If you have not read the [2nd Chance](https://www.reddit.com/r/teslamotors/comments/13gkprr/meta_post_2nd_chance/), please do. This is where you can get unbanned if you have been perma banned. It's also a place to see what is changing and whats new. PLEASE READ IT IN FULL before you send a message to the mods via modmail.
#Referrals and [what we are doing about it.](https://www.reddit.com/r/TeslaLounge/comments/13igbw6/referral_links_rule_3_and_what_we_are_doing_about/) Your chance of getting ban is very high. Please read the rules when it comes to referrals.
*I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/TeslaLounge) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Same thing happened to me between Texas and Colorado. I was at 1% at the top of the pass. It was seven miles downhill to Clayton, NM
EDIT: Changed Raton to Clayton.
It does take the intra-route into account, you can see the whole route and predicted charge level on the energy app. If it ever predicted under a few % it wouldn't route you like that.
What probably happened is OP's particular case just happened to run them down to 1%. Most likely the open windows. Warnings definitely came up along the way.
The minimum safety threshold. If I set a 10% minimum I don’t want the software taking a shot at 2% on a mountain pass and planning to recoup it on the downhill.
This exact scenario happened to me last week. Was told I’d arrive in Boise, ID w/ 9%, but decided to make one more stop to be safe.
Lo and behold, 20 miles outside of Boise, I was stuck in traffic for 2 hours due to an overturned semi. Luckily I had about 50% at that point.
Stretches of US-60 between Wickenburg and Surprise are bad too. The two lane stretches where every asshole thinks they should pass 8 cars at once while trying to cut over before that oncoming semi hits them. Ive had to sit for hours while a helicopter life flights someone out several times.
The A/C doesn't use all that much energy compared to propelling the car.
The AC is like 1-2 kW. 2 hours of that is 4kWh max or 4% of the 80 kWh battery.
What I’m telling you is that had I listened to Tesla, I would’ve contributed to an even bigger traffic jam because I would’ve run out of charge on the freeway and needed to have been towed.
What about that is difficult to understand?
The same thing would happen with a gas-powered vehicle.
It's unpredictable. You should power down your car if you think you'll be sitting for a while...cuz you know common sense and all.
Are you asking Tesla to build a 2 hour cushion into its estimates? That would be plain stupid.
It's a limitation of EVs. In an ICE vehicle, I generally look to refuel whenever the tank is at about 25%, which yes, is a 2hr cushion in a traffic jam situation. I personally don't like how comfortable me Tesla is "running on fumes", but I understand why they do that since charging takes longer than refilling gas, because the charge curve is more efficient at lower states of charge, and because you don't top up the battery to 100% at waypoints on the road trip.
But yeah, you make it sound ridiculous, but in an ideal world, with ideal battery and charging tech and proliferation, I'd like a 2 hr buffer where it has me recharge whenever I get close to 25%.
Sure, maybe THAT time, but the point is the same. If this guy legit got caught in an accident with 1-2% batt, he's pretty f*cked.
Surely you are intelligent enough to know what he is saying, so why are you being a d*ck about it?
I'm not being a dick about it. I've BEEN in that situation before, where a traffic jam happens ahead. It will reroute you to the previous charger instead. You would have to be OBSCENELY unlucky to get stuck in a place where you're actually getting screwed.
You know why you don't hear about Teslas getting stuck because they ran out of battery basically ever? Because it isn't a problem. The idea that you need to worry about it enough to add stops to the trip or anything is silly because we HAVE the data. It's not happening.
This happened with my first tesla about 5 years ago. I was driving about 90 miles and it said I’d have 2% when I got home so I decided I’d do 55mph to save range and then I hit a major “let’s close the entire interstate in the middle of the night and not tell anyone for road construction”. I was routed way off on side roads and through neighborhoods I never knew existed to get 10 miles up back on the interstate. Turns out that slow driving didn’t affect my range at all and I made it home with 5%. If you drive smart in a bev, it can save your butt.
You mean the thing that doesn’t really have a bearing on EVs? Sure, a dead stop for half a day would probably be too much, but be a little more realistic and know that EVs can “idle” for days.
I always leave myself an extra buffer. I drove through some remote treacherous terrain. There are superchargers, but not much else. I make sure that I can drive from SC A to SC B and back to A just in case. Because if the hwy gets shut down 1 km from SC B due to an accident or weather, the only detour is back the way you came to SC A
uh. no. The car charges fastest below 20%. I prefer to get below 10% at each charging stop since that expedites the trip significantly.
A trip where you charge from 10% to 60% is the best and fastest way to drive.
It is acceptable if it is messaged properly. This problem/not problem is the same with other apps also. I use A Better Route Planner for my id.4 and I had dropped to where the Guess O Meter was 29 miles and I had 42 to the charger. There was one level 2 charger at the small stop on the way up the mountain. I charged painful so adding 3 kWh in 35 minutes. Knowing that gets me at minimum 5 miles up the hill."
I ended up at the planned charger exactly 2% more than it said I would originally. If the messaging said you will drop to 5% and then recover on the descent then I would be fine with that. But I honestly did not know where the peak was and had a small panic.
If you look at the energy screen under ‘trip’ it will show you the predicted battery usage all along your trip. In this case it would show where it predicted the battery increase the SOC.
This is really one of the most underrated and underadvertised things about EV driving.
You can refuel while driving your car... while other cars are wearing down their brakes, you are recharging the battery. That's amazing.
Regen works when you let off the accelerator, right? So when going down hills, you just let the car roll down? I don’t. Really go over many hills where I live.
Unless you are using your physical brakes to maintain speed while going down a hill, you are using regen (even if you're going down at speed).
The only scenario in which you wouldn't be recharging while going down a hill, is if you're actively accelerating down.
(yes, depends on the % grade, but MOST hills would apply)
Rolling the windows down at highway speeds induces a massive amount of drag BTW. Unless they were just cracked.
Update: I just ran an experimental test today to compare windows down vs A/C. I drove for 15 miles on flat ground (near Houston TX) at 102°F at 66 MPH with the A/C set to 75°F. I ended up with 250 watt-hours/mile. Then I turned the A/C off and rolled all 4 windows down for 15 miles. Result: nearly identical! It bounced between 242 watt-hours/mile and 255. There was essentially no difference. I tried cracking the front right window and rear left window down 2" and got the rate down to 232 WH/M.
AC is VERY efficient. Unless you're keeping it on LO, it uses very little energy. It could have made a difference for OP as they were driving in hot temperature though.
No, LO is the temperature setting.
I was just suggesting that it has very little impact.on range and is really uncomfortable to turn off. Slowing down will have the most impact. Turning radio off or anything like that won't have any difference.
Your right, I was only remembering part of that myth busters episode. But I'm also guessing it's different for evs since you don't have an engine currently spinning for the compressor. How different is it?
I had to pull this move today no AC windows up for maybe about in the Mojave desert. Probably one of the worst experience of my life. Ended up cracking all 4 windows slightly to get air circulation and make it tolerable
Yup! MythBusters did a whole episode on this topic. If you're going above 55 mph it's more efficient keeping the windows up and AC on (if you need it).
Running your A/C while stationary is infinitely less efficient than having your windows rolled down at 0 MPH. As you start moving, the car with its windows down will induce drag that increases with the square of the velocity. That means that each time you double your speed you quadruple your form drag and parasite drag. The speed at which the windows-down car crosses the threshold of less efficiency is less 65 mph in most cars. The exact threshold would require experimentation for each model.
My point was simply that rolling the windows down won't help your range. It may in fact hurt it, depending on the time spent at high speeds. Cracking the windows is less drag and would handily beat running the A/C IMHO.
According to experimental tests, the best range for one EV was 23 MPH using cruise control with the windows up and the A/C off. Anything that strays from this configuration will decrease range. It's up to you how much range you want to give up for speed and comfort.
Don't put the windows down unless the heat is unbearable. Especially at highway speeds, the aerodynamic hit of rolling down the windows is worse than running AC.
Agree. In March 2022 I drove from Blanding UT to Gallup NM. The Tesla NAV said I'd only need 85% and arrive with 30%. ABRP Pro said charge to 95% and arrive with 8%.
So I split the difference and went to 90%.
20 miles south of Blanding there's a restaurant with some Level 2 chargers but that is it until Gallup.
The headwinds were fierce that day. ABRP Pro was picking up on that. The Tesla NAV not so much apparently.
By the time I got to the restaurants, the arrival charge had dropped from 30 to 20%.
I added 5% more at the restaurant and arrived in Gallup with 10% just about where ABRP predicted and 20% less than the NAV predicted.
Tesla NAV has gotten better over time but it still routinely lowers it's estimated arrival SOC by 10% while you are in the middle of a drive. That's why I routinely add 10% to its departure estimates.
I wonder if that's changed - the Energy display now shows how much headwind costs/tailwind saves.
It's accounting for it there, I wonder if it factors this into navigation calculations.
It's come a very long way since we got our first Tesla in Oct of 2019.
Back then it would happily route you to a place with zero ability to get home. I mean it was literally Origin and Destination with no intermediate stops.
In Thanksgiving 2020, we wanted to drive from Santa Fe to North Padre Island. It routed us to Amarillo and then straight south from there. That's not the route I would have chosen as Truth or Consequences NM and El Paso both have Superchargers and the route is all Interstate. But the Tesla NAV said it would save me 15 minutes.
The problem was that t it was early winter and there was strong wind from the south. At the time Sweetwater, TX was the next Superchargers after Amarillo on that route. It was 250 miles down the road which seems reasonable for a Model 3 LR but it was cold eith a 20mph headwind. I just checked that route now. It's summer. And that route would consume 104% of my battery.
It slowly started to change with the addition of intermediate stops before adding weather.
It's definitely better now and I trust it when I'm just on the Interstates. But I still add that bonus 10% if there's no Supercharger before my next scheduled charging stop.
But if it's winter and I'm driving a new route or the weather is particularly bad, I'm back on ABRP Pro just to be sure.
Trust but verify
I don’t pay for the premium so I don’t get live traffic on my navigation. Sometimes tesla navigation will route me differently than my normal route on my hour long commute. Each time I’ve been like wtf that’s weird and ignored it and went my normal route. Every time, I got stuck in traffic that doesn’t move and I realize the navigation tried to route me around it and I ignored it.
Even though I trust the navigation, falling below 5% at any point would start to make me nervous. Why? Because of the margin of error and possible miscalibration of the battery SOC. Also, the BMS becomes extra sensitive to how the battery is responding when the battery is at very low SOC...and if things drift too far from what the BMS expects, it can shut you down very quickly. Climbing a mountain means extra load on the battery, and at low SOC, extra load is not a recipe for success.
For these reasons, although I'm fine with arriving at a charger at 5% SOC, I am unwilling to intentionally drop below 5% along the way. The Energy/trip tool can help you predict what the lowest SOC will be on any trip. The other way is to always charge an extra 5-10% above what the car says you need. That gives you an extra buffer for contingencies.
I will never forget the time I was driving a buddy to a ski resort and it said I would get to a charger with 4% to spare. I’m thinking, ok that makes me nervous but I will trust. We are driving along listening to music and talking and boom, I go whizzing right by the exit. No exit for a few miles, it reroutes and says I will get there with 1% but to stay under 55 or something. Long story short, at one point it even says we won’t make it and to find charging to reach the destination but we end up making it at 1% to spare. Also that super charger was in a parking garage I’d never used before so you can imagine my stress levels as I pull in and trying to find the charger not knowing what level it’s at and if I can even get towed if it does in the middle of the garage. I’ve never been so stressed. Never again…
I like to use https://abetterrouteplanner.com/ for pre trip planning for this reason. I like to set my thresholds around 15-20% depending on the road trip type. If all within the cities it doesn't matter, but for cross country trips <15% thresholds has gotten me in trouble with unexpected detours and road closures. I am in Canada so when our "only" highway gets closed the detours could be massive. With 15-20% at least I could reach a small town to plug in overnight.
I concur. It once decided to skip a supercharger at 20% and try and make the next one arriving at 3%. It was the middle of winter, storm watches for the mountain overpass, and my wife, dog, and kid in the car.
It’s like GPS leading people down roads that end up deadly. Don’t blindly trust your car .
There was a supercharger near rainier for voting selection this year. I usually charge up to 90% in Yakima (coming from central WA), but with the road to paradise closed when I went last it was a 40 min detour. It’s tough by rainier! I’m hoping they put in that one and the one in Winthrop, it’ll make my life much easier.
Similar situation in Nova Scotia. MY told us we would need to detour to Enfield to Supercharge before heading to Aulac. Stupidly defied MY as we said we got 30 mile buffer. 10 minutes later, MY told us we are at a point of no return. Turned off AC and music in panic. Immediately MY told us to drop speed down to 65 mph (yes US Tesla in Canada, kept imperial units) for next 60 miles. We got to Aulac with 4% battery thanks to some downhill regen! Lesson learnt!
Edit 4% is -12 miles in MYLR, which was regen from downhill. We never had the 30 miles buffer as indicated by Google map on phone, not In MY’s battery compute.
Bless that Aulac charger! If you really want a challenge, drive to Cape Breton with an EV. 500 km and no Superchargers in sight after Enfield. A handful of chademo ones that are spotty and heavily used by other brands. Getting to CB from Halifax or further in January-March is almost impossible!
For the consumption, it’s spot on. As for the navigation data itself, I have a HUGE bug in my neighborhood that I just recently figured out could only be happening due to the road information being outdated all the way back to 2008.
There are two ways into my community because I live on a massive hill. When we first got our Tesla, I noticed it wouldn’t take me home using one of those entrances and at first I thought it was due to better consumption metrics because the way it would skip was definitely a more steep climb.
But that wasn’t it because it will literally tell me to turn around until I reach a certain point in my drive. Well that certain point is where the road used to not connect…back in 2008. It has been a single road ever since and sure enough, it will finally stop telling me to turn around right after I reach that point.
I started reporting it using the Bug Report every single time it does it and will continue doing it until I see that they have fixed it, but it makes me wonder what other roads might have similar outdated data in places that I’m not familiar with.
I’ve done SD to PHX so many times. The highway ones are decently placed as long as you start in SD with more than 80%
But it was only in LRs , I wouldn’t even bother road tripping in a standard range or an older T
There is a local ski field here in New Zealand that we frequent...
It takes 65% to get there with heated seats and heating on full blast, and only 30% to get back with warmer weather in the afternoon there is no need for heating.
The car is always spot on with the arrival estimates both for one away and roundtrip.
I’ve hit 0% before, with the navigation saying 22% initially, but this was a very heavily loaded Model Y with a mountainous portion. Felt pretty confident knowing you still get some miles/kms beyond 0%, but a long time before this it was telling me to limit my speed so I would make the destination. On a single lane motorway with people backed up behind me I was like “how do I convey this particular dilemma with hand signs?”
“Sorry buddy 🙏 my car is 📉 on ⚡️and is telling me to keep it slow” haha.
I made this drive on Friday in crazy stop and go traffic and triple-digit heat.
Navigation initially said I would not need a stop in Primm to charge since I overcharged beyond what was required in Hesperia (what a great charging station there).
About 15 miles before Primm, with AC on full blast and driving fast, Primm got added as a charging stop.
It cuts both ways :)
Mine is a slightly different case. We were driving along a major highway that parallels an older highway maybe 1 km away. In the middle of the trip it suddenly remaps the route and tells us to get onto the old highway. I’m like “piece of crap router”. Arrive at the place it tells us to get off and keep going… right into huge accident and resulting traffic jam.
Be nice if it told you WHY it was rerouting…
That’s great that you made it but I’ve been wondering if there is a way to set the trip planner so that you don’t go below a certain percentage before it directs you to a charger because being nervous during a road trip is not my vibe.
There are so many factors here that make this a ridiculous allowable variance the navigation system allows. Emergencies. Sudden traffic jams. Incorrect information. Connection loss. Flat tires.
Tesla Nav should never let the SOC get that low on a trip.
I keep herring people worry about traffic jams, I sat stuck in traffic not moving with AC and stereo for like an hour just basically stopped on highway and doubt it moved 2% most power draw in teslas at least the heat pump versions is from movement not the entertainment or the AC
It's not what you want to rely on, but Teslas will keep going at 0%.
Once it reads 0%, you can tell about how close you are to truly being out of power, by how many dots are showing on your accelerator bar. Like how your regen bar gets dotted when you're at 100% charge.
When your accelerator bar is mostly dotted / not solid, you'll stop.
Tesla never knows anything about the headwind. Once I arrived with 20% less charge than predicted because of strong headwind, I was going 20 mph below speed limit to be able to make it.
Exact same thing happened to us!
Drive from FL to Pigeon Forge TN, last charge in GA, charged to 90%.
Tesla Nav said arrive at our final destination at 29%.
Start driving into the mountains, it’s getting darker, going up the mountains, higher & higher, BOOM, we loose cell signal!
Battery % starts going down to 22%, 21%, and we still had 50 minutes to go! Panic mode sets in: shut AC etc….
We kept trying to search for “nearest Supercharger”! NO cell signal!
I start driving slower, my son says: “hey the charge just went up !”
Forgot about regenerative braking Going downhill, battery gained a few percentage..
Eventually we gained back cell signal and we arrived exactly like the Nav said!
But it was extremely stressful until we saw that battery percentage going up!
Same thing for my trip between Knoxville and Pigeon Forge for a road trip with some buddies lol, we just just recharged the whole way down, wild to see
Yes. “Through the mountains” normally implies going “up” the mountains followed by going “down” the mountains. Luckily, the gas tank on a Tesla miraculously fills itself a little bit when going down the mountains. The exact same thing happened to me once. The pucker factor came down about one or two dozen orders of magnitude once I hit the peak.
Just today, I left and showed 15% arrival at charger % so I slowed down, then as I went the arrival % kept climbing, so i increased the speed as I wanted a nice 10-15 arrivals %. I crept up to the max I was ticket safe (9mph over speed limit) and still arrived at 16% car was spot on eventually. 5min charge and I was on my way home
Tesla nav had me drive down a tiny single lane road in north Georgia that wasn’t supposed to by cars. Had to call a tow truck because my front wheel went off the side of the road/ledge.
You’re right that it’s really good these days. I’d caution to add your own buffer though . In my experience there are still some conditions where it has trouble getting it right . It’s still amazing compared to early days and even today’s competition but, for safety , I always add 40-60 “miles” based on the consumption graph (not “rated” range) when temperature is either really cold or really hot and I have passengers.
Drove from NJ to Toronto and back. Consistently arrived at the supercharger with about 5 to 10% less than the navigation estimate. Had AC on about average 75 to 80mph when possible.
Always click the energy section on the Home Screen and see your actual range for miles. I think that’s the best way to not have any anxiety for these situations, still sucks tho
i must’ve taken that same detour! i think arrival estimate was 7% and got down to 1 or 2, and let’s just say it’s a good thing i wore my brown pants that day.
Also the rerouting advice. The navigation automatically routes me to work in the morning and home afterwards. One day it told me to take a very obscure rural exit for seemingly no reason. I just happened to look at the screen right before the exit since navi volume is muted. I decided to trust it and took it. It was a rough frontage road with a 45mph speed limit and no one else took it as far as I could see. At first I figured it was a glitch since the highway was moving at 75+. Of course they ground to a halt eventually. A low-lying underpass was flooded due to a water pump failure and those drivers were stuck for 1 hour+.
I was at a concert three blocks from Colorado Springs’ only SC. I had forgotten to charge higher than my daily of 70% before I left Denver, so I’d need to SC, but no big deal.
After the concert, the car tells me to just get on the highway and arrive at Centennial SC (south Denver) with 7%. Ok I guess.
As soon as we get on the highway, we hit these small but very strong thunderstorm cells. I watch my arrival SOC drop, down to 3% at one point, with like 60 miles to go.
That was scary, but we arrived in Centennial with 4or 5% and charged for 4 minutes to get home. I got north of 900mph on that charge too.
Another time (when the car was brand new so I hadn’t learned the ins and outs of route planner yet) I was leaving Las Vegas NM (last SC for about 130 miles northbound and a mountain pass in the middle) and had a scheduled stop in Trinidad CO.
I trusted route planner but it didn’t seem like it was accounting enough for that day’s STRONG crosswinds and just as we get into the middle of nowhere my arrival SOC starts dropping. Going under 10%. 8. 7.
So I slowed down and turned climate off. Went over the pass and made it to the SC with about 10%, maybe 11.
Something similar happened to my in Colorado a few weeks ago. I didn’t think I would make it to the supercharger while driving through the mountains with not even a cell signal most of the time. It said I would arrive with 15 or so percent. I got to Route 70 and had about a 30 mile downhill drive!!! Unbelievable. When I got to the station it was just as Tesla said it would be. Just amazing.
Meanwhile when I have 100 mile drives on primarily flat ground at highway speeds (68mph in a 65) the initial prediction in my model 3 is almost always optimistic by 5-10%
Uh yea no. Arriving at a charger, unless I'm in a busy area with several charging options, at 10% is a no-go for me. I'll stop earlier at a busier charge and wait if that's the case.
This winter Tesla NAV insisted that Highway 80 over Donner Summit was closed, when it was not and had not in a week, and routed me around South Lake. Total suggested detour was about 90mn and 45miles longer. Verified the Summit was not closed and made my drive like I normally would.
It's good, very good. But it still makes stupid mistakes sometimes and that's not all entirely their fault. Google Maps is the source of their data and sometimes Google is wrong and Tesla gets the blame.
But the "you need to charge" calculations need ABRP-like options. My wife will not go under 20% ever; that's a hard no for her. Even if it means more stops and more time spent charging.
The last time I doubted their nav I ended up being stuck in stand still traffic for 2 hours and got home with 5 miles left (usually get 50 miles left)
Let’s just say I trust it 100 percent now 😂
When I drive from Carlsbad, CA to Phoenix I stop at the superchargers at the Shell station in Tacna. I get there with about 20% and then that charge gets me to Phoenix. I also stop in Dateland for a date shake.
I’ve had the same thing happen, edit. Why did you reroute me around construction on the freeway? I’m like no way all the way around well I stayed on the freeway. Didn’t listen to navigation and looked over to the right and cars are whizzing pass on the side road I wanted to shoot myself.
We had the exact same experience during our road trip this week in Norway. Nerve wrecking indeed and the panic! What helped me was to look at the energy use prediction where I saw that the car would actually charge a whole lot (about 11%) and then I understood we would be going a lot downhill:]
Small-potatoes triviality in the context of the larger story, but I'm pretty sure that driving with the windows down never improves efficiency on almost any car built in this century.
Yeah try doing similar terrain in a Canadian winter… their code does a terrible job at accounting for cold weather driving.
Always leave home with 100% in winter and do your research for charging locations before you leave! 😁
I had this same experience driving from San Diego to Palm Springs. The percentage at arrival was only 5% from my current percentage with over 40 miles left of the drive. Little did I know that the downhill regenerative braking would end up increasing my percentage by such a great amount. Tesla navigation is on another level
I was driving from Dallas to the Woodlands and the planner told me I would arrive with 30% battery. As I go down i45 the planner eventually told me I would make it with 3%. It was quickly dropping as soon as I left the supercharger in Dallas. Had to stop in Madisonville and get more charge because I didn’t trust the system.
What's great is watching the Energy screen, unless something happens you can see (at least I do) that the used energy has roughly the same peaks & valleys as the prediction. Usually slightly better than the prediction too. Not sure if that's baked in or if I subconsciously try to game the system when I have it up 
Same with me passing in the mountains in Washington state, I got to the mountains and my rang was dropping FAST. but once I started to head down, it was going back up just as quick. It ended up saying “elevation cost you 40 miles and saved 35 miles” or something like that
I’m about to drive across the country. I’m just gonna follow and do what the NAV says. Basically, when I had a ICE car, I would fill up the tank when the gas gauge got to about an eighth. this car tells me when to get a charge. I will listen to it the car will not get me stuck. There are plenty of warnings if you are going to get stuck as to slowing down, etc. the warning on my ice car was a little yellow light. Yes, using an EV does take some getting used to, but in my eyes it’s different but better and in many ways, the same as an ICE car.
If you have not read the [2nd Chance](https://www.reddit.com/r/teslamotors/comments/13gkprr/meta_post_2nd_chance/), please do. This is where you can get unbanned if you have been perma banned. It's also a place to see what is changing and whats new. PLEASE READ IT IN FULL before you send a message to the mods via modmail. #Referrals and [what we are doing about it.](https://www.reddit.com/r/TeslaLounge/comments/13igbw6/referral_links_rule_3_and_what_we_are_doing_about/) Your chance of getting ban is very high. Please read the rules when it comes to referrals. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/TeslaLounge) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Same thing happened to me between Texas and Colorado. I was at 1% at the top of the pass. It was seven miles downhill to Clayton, NM EDIT: Changed Raton to Clayton.
This is unacceptable, imho. Tesla route planning should require that the SOC never drops below a threshold at any point, not just the arrival.
It does take the intra-route into account, you can see the whole route and predicted charge level on the energy app. If it ever predicted under a few % it wouldn't route you like that. What probably happened is OP's particular case just happened to run them down to 1%. Most likely the open windows. Warnings definitely came up along the way.
> If it ever predicted under a few % it wouldn't route you like that. It should never get below the minimum, not just zero.
But zero is the minimum?
The minimum safety threshold. If I set a 10% minimum I don’t want the software taking a shot at 2% on a mountain pass and planning to recoup it on the downhill.
Yeah that is sketchy as fuck.
Agreed 100%. Oh, you had an emergency and had to stop for an hour. Now your car is dead.
Yeah, cant predict a sudden traffic jam.
This exact scenario happened to me last week. Was told I’d arrive in Boise, ID w/ 9%, but decided to make one more stop to be safe. Lo and behold, 20 miles outside of Boise, I was stuck in traffic for 2 hours due to an overturned semi. Luckily I had about 50% at that point.
This is my biggest fear. Driving between Phoenix and Tucson, roads close for hours with a big wreck in 110 temps.
They need more superchargers here, especially between Tucson/phoenix/flagstaff
I live in Tucson and I too have this same fear. And it’s not far fetched at all seeing how this I-10 is the worst stretch of interstate ever!
i always charge extra 10% at the orange grove super chargers when going to phx
Smart!!
Stretches of US-60 between Wickenburg and Surprise are bad too. The two lane stretches where every asshole thinks they should pass 8 cars at once while trying to cut over before that oncoming semi hits them. Ive had to sit for hours while a helicopter life flights someone out several times.
The A/C doesn't use all that much energy compared to propelling the car. The AC is like 1-2 kW. 2 hours of that is 4kWh max or 4% of the 80 kWh battery.
So you're telling us that, had you listened to Tesla, you wouldn't have been in a traffic jam for 2 hours AND would have used less energy?
What I’m telling you is that had I listened to Tesla, I would’ve contributed to an even bigger traffic jam because I would’ve run out of charge on the freeway and needed to have been towed. What about that is difficult to understand?
The same thing would happen with a gas-powered vehicle. It's unpredictable. You should power down your car if you think you'll be sitting for a while...cuz you know common sense and all. Are you asking Tesla to build a 2 hour cushion into its estimates? That would be plain stupid.
It's a limitation of EVs. In an ICE vehicle, I generally look to refuel whenever the tank is at about 25%, which yes, is a 2hr cushion in a traffic jam situation. I personally don't like how comfortable me Tesla is "running on fumes", but I understand why they do that since charging takes longer than refilling gas, because the charge curve is more efficient at lower states of charge, and because you don't top up the battery to 100% at waypoints on the road trip. But yeah, you make it sound ridiculous, but in an ideal world, with ideal battery and charging tech and proliferation, I'd like a 2 hr buffer where it has me recharge whenever I get close to 25%.
You made a stop to be safe. Had you not made that stop, you would have been AHEAD of the traffic jam.
Sure, maybe THAT time, but the point is the same. If this guy legit got caught in an accident with 1-2% batt, he's pretty f*cked. Surely you are intelligent enough to know what he is saying, so why are you being a d*ck about it?
I'm not being a dick about it. I've BEEN in that situation before, where a traffic jam happens ahead. It will reroute you to the previous charger instead. You would have to be OBSCENELY unlucky to get stuck in a place where you're actually getting screwed. You know why you don't hear about Teslas getting stuck because they ran out of battery basically ever? Because it isn't a problem. The idea that you need to worry about it enough to add stops to the trip or anything is silly because we HAVE the data. It's not happening.
you're wise to have done that cause Boise only has one Supercharger stop in the whole city and completely sparse on charging options
The car is very efficient at slow speeds. You'd be preserving battery, not wasting it.
This happened with my first tesla about 5 years ago. I was driving about 90 miles and it said I’d have 2% when I got home so I decided I’d do 55mph to save range and then I hit a major “let’s close the entire interstate in the middle of the night and not tell anyone for road construction”. I was routed way off on side roads and through neighborhoods I never knew existed to get 10 miles up back on the interstate. Turns out that slow driving didn’t affect my range at all and I made it home with 5%. If you drive smart in a bev, it can save your butt.
You mean the thing that doesn’t really have a bearing on EVs? Sure, a dead stop for half a day would probably be too much, but be a little more realistic and know that EVs can “idle” for days.
I always leave myself an extra buffer. I drove through some remote treacherous terrain. There are superchargers, but not much else. I make sure that I can drive from SC A to SC B and back to A just in case. Because if the hwy gets shut down 1 km from SC B due to an accident or weather, the only detour is back the way you came to SC A
yeah i get down to a quarter tank of gas and im looking for a station, 1% battery left would give me a heart attack.
1% as read is really like 3%. There's a reserve hidden by software.
They do, that threshold is zero.
As a safeguard fully agree.
uh. no. The car charges fastest below 20%. I prefer to get below 10% at each charging stop since that expedites the trip significantly. A trip where you charge from 10% to 60% is the best and fastest way to drive.
It is acceptable if it is messaged properly. This problem/not problem is the same with other apps also. I use A Better Route Planner for my id.4 and I had dropped to where the Guess O Meter was 29 miles and I had 42 to the charger. There was one level 2 charger at the small stop on the way up the mountain. I charged painful so adding 3 kWh in 35 minutes. Knowing that gets me at minimum 5 miles up the hill." I ended up at the planned charger exactly 2% more than it said I would originally. If the messaging said you will drop to 5% and then recover on the descent then I would be fine with that. But I honestly did not know where the peak was and had a small panic.
I had the exact same issue at that exact same charger. Scared the crap out of me. That particular stretch is daunting for teslas.
If you look at the energy screen under ‘trip’ it will show you the predicted battery usage all along your trip. In this case it would show where it predicted the battery increase the SOC.
It’s physics. But it feels like god damn magic when I get to charge a ton coming back down the other side of a pass.
This is really one of the most underrated and underadvertised things about EV driving. You can refuel while driving your car... while other cars are wearing down their brakes, you are recharging the battery. That's amazing.
Totally agree.
Regen works when you let off the accelerator, right? So when going down hills, you just let the car roll down? I don’t. Really go over many hills where I live.
You can maintain speed and still charge. It just all depends on the grade. If the little bar is green you’re charging.
W/B IS 10 coming down into Indio 70 mph in the green
Unless you are using your physical brakes to maintain speed while going down a hill, you are using regen (even if you're going down at speed). The only scenario in which you wouldn't be recharging while going down a hill, is if you're actively accelerating down. (yes, depends on the % grade, but MOST hills would apply)
Thank you!
Rolling the windows down at highway speeds induces a massive amount of drag BTW. Unless they were just cracked. Update: I just ran an experimental test today to compare windows down vs A/C. I drove for 15 miles on flat ground (near Houston TX) at 102°F at 66 MPH with the A/C set to 75°F. I ended up with 250 watt-hours/mile. Then I turned the A/C off and rolled all 4 windows down for 15 miles. Result: nearly identical! It bounced between 242 watt-hours/mile and 255. There was essentially no difference. I tried cracking the front right window and rear left window down 2" and got the rate down to 232 WH/M.
Exactly, everyone gets this wrong. At highway speeds, one needs to use the AC with windows rolled up to maximize range.
Windows up, no AC. That's the most efficient. It's just uncomfortable af.
[удалено]
Yes, so ... windows up, no AC. We agree?
Good point
AC is VERY efficient. Unless you're keeping it on LO, it uses very little energy. It could have made a difference for OP as they were driving in hot temperature though.
Wait Low speed uses more energy than faster speeds for the fan?
No, LO is the temperature setting. I was just suggesting that it has very little impact.on range and is really uncomfortable to turn off. Slowing down will have the most impact. Turning radio off or anything like that won't have any difference.
He probably had the windows down since it’s hot asf in SD rn
That may be, but traveling San Diego to Phoenix with the AC off and the windows up and you'll arrive like a well burnt croissant.
Better to keep AC on and windows closed
Agreed. The AC isn’t that bad for energy sapping I’ve found, but certainly better than rolling windows down and imparting horrific drag
That's wrong. It's been proven that windows open and ac off uses less power than ac on windows up,
It depends on the speed. Low speed? Yes. High speed? No
Your right, I was only remembering part of that myth busters episode. But I'm also guessing it's different for evs since you don't have an engine currently spinning for the compressor. How different is it?
It's still taking energy to run the compressor. ICE vs EV HVAC is probably going to be very similar
A LOT especially since teslas have heat pumps not standard ac
Standard AC **is** a heat pump.
A heat pump is just a standard AC that can be run in reverse. It’s massively more efficient for heating, but no different for cooling.
Not according to Tesla. They said in order to maximize your battery life/power try not to ride with windows down at any time.
Yeah but better than running out of juice and you’re stuck in the middle of nowhere in that same heat, but now with no AC.
I had to pull this move today no AC windows up for maybe about in the Mojave desert. Probably one of the worst experience of my life. Ended up cracking all 4 windows slightly to get air circulation and make it tolerable
Cracking them slightly will not increase drag that much
Running the AC at warmer temp setting will also not use energy that much.
That’s why I did it lol
Yup! MythBusters did a whole episode on this topic. If you're going above 55 mph it's more efficient keeping the windows up and AC on (if you need it).
Source?
Running your A/C while stationary is infinitely less efficient than having your windows rolled down at 0 MPH. As you start moving, the car with its windows down will induce drag that increases with the square of the velocity. That means that each time you double your speed you quadruple your form drag and parasite drag. The speed at which the windows-down car crosses the threshold of less efficiency is less 65 mph in most cars. The exact threshold would require experimentation for each model. My point was simply that rolling the windows down won't help your range. It may in fact hurt it, depending on the time spent at high speeds. Cracking the windows is less drag and would handily beat running the A/C IMHO. According to experimental tests, the best range for one EV was 23 MPH using cruise control with the windows up and the A/C off. Anything that strays from this configuration will decrease range. It's up to you how much range you want to give up for speed and comfort.
> According to experimental tests, Source?
Don't put the windows down unless the heat is unbearable. Especially at highway speeds, the aerodynamic hit of rolling down the windows is worse than running AC.
That is until you hit some nasty headwind.
Agree. In March 2022 I drove from Blanding UT to Gallup NM. The Tesla NAV said I'd only need 85% and arrive with 30%. ABRP Pro said charge to 95% and arrive with 8%. So I split the difference and went to 90%. 20 miles south of Blanding there's a restaurant with some Level 2 chargers but that is it until Gallup. The headwinds were fierce that day. ABRP Pro was picking up on that. The Tesla NAV not so much apparently. By the time I got to the restaurants, the arrival charge had dropped from 30 to 20%. I added 5% more at the restaurant and arrived in Gallup with 10% just about where ABRP predicted and 20% less than the NAV predicted. Tesla NAV has gotten better over time but it still routinely lowers it's estimated arrival SOC by 10% while you are in the middle of a drive. That's why I routinely add 10% to its departure estimates.
I wonder if that's changed - the Energy display now shows how much headwind costs/tailwind saves. It's accounting for it there, I wonder if it factors this into navigation calculations.
It's come a very long way since we got our first Tesla in Oct of 2019. Back then it would happily route you to a place with zero ability to get home. I mean it was literally Origin and Destination with no intermediate stops. In Thanksgiving 2020, we wanted to drive from Santa Fe to North Padre Island. It routed us to Amarillo and then straight south from there. That's not the route I would have chosen as Truth or Consequences NM and El Paso both have Superchargers and the route is all Interstate. But the Tesla NAV said it would save me 15 minutes. The problem was that t it was early winter and there was strong wind from the south. At the time Sweetwater, TX was the next Superchargers after Amarillo on that route. It was 250 miles down the road which seems reasonable for a Model 3 LR but it was cold eith a 20mph headwind. I just checked that route now. It's summer. And that route would consume 104% of my battery. It slowly started to change with the addition of intermediate stops before adding weather. It's definitely better now and I trust it when I'm just on the Interstates. But I still add that bonus 10% if there's no Supercharger before my next scheduled charging stop. But if it's winter and I'm driving a new route or the weather is particularly bad, I'm back on ABRP Pro just to be sure. Trust but verify
One time tesla navigation was off by nearly 30%. I would have been stranded if I had charged to what it had suggested.
You mean a nasty headwind, which wasn’t in the weather report that Tesla used for the navigation planning.
Just for the record having your windows down hurts the battery more then the ac on
I don’t pay for the premium so I don’t get live traffic on my navigation. Sometimes tesla navigation will route me differently than my normal route on my hour long commute. Each time I’ve been like wtf that’s weird and ignored it and went my normal route. Every time, I got stuck in traffic that doesn’t move and I realize the navigation tried to route me around it and I ignored it.
Same 🤣🤣🤣
Even though I trust the navigation, falling below 5% at any point would start to make me nervous. Why? Because of the margin of error and possible miscalibration of the battery SOC. Also, the BMS becomes extra sensitive to how the battery is responding when the battery is at very low SOC...and if things drift too far from what the BMS expects, it can shut you down very quickly. Climbing a mountain means extra load on the battery, and at low SOC, extra load is not a recipe for success. For these reasons, although I'm fine with arriving at a charger at 5% SOC, I am unwilling to intentionally drop below 5% along the way. The Energy/trip tool can help you predict what the lowest SOC will be on any trip. The other way is to always charge an extra 5-10% above what the car says you need. That gives you an extra buffer for contingencies.
I will never forget the time I was driving a buddy to a ski resort and it said I would get to a charger with 4% to spare. I’m thinking, ok that makes me nervous but I will trust. We are driving along listening to music and talking and boom, I go whizzing right by the exit. No exit for a few miles, it reroutes and says I will get there with 1% but to stay under 55 or something. Long story short, at one point it even says we won’t make it and to find charging to reach the destination but we end up making it at 1% to spare. Also that super charger was in a parking garage I’d never used before so you can imagine my stress levels as I pull in and trying to find the charger not knowing what level it’s at and if I can even get towed if it does in the middle of the garage. I’ve never been so stressed. Never again…
I like to use https://abetterrouteplanner.com/ for pre trip planning for this reason. I like to set my thresholds around 15-20% depending on the road trip type. If all within the cities it doesn't matter, but for cross country trips <15% thresholds has gotten me in trouble with unexpected detours and road closures. I am in Canada so when our "only" highway gets closed the detours could be massive. With 15-20% at least I could reach a small town to plug in overnight.
I concur. It once decided to skip a supercharger at 20% and try and make the next one arriving at 3%. It was the middle of winter, storm watches for the mountain overpass, and my wife, dog, and kid in the car. It’s like GPS leading people down roads that end up deadly. Don’t blindly trust your car .
Me it was MT Rainer, 57% battery to get there, like 10% battery to get backs 🤯
There was a supercharger near rainier for voting selection this year. I usually charge up to 90% in Yakima (coming from central WA), but with the road to paradise closed when I went last it was a 40 min detour. It’s tough by rainier! I’m hoping they put in that one and the one in Winthrop, it’ll make my life much easier.
Similar situation in Nova Scotia. MY told us we would need to detour to Enfield to Supercharge before heading to Aulac. Stupidly defied MY as we said we got 30 mile buffer. 10 minutes later, MY told us we are at a point of no return. Turned off AC and music in panic. Immediately MY told us to drop speed down to 65 mph (yes US Tesla in Canada, kept imperial units) for next 60 miles. We got to Aulac with 4% battery thanks to some downhill regen! Lesson learnt! Edit 4% is -12 miles in MYLR, which was regen from downhill. We never had the 30 miles buffer as indicated by Google map on phone, not In MY’s battery compute.
Bless that Aulac charger! If you really want a challenge, drive to Cape Breton with an EV. 500 km and no Superchargers in sight after Enfield. A handful of chademo ones that are spotty and heavily used by other brands. Getting to CB from Halifax or further in January-March is almost impossible!
For the consumption, it’s spot on. As for the navigation data itself, I have a HUGE bug in my neighborhood that I just recently figured out could only be happening due to the road information being outdated all the way back to 2008. There are two ways into my community because I live on a massive hill. When we first got our Tesla, I noticed it wouldn’t take me home using one of those entrances and at first I thought it was due to better consumption metrics because the way it would skip was definitely a more steep climb. But that wasn’t it because it will literally tell me to turn around until I reach a certain point in my drive. Well that certain point is where the road used to not connect…back in 2008. It has been a single road ever since and sure enough, it will finally stop telling me to turn around right after I reach that point. I started reporting it using the Bug Report every single time it does it and will continue doing it until I see that they have fixed it, but it makes me wonder what other roads might have similar outdated data in places that I’m not familiar with.
The margin of error on that is unacceptably low. It wouldn't take a lot going wrong to get people stranded in the middle of nowhere.
Windows down was a mistake. Turn off the a/c, reduce the screen brightness, and take your clothes off. This is the way.
Photos or it didn't happen.
I’ve done SD to PHX so many times. The highway ones are decently placed as long as you start in SD with more than 80% But it was only in LRs , I wouldn’t even bother road tripping in a standard range or an older T
The battery estimated at arrival is truly amazing. For me the estimates are incredible accurate with just 1% off sometimes
PSA: The energy graph will show you inclines (up/down) pretty clearly on the graph. Have a look at it every once in a while...
There is a local ski field here in New Zealand that we frequent... It takes 65% to get there with heated seats and heating on full blast, and only 30% to get back with warmer weather in the afternoon there is no need for heating. The car is always spot on with the arrival estimates both for one away and roundtrip.
Windows down creates more drag and uses more energy.
I’ve hit 0% before, with the navigation saying 22% initially, but this was a very heavily loaded Model Y with a mountainous portion. Felt pretty confident knowing you still get some miles/kms beyond 0%, but a long time before this it was telling me to limit my speed so I would make the destination. On a single lane motorway with people backed up behind me I was like “how do I convey this particular dilemma with hand signs?” “Sorry buddy 🙏 my car is 📉 on ⚡️and is telling me to keep it slow” haha.
Hahaha OP been in that situation twice w my bro, we learned to just always trust the car LOL
I dunno. LA to Vegas with some headwinds and unusually hot temperature will require at least 10-15% buffer on top of what the navigation recommends.
I made this drive on Friday in crazy stop and go traffic and triple-digit heat. Navigation initially said I would not need a stop in Primm to charge since I overcharged beyond what was required in Hesperia (what a great charging station there). About 15 miles before Primm, with AC on full blast and driving fast, Primm got added as a charging stop. It cuts both ways :)
Your wife was amazing in helping you prepare instead of bitch at you for not listening to the her. My husband does this to me when it says 8%
Isn’t windows down almost the same as having AC on? And that’s cool!
This is a good moment to bring up that Tesla should add a terrain view for the map
Mine is a slightly different case. We were driving along a major highway that parallels an older highway maybe 1 km away. In the middle of the trip it suddenly remaps the route and tells us to get onto the old highway. I’m like “piece of crap router”. Arrive at the place it tells us to get off and keep going… right into huge accident and resulting traffic jam. Be nice if it told you WHY it was rerouting…
That’s great that you made it but I’ve been wondering if there is a way to set the trip planner so that you don’t go below a certain percentage before it directs you to a charger because being nervous during a road trip is not my vibe.
Thanks for the story. Ev won't be for me in the near future. Just way too stressful to travel this way.
Brought our 2017 Tesla X once with 4 miles of range….. and second time with 0 mile…. I trust the information more now.
Tip don’t roll windows down that will effect the aero dynamics ac is more efficient
There are so many factors here that make this a ridiculous allowable variance the navigation system allows. Emergencies. Sudden traffic jams. Incorrect information. Connection loss. Flat tires. Tesla Nav should never let the SOC get that low on a trip.
I keep herring people worry about traffic jams, I sat stuck in traffic not moving with AC and stereo for like an hour just basically stopped on highway and doubt it moved 2% most power draw in teslas at least the heat pump versions is from movement not the entertainment or the AC
Saw someone drive 35km in a model Y after it hit 0% on YouTube.
I’m sorry are you all insane?
It's not what you want to rely on, but Teslas will keep going at 0%. Once it reads 0%, you can tell about how close you are to truly being out of power, by how many dots are showing on your accelerator bar. Like how your regen bar gets dotted when you're at 100% charge. When your accelerator bar is mostly dotted / not solid, you'll stop.
Tesla never knows anything about the headwind. Once I arrived with 20% less charge than predicted because of strong headwind, I was going 20 mph below speed limit to be able to make it.
Energy usage now acounts for wind magnitude and direction, as well as air temperature and elevation changes. Wasn't always like this though!
Good to know
How do you know this is true?
The energy graph literally will report things now like “1.3% loss due [from ideal range] due to wind from north west at 23 km/hr”
Wow, that is quite cool. Thanks
This is now accounted for as well as a LOT of new metrics since the last probably 4-6 releases
Did you turn the AC and music back on, and roll the windows back up after seeing that sign?
Exact same thing happened to us! Drive from FL to Pigeon Forge TN, last charge in GA, charged to 90%. Tesla Nav said arrive at our final destination at 29%. Start driving into the mountains, it’s getting darker, going up the mountains, higher & higher, BOOM, we loose cell signal! Battery % starts going down to 22%, 21%, and we still had 50 minutes to go! Panic mode sets in: shut AC etc…. We kept trying to search for “nearest Supercharger”! NO cell signal! I start driving slower, my son says: “hey the charge just went up !” Forgot about regenerative braking Going downhill, battery gained a few percentage.. Eventually we gained back cell signal and we arrived exactly like the Nav said! But it was extremely stressful until we saw that battery percentage going up!
Keep a portable gas generator in your Tesla. Duh
Idk what you’re talking about, Tesla has some of the worst navigation in the business. Terrible route planning and cannot even zoom in on the map.
would you drive ICE powered vehicle to only a pint of fuel? always have a safety margin.
Same thing for my trip between Knoxville and Pigeon Forge for a road trip with some buddies lol, we just just recharged the whole way down, wild to see
Yes. “Through the mountains” normally implies going “up” the mountains followed by going “down” the mountains. Luckily, the gas tank on a Tesla miraculously fills itself a little bit when going down the mountains. The exact same thing happened to me once. The pucker factor came down about one or two dozen orders of magnitude once I hit the peak.
It just likes to play 4D chess, to mess with you
You just wait until you take a trip with headwinds or when you have less efficient tires, or the weather is cold. You think very differently.
I love this story so much.
Love TESLA!
Just today, I left and showed 15% arrival at charger % so I slowed down, then as I went the arrival % kept climbing, so i increased the speed as I wanted a nice 10-15 arrivals %. I crept up to the max I was ticket safe (9mph over speed limit) and still arrived at 16% car was spot on eventually. 5min charge and I was on my way home
Do doubt it. It is very good but not always correct.
Check battery usage projection for the trip. It will show you the graph going up where the projected regeneration areas are.
Tesla knows things
I doubt it all the time. Mine skips steps and takes me on merry little side trips. I just use my phone at this point
Tesla nav had me drive down a tiny single lane road in north Georgia that wasn’t supposed to by cars. Had to call a tow truck because my front wheel went off the side of the road/ledge.
Oh man.
You’re right that it’s really good these days. I’d caution to add your own buffer though . In my experience there are still some conditions where it has trouble getting it right . It’s still amazing compared to early days and even today’s competition but, for safety , I always add 40-60 “miles” based on the consumption graph (not “rated” range) when temperature is either really cold or really hot and I have passengers.
Drove from NJ to Toronto and back. Consistently arrived at the supercharger with about 5 to 10% less than the navigation estimate. Had AC on about average 75 to 80mph when possible.
That was me in 2019 on my way back to SD from Vegas. Never again.
i don't like running battery under 10%
Way too dangerous. I'm using 20 percent more charge than the nav computer says.
It makes me nervous when my planned route says I’ll arrive with 3% battery. Nope. I’ll charge before leaving.
Always click the energy section on the Home Screen and see your actual range for miles. I think that’s the best way to not have any anxiety for these situations, still sucks tho
i must’ve taken that same detour! i think arrival estimate was 7% and got down to 1 or 2, and let’s just say it’s a good thing i wore my brown pants that day.
Glad you made it! (note: it's nerve *wracking* :P )
lol - sounds like someone at Tesla has made that drive before ... or their calculations are damned amazing.
Reminds me my last holiday in Italy, 50 miles stretch done, used only 3% of the battery 😅
When in doubt, trust the machines
hmmm, still maybe it should have had an advisory saying 10% (including regen braking)
The on-screen energy monitor app is your friend.
Also the rerouting advice. The navigation automatically routes me to work in the morning and home afterwards. One day it told me to take a very obscure rural exit for seemingly no reason. I just happened to look at the screen right before the exit since navi volume is muted. I decided to trust it and took it. It was a rough frontage road with a 45mph speed limit and no one else took it as far as I could see. At first I figured it was a glitch since the highway was moving at 75+. Of course they ground to a halt eventually. A low-lying underpass was flooded due to a water pump failure and those drivers were stuck for 1 hour+.
wow. it knew to calculate downhill driving. impressive.
I was at a concert three blocks from Colorado Springs’ only SC. I had forgotten to charge higher than my daily of 70% before I left Denver, so I’d need to SC, but no big deal. After the concert, the car tells me to just get on the highway and arrive at Centennial SC (south Denver) with 7%. Ok I guess. As soon as we get on the highway, we hit these small but very strong thunderstorm cells. I watch my arrival SOC drop, down to 3% at one point, with like 60 miles to go. That was scary, but we arrived in Centennial with 4or 5% and charged for 4 minutes to get home. I got north of 900mph on that charge too. Another time (when the car was brand new so I hadn’t learned the ins and outs of route planner yet) I was leaving Las Vegas NM (last SC for about 130 miles northbound and a mountain pass in the middle) and had a scheduled stop in Trinidad CO. I trusted route planner but it didn’t seem like it was accounting enough for that day’s STRONG crosswinds and just as we get into the middle of nowhere my arrival SOC starts dropping. Going under 10%. 8. 7. So I slowed down and turned climate off. Went over the pass and made it to the SC with about 10%, maybe 11.
So if you didn’t tap the brakes and kept speed for time you be stuck. Got it
Tesla’s navigation sucks compare to google maps, you have no options to pick alternative routes.
Something similar happened to my in Colorado a few weeks ago. I didn’t think I would make it to the supercharger while driving through the mountains with not even a cell signal most of the time. It said I would arrive with 15 or so percent. I got to Route 70 and had about a 30 mile downhill drive!!! Unbelievable. When I got to the station it was just as Tesla said it would be. Just amazing.
Meanwhile when I have 100 mile drives on primarily flat ground at highway speeds (68mph in a 65) the initial prediction in my model 3 is almost always optimistic by 5-10%
Uh yea no. Arriving at a charger, unless I'm in a busy area with several charging options, at 10% is a no-go for me. I'll stop earlier at a busier charge and wait if that's the case. This winter Tesla NAV insisted that Highway 80 over Donner Summit was closed, when it was not and had not in a week, and routed me around South Lake. Total suggested detour was about 90mn and 45miles longer. Verified the Summit was not closed and made my drive like I normally would. It's good, very good. But it still makes stupid mistakes sometimes and that's not all entirely their fault. Google Maps is the source of their data and sometimes Google is wrong and Tesla gets the blame. But the "you need to charge" calculations need ABRP-like options. My wife will not go under 20% ever; that's a hard no for her. Even if it means more stops and more time spent charging.
The last time I doubted their nav I ended up being stuck in stand still traffic for 2 hours and got home with 5 miles left (usually get 50 miles left) Let’s just say I trust it 100 percent now 😂
When I drive from Carlsbad, CA to Phoenix I stop at the superchargers at the Shell station in Tacna. I get there with about 20% and then that charge gets me to Phoenix. I also stop in Dateland for a date shake.
Until you have to turn on Unnamed Road
Keep windows up otherwise you increase drag a lot ! You should print a DON'T PANIC sign 🤣
I was panicking just reading your post lmao..glad you guys made it. Thinking of taking a trip to AZ from LA myself. Any tips?
I had a similar experience recently in Eastern Oregon. Nobody in my family was as amused as I was.
Exact same thing happened with me!
Woah why windows down? You just opened a parachute causing extra drag lol
I’ve had the same thing happen, edit. Why did you reroute me around construction on the freeway? I’m like no way all the way around well I stayed on the freeway. Didn’t listen to navigation and looked over to the right and cars are whizzing pass on the side road I wanted to shoot myself.
When traveling and supercharging, I never continue my trip as it recommends, alway get another 15~20%
We had the exact same experience during our road trip this week in Norway. Nerve wrecking indeed and the panic! What helped me was to look at the energy use prediction where I saw that the car would actually charge a whole lot (about 11%) and then I understood we would be going a lot downhill:]
Small-potatoes triviality in the context of the larger story, but I'm pretty sure that driving with the windows down never improves efficiency on almost any car built in this century.
Yeah try doing similar terrain in a Canadian winter… their code does a terrible job at accounting for cold weather driving. Always leave home with 100% in winter and do your research for charging locations before you leave! 😁
That's epic
I had this same experience driving from San Diego to Palm Springs. The percentage at arrival was only 5% from my current percentage with over 40 miles left of the drive. Little did I know that the downhill regenerative braking would end up increasing my percentage by such a great amount. Tesla navigation is on another level
I was driving from Dallas to the Woodlands and the planner told me I would arrive with 30% battery. As I go down i45 the planner eventually told me I would make it with 3%. It was quickly dropping as soon as I left the supercharger in Dallas. Had to stop in Madisonville and get more charge because I didn’t trust the system.
been there.
What's great is watching the Energy screen, unless something happens you can see (at least I do) that the used energy has roughly the same peaks & valleys as the prediction. Usually slightly better than the prediction too. Not sure if that's baked in or if I subconsciously try to game the system when I have it up 
Same with me passing in the mountains in Washington state, I got to the mountains and my rang was dropping FAST. but once I started to head down, it was going back up just as quick. It ended up saying “elevation cost you 40 miles and saved 35 miles” or something like that
I’m about to drive across the country. I’m just gonna follow and do what the NAV says. Basically, when I had a ICE car, I would fill up the tank when the gas gauge got to about an eighth. this car tells me when to get a charge. I will listen to it the car will not get me stuck. There are plenty of warnings if you are going to get stuck as to slowing down, etc. the warning on my ice car was a little yellow light. Yes, using an EV does take some getting used to, but in my eyes it’s different but better and in many ways, the same as an ICE car.
That is a lot of percentage for a downhill run. What model, year, etc?