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Some Hard Lessons Learned On A Trip


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2022 Jun 16, 5:12am   873 views  21 comments

by ohomen171   ➕follow (2)   💰tip   ignore  

#gpsfailures Elena and I are back from a real adventure in a rural and out-of-the-way place. We had a great time. But some systems let us down. We relied on the GPS system in the Tesla to take us around. It had two failures. It picked routes that appeared to be the fastest. They caused huge problems. On the first day of the trip, the GPS sent us down California Highway 99 South. It is a highway that goes through Modesto, Fresno, and other interior California urban areas. It is a never-ending traffic jam with wrecks and other problems. At one point, I had to slam on the brakes at high speed to avoid a rear-end collision with another vehicle due to the stop-and-go traffic. When we pulled off the road to charge up the Tesla, we encountered temperatures that went up to 112 degrees Fahrenheit. We arrived at our destination after 7 hours. The trip should have taken 4 hours.
The second GPS failure happened when we were driving from Three Rivers, California to Kings Canyon National Park. We were sent on a wild and twisting road. It took us two hours to reach the park. There was an easier road that was straight just a few miles away. We would have made it to the park in an hour. Please do your own research and do not blindly trust your GPS.
For the first time in all our travels around California, we had problems finding chargers for the Tesla. We were in a remote village called Three Rivers. A hotel in the town had a primitive Tesla charger that would charge 20 miles per hour on the charger. It was only available to hotel guests. We were not hotel guests. I had to drive 43 miles one way to Traver, California to get to a Tesla supercharger. For the first couple of days, it only charged 80% of the battery giving me a range of 280 miles. After I drove 42 miles to the hotel. I was down to a short range of 230 miles. That did not help in parks with large distances. At one point I had to go to a hotel charger and sit for 3.5 hours while the battery was charged to its capacity. If you have an electric vehicle, do some careful planning on chargers!

Comments 1 - 21 of 21        Search these comments

1   BayArea   2022 Jun 16, 5:56am  

I won’t take any long road trip in an EV
3   BayArea   2022 Jun 16, 6:03am  

I sold a c5 z06 before the kids came along

Thrilling car that had absolutely awful build quality
4   WookieMan   2022 Jun 16, 6:07am  

ohomen171 says

At one point I had to go to a hotel charger and sit for 3.5 hours while the battery was charged to its capacity. If you have an electric vehicle, do some careful planning on chargers!

Don't buy an EV. That was the first mistake. Hybrids. All the way. Time is money and sitting for 3.5 hours is fucking ridiculous. Musk built a cool car that is not practical but fun to drive. I'll give him that. It's also not "green" so sorry to stomp on your feels good with regards to that.

By default I also don't drive sedans. Tesla SUV's look gay and can't tow a bike trailer. I like driving them, but it's a fad. There's no reason you cannot get 500+ miles off of one charge. They need a long range model. Musk also needs to untuck his dick and make something that can tow. Until then, I'm not a buyer. That's probably 1/5th of the country.
5   clambo   2022 Jun 16, 7:42am  

Well despite the problems it’s still a good story to tell.

I have a vast collection of AAA maps in my car, and Google maps uses Waze data to show traffic, speed traps, accidents, etc.
6   Patrick   2022 Jun 17, 11:17pm  

clambo says

I have a vast collection of AAA maps in my car


We do too.
7   FuckTheMainstreamMedia   2022 Jun 18, 12:09am  

How is everyone missing the easiest way to travel this route?

Obviously have Elena hike up that skirt above her knee, stick out the thumb, and wait for a trucker to stop. Elena giving gumjobs all the way to Sequoia will save you a helluva lot of time.
8   BayArea   2022 Jun 18, 12:19am  

Brutal lol
9   SunnyvaleCA   2022 Jun 18, 12:22am  

WookieMan says


Don't buy an EV. That was the first mistake. Hybrids. All the way.

I mostly agree with this, but I'd splice it slightly differently... electrics with 100 miles range or less for commuter vehicles as a second vehicle in a 2-vehicle family could be a good way to have a low-cost, low-maintenance second vehicle. Those families could charge at home overnight on a 120 or 240v charger. Then, get a hybrid or conventional vehicle for longer-distance uses. There are plenty of conventional vehicles that get 40+ MPG on the highway if you're willing to give up 5000 LB weight and 300+ horsepower.
10   socal2   2022 Jun 18, 10:29am  

I'm taking the family up the coast for a road trip vacation in the Model Y next Wednesday.

Leaving San Diego with overnights in Paso Robles, San Francisco, Napa then down to Santa Cruz and Pismo Beach on the way back home.

We are only driving about 4 to 500 miles each day and according to the various route planners and Tesla navigator, I should only have to stop once midway for about a 10-15 minute charge to top off. The hotels we are staying at have destination chargers. Worse case and the hotel chargers are being used, there are Tesla Super Charger stations within a mile of each hotel where I would have to fill up for 20 minutes in the morning.

We'll see how it goes. If nothing else, I am going to save at least $400 in gas on this trip.
11   HeadSet   2022 Jun 18, 11:15am  

I just tested a Chevy Bolt for a week, as we are looking at them as possible taxis.

The Bolt is an awesome car - rides well, plenty of pep, great AC, very nice audio and room for 4-5 passengers, even with a 6ft 6in driver and a 5ft 10 person in the seat behind the driver. The Bolt EUV I tested also had a hatchback with split seats, and even with seats up the "trunk" area had decent space for cargo.

The problem with the Bolt is charging. It takes 2 hours on a Level 3 DC device to charge the car from empty to full because Chevrolet limited the charge power to 55kW. Teslas and Leafs can charge using twice that power, so obviously they charge must faster. Also, the EvGo and Chargepoint stations are nowhere near as common as the Tesla Superchargers, and the Bolt cannot use a Supercharger. With a 230-mile range, one must carefully plan any long trip. A trip 400 miles away would require a 2 hour stop midway, then a two hour stop at the destination before returning, then another 2 hour stop half way home. And that is if suitable Level 3 stations are located convenient to your route.

What the Bolt would be excellent for is regular home use. A Level 2 home charge could top off the car every night, at about 21 miles per hour charged. So if one drives only 100-200 miles a day charging would not be a problem. If one only drives about 40 miles round trip to work, a plain old 110v home charger would be enough for commuter use. But since Level 2 home chargers are cheap, just get one anyway.

We may get a few of these Bolts, as Chevrolet is offering us a steep discount in price. But the only drivers that can use the Bolt would be drivers who have a house they can install a Level 2 charger (or a 220 volt dryer socket, as the Bolt has an adaptor specifically for that) and do not take out-of-town trips. Without a home charger, the drivers are looking at 1-2 hours of charging at the EVGo site every day before starting work.

I think Chevy did that 55kW limit as an engineering/marketing decision to save the battery. Electric cars are designed to be charged ay Level 2 chargers routinely, with the Level 3 chargers only used during long trips. Constantly using Level 3 will degrade the battery. Therefore, I think Chevy did that 55kW limit to preserve the battery, figuring the Bolt users would overuse the Level 3 chargers. But that 55kW limit with its slow charge may have hurt sales, which may be why we are getting the discounted price.
12   Ceffer   2022 Jun 18, 11:27am  

Does Tesla include the vibrating sex toys, lube dispensers and large screen porn reception to use while on automatic pilot? Does it have enough room for Elena's strip tease?
13   HeadSet   2022 Jun 18, 11:41am  

Ceffer says

Does Tesla include the vibrating sex toys, lube dispensers and large screen porn reception

Why do you care? It is not as if you do not already have plenty of that stuff "on hand."
15   Eric Holder   2022 Jun 23, 11:17am  

BayArea says

I sold a c5 z06 before the kids came along


Why? My kids loved going to daycare and then school in a sportscar. They were envied by all their friends because you can't put and under-12 kid in front in a car with rear seats but it's perfectly legal in a two-seater. =))
16   Eric Holder   2022 Jun 23, 11:19am  

HeadSet says

We may get a few of these Bolts, as Chevrolet is offering us a steep discount in price. But the only drivers that can use the Bolt would be drivers who have a house they can install a Level 2 charger (or a 220 volt dryer socket, as the Bolt has an adaptor specifically for that) and do not take out-of-town trips. Without a home charger, the drivers are looking at 1-2 hours of charging at the EVGo site every day before starting work.


Wouldn't a typical taxicab usage require a charge in the middle of the day too? I have no idea how much they usually drive per day but it must be more than 230 miles.
17   zzyzzx   2022 Jun 23, 11:32am  

Eric Holder says

Wouldn't a typical taxicab usage require a charge in the middle of the day too? I have no idea how much they usually drive per day but it must be more than 230 miles.


If Taxi's want to go electric then they really need to use vehicles with swappable batteries. I would think that delivery vehicles would need the same. In theory, if you had enough extra batteries, you could charge then during the day with power from solar banks and swap them as necessary.
18   Ceffer   2022 Jun 23, 11:55am  

I still need to know of this trip was mescaline or LSD?
19   HeadSet   2022 Jun 23, 7:12pm  

Eric Holder says

Wouldn't a typical taxicab usage require a charge in the middle of the day too? I have no idea how much they usually drive per day but it must be more than 230 miles.

Our drivers average about 160 miles per day, so it is doable for the portion of drivers that do not do out-of-town trips.
20   Eric Holder   2022 Jun 23, 7:41pm  

HeadSet says

Eric Holder says


Wouldn't a typical taxicab usage require a charge in the middle of the day too? I have no idea how much they usually drive per day but it must be more than 230 miles.

Our drivers average about 160 miles per day, so it is doable for the portion of drivers that do not do out-of-town trips.


Interesting. I thought it was waaay more than that.
21   socal2   2022 Jun 29, 4:17pm  

I just finished a 7 day road trip from SoCal to the Bay Area in the Tesla. It was super easy and we had plenty of room for 4 people, luggage, large cooler, beach bags and a few bags of groceries utilizing the "frunk" and massive storage in the back of the Tesla. I used basic Autopilot for probably 80% of the drive, including 2 lane winding roads in the mountains and PCH through Big Sur. The autopilot feature takes away so much stress driving long stretches including stop and go traffic in LA and the Bay Area.

Our first hotel had free charging and the rest of the hotels had a Tesla Super Charger within a mile so it was easy to top off in the morning. I don't think I had to charge for more than 15 minutes at any stop and there were always plenty of available stalls. There was also free charging at Hearst Castle and Muir Woods too. In fact, we were only able to get a last minute parking reservation at Muir Woods as they only had the EV spot still available to reserve.

I saved more than $400 in gas on this trip even paying the higher rates at Tesla Superchargers.

Picture below is a charging station in Big Sur where we had to stop for 5 minutes to top off to make it down to Pismo Beach.

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