> If you truly need to drive for 7 or 8 hours (400-500 miles at 60) without any kind of significant breaks on a regular basis, then I'd argue that you are probably taking quite a risk to your safety (and those around you - both inside and outside your car) due to tiredness.
I've done 350~ mile trips pretty often (about 5 1/2-6 hours) and I usually only stop for 10-15 min to go to the bathroom and fuel up. Driving for a few more hours isn't really that bad, and very common in countries with 10x the square mileage of yours.
At least here in Europe there are laws (for commercial drivers) about how long you are allowed to drive for, and when you must take breaks, e.g.:
> "you must not drive more than: 9 hours in a day - this can be extended to 10 hours twice a week"
> "a break or breaks totalling at least 45 minutes after no more than 4 hours 30 minutes driving"
Perhaps the US has zero laws in this regard, but these sort of rules exist due to lots of lessons learned by tired drivers killing people. Sure these are for commercial drivers, but I'd argue that if you are doing this sort of long-distance driving frequently (i.e. not just once or twice a year) then you are no different from a commercial driver and shouldn't assume these common sense laws don't apply.
Driving long distance when there's nothing around (eg the M6 between Preston and Glasgow) is so much simpler. You can definitely drive longer when you're not constantly negotiating city-adjacent traffic.
> Size of the country has no impact on this - people become tired and distracted during long drives.
But size of the country (and more importantly, density) has a massive impact on how far people drive and how frequently.
You can have multiple drivers sharing the same vehicle. This is a common occurrence in both commercial and non-commercial situations (e.g. a family trip with two adults alternating driving and rest periods). With 3-4 drivers on hand, either traveling with the vehicle or trading off along the way, a vehicle can be operated continually without any safety concerns, making the EV with its limited endurance and long recharge times the weakest link.
The Tesla Model 3 can easily add 100 miles in 10-15 mins if its battery is 30% or lower. That isn't theoretical performance, that's actual real-world performance that I've seen. That plus the ~250 miles of range the Model 3 LR has (again real-world range, without making any effort to conserve energy) means you can realistically to your ~350 mile trip with little to no change to total trip duration.
Now the Model 3 may be a premium vehicle, but EV development is only just getting started. Within the next few year we'll be seeing cars with similar performance for half the price. That tied with the rapid expansion of 150kw and 250kw chargers means that in the next 5 years, doing your theoretical road trip, with only one 10-15min break, will be possible in almost any new ~$30k electric car.
An EV charger requires minimal infrastructure compared to a gas pump, and zero attendances. That means that supermarkets etc can just convert normal parking spaces to chargers. Reducing the need for quick charging because people will shop while they charge.
On highways you can install huge 350kw chargers that can add hundreds of miles in the time it takes you to go to the loo and again chargers are incredibly cheap to install and require so little infrastructure compared to a gas pump.
The cost of a 4 pump gas station is about $500k[0], the cost of a 4 “pump” supercharger station is around $100k[1]. That’s 5x cheaper, and far easier to expand because you’re not dealing with flammable liquids.
[0] https://www.commtank.com/services/gas-station-construction-c... [1] https://techcrunch.com/2013/07/26/inside-teslas-supercharger...
You also can only fast charge the Nissan leaf once per day max because of the battery cooling issues. That's also assuming you come across two working fast chargers in a day, which is far from guaranteed.
Non-supercharging infrastructure is pretty unreliable.
If I have to fast charge, it's over an hour to get to 80%.
I don't need anyone telling me I'm being unsafe and then restricting my freedoms because of that.
I'm looking forward to my upcoming beach vacation where I will drive 6.5 hours without many breaks, and it'll be as uninteresting to do so as spending those 6.5 hours doing anything else.
Re toasters, I just recalled that at a previous office, we had a toaster that was confiscated by building management, as we indeed lacked a proper license to use it in the building. But I guess that's ok, as this was mandated by the leasing contractual agreements, rather than being action that is overseen by elected officials.
Even when looking at non-exotica every-day vehicles like current-gen nissan leaf you get ~200 miles of range, and can recharge 240mph (more than 4 miles per minute) [1] More recent cars getting launched now (and again, not necessarily exotic brands, but even Hyundai and VW) have even faster charging rates.
So even a 15 minute break for the toilet and getting a takeout coffee will give you 60 miles of range. Stop for 45mins for lunch? Add 180 miles of charge, or 3 more hours of driving at 60 when you might want to stop again for a toilet break or to stretch your legs.
If you truly need to drive for 7 or 8 hours (400-500 miles at 60) without any kind of significant breaks on a regular basis, then I'd argue that you are probably taking quite a risk to your safety (and those around you - both inside and outside your car) due to tiredness.
1 - https://ev-database.uk/car/1144/Nissan-Leaf-eplus