and direction while charging


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## Mike (Apr 4, 2016)

atod said:


> for speed - i mean going faster (80+mph) and charging slightly more often ends up being faster overall.


FWIW, another random data point: I have found 119 kph (73 mph) the "sweet spot" for long range/best time...this plus aiming to arrive at a SC with 10%.

With single day trips of 800+ kms (500 miles) , I have found the above practice consistently provides a chock to chock average speed of 100 kph (62 mph).


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## potatoee (Aug 26, 2018)

I like abetterrouteplanner. Support is awesome and have found it good for doing quick "what if" plans from a computer. I got it working from within the car as well and it does fine. Here's how I ended up:

+ I *sometimes *use abetterroutplanner for long trips
+ I *never *use it in the car because I NEVER follow ABP's plan (things happen, bladders fill up, unforseen things impact actual mileage vs. the plan, etc.)
+ I use the built in planner once I'm in the car. It's a bit pessimistic but I'm fine with that attitude.


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## AutopilotFan (Oct 6, 2018)

Nom said:


> On longer trips I have ignored warnings to slow down in order to conserve battery, confident that there were super chargers along the way I could use.
> 
> I've been surprised at how resistant the Tesla maps program is to readjust and use a closer charger. I often give up and change it myself.


That's been my experience too. But I'm driving in the northeast USA where Superchargers are plentiful.


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## potatoee (Aug 26, 2018)

Nom said:


> Nice post to start the thread.
> 
> I've been surprised at how resistant the Tesla maps program is to readjust and use a closer charger. I often give up and change it myself.


Cancel navigation, reenter destination, reroute... Would be nice to have a "kick it in the butt" button.


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## Nom (Oct 30, 2018)

Yes, I do this or just reroute directly to the charger I want. And when I do charge, I generally go 5 minutes longer than recommended per the trip planner. I like a bit of cushion.


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## Boone (Feb 10, 2019)

atod said:


> So,
> 
> We just got back from a Major road trip. We did Montreal-Key Largo and back through Miami and Orlando. Total 6500 Km. I must have driven a total of 3-4 hours during the whole trip, EAP handled the rest. No one complained about the ride, or comfort, except that there were long days in each direction. Longest was 18 hours including charging. Honestly, Totally different way of travelling. Here are a couple of key things I learned on the way there and corrected on the way back, in no particular order:
> 
> ...


Great report! Your comment about the Savanna station indicates the need for an evergreen "Quality of Charging Station" topic.


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