Tesla Completes L.A.-to-New York Electric Model S Drive Chargers

Re:Tesla Completes L.A.-to-New York Electric Model S Drive C... by Pxtl on Monday January 27, 2014 @01:16PM (#7131999)

A 30-minute break every 3 hours seems just a little bit high - if 30 minutes got you closer to the full charge, it would be fine for road trips. 4 or 5 hours seems the upper limit for reasonable "driving without a half-hour break" and taking only 1/10th of your time instead of 1/7th recharging would be more palatable.

But either way, driving screws up our concepts of convenience and efficiency. Drivers aren't rational actors, so even if you were only spending 10% of your time recharging it would make you crazy just like any other delay makes us go a bit nuts when we're behind the wheel.

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Re:Tesla Completes L.A.-to-New York Electric Model S Drive C... by MartinCron on Monday January 27, 2014 @01:50PM (#7132254)

Drivers aren't rational actors

That's at the heart of most of these discussions. So many of the decisions people make about driving aren't rational decisions, they're rationalized decisions.

Just to be clear, I'm guilty of this as well. I bought a large luxury station wagon (mostly) because it had rear-facing rumbleseats that I've used exactly once.

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Re:Tesla Completes L.A.-to-New York Electric Model S Drive C... by agumonkey on Monday January 27, 2014 @03:07PM (#7132817)

I can't stand sitting rear-facing without feeling nauseous, I'm surprised it's even a selling point.

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Re:Tesla Completes L.A.-to-New York Electric Model S Drive C... by MartinCron on Monday January 27, 2014 @04:35PM (#7133407)

When you're a kid, the novelty of sitting rear facing in "the way way back" is enough to stop the nausea, at least for short trips.

And if you're not a kid, there's no way in hell you're going to fit in the rear-facing seats, I'm pretty short and I still can't fit back there.

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Re:Tesla Completes L.A.-to-New York Electric Model S Drive C... by tobtoh on Monday January 27, 2014 @06:07PM (#7134048)

Exactly this - I remember my parents had a Volvo with similar seats and my brothers and I loved sitting back there. We always imagined we were in the gun turrets of the Millennium Falcon shooting down cars.

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Re:Tesla Completes L.A.-to-New York Electric Model S Drive C... by stcredzero on Monday January 27, 2014 @11:25PM (#7135303)

Grew up in a 240 wagon myself. Sometimes I would pretend a bug-spot on the windshield was a gunsight and pretend to shoot other cars, thinking of Star Wars the whole time.

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Re:Tesla Completes L.A.-to-New York Electric Model S Drive C... by agumonkey on Monday January 27, 2014 @04:48PM (#7133500)

haha I guess you're right, I remember some rides in the trunk long ago and not feeling sick.

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Re:Tesla Completes L.A.-to-New York Electric Model S Drive C... by protomyth on Monday January 27, 2014 @02:25PM (#7132497)

If the speed limit is 70mph or 75mph, it is less than every three hours.

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Re:Tesla Completes L.A.-to-New York Electric Model S Drive C... by thrownaway2424 on Monday January 27, 2014 @02:48PM (#7132681)

Isn't it counterproductive to drive a model s at high speeds cross-country? You get an extra ~40 miles of range by going 65 instead of 75.

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Re:Tesla Completes L.A.-to-New York Electric Model S Drive C... by protomyth on Monday January 27, 2014 @03:11PM (#7132842)

Going 65 on a 75 highway is going to be a problem since your speed difference with most cars is what causes the problems in highway driving. Breaking flow of traffic is not a good idea.

I can assure you that doing 65mph on I-90 through South Dakota is a really, really bad idea. Its listed as 75mph and that would be the low-end for what people do. Nevermind the wind that is probably going to kill your range.

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Re:Tesla Completes L.A.-to-New York Electric Model S Drive C... by encoderer on Monday January 27, 2014 @04:28PM (#7133364)

Aside from perhaps Montana/etc I've never seen a highway with a single 75MPH speed limit. There is always a lower limit for big trucks, usually 55 or 65mph. You in a Tesla driving 65 in the right lane is not going to affect traffic much. In the wide open spaces, there's enough room it doesn't matter. In cities, there's enough traffic to push realized speeds below posted limits anyway.

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Re:Tesla Completes L.A.-to-New York Electric Model S Drive C... by protomyth on Monday January 27, 2014 @04:51PM (#7133531)

"Aside from perhaps Montana/etc I've never seen a highway with a single 75MPH speed limit"

Well, South Dakota I-90 where Tesla put their chargers is a single 75mph on a very busy two lane interstate with a lot of truck traffic.

Minnesota is a single 70mph on I-90. Thinking about it, I haven't seen a split speed limit in the upper plains.

"You in a Tesla driving 65 in the right lane is not going to affect traffic much."

"In the wide open spaces, there's enough room it doesn't matter."

You are going to be a nice blocker in traffic that generally flows along at 75 - 85 mph. It is a very busy truck corridor and you going 65mph is going to be a problem.

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Re:Tesla Completes L.A.-to-New York Electric Model S Drive C... by pnathan on Monday January 27, 2014 @05:40PM (#7133895)

Utah has an 80 MPG speed limit north-south. It's really quite fun rolling along at 80-85. I would hate to come across someone rolling at 60, it starts to become a hazard at that kind of delta between vehicles.

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Re:Tesla Completes L.A.-to-New York Electric Model S Drive C... by 001sky on Monday January 27, 2014 @06:45PM (#7134213)

Nevermind the wind that is probably going to kill your range

This is a good point, I wonder what the energy burden is going to be from that. You also need to factor in the impracticality of travel in the winter season (ie, near 0 deg F) in the east, or the very cold desert west of the Continental divide, particulalry at night (which is also extended in the winter).

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Re:Tesla Completes L.A.-to-New York Electric Model S Drive C... by protomyth on Monday January 27, 2014 @07:04PM (#7134294)

> winter season (ie, near 0 deg F)

It gets into the negatives for a lot of the winter. As I type this, it is -4F in Sioux Falls (just off I-90) with a mild 5-10mph wind with an expected low of -8F tonight.

There are a lot of windmills near I-90 since you can pretty much guarantee a constant wind.

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Re:Tesla Completes L.A.-to-New York Electric Model S Drive C... by 001sky on Monday January 27, 2014 @07:33PM (#7134391)

Interesting visualization of wind-energy across USA

http://rredc.nrel.gov/wind/pubs/atlas/maps/chap2/2-01m.html

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Re:Tesla Completes L.A.-to-New York Electric Model S Drive C... by 001sky on Monday January 27, 2014 @03:38PM (#7133043)

Its pretty much a wash on the math. you save 400 miles of navigation when you gain 10/mph for 40 hours (a typical navigatin time). This probably costs you 1x extra stops, if you are stopping every 280 miles (=10 stops in 2800 miles). If you are getting 240 you are stopping = 11 times), but you are taking 1 extra hour for that stop. You would have to drive the 400 miles in that one extra hour to make up the difference. At least on my napkin, maybe I am wrong.

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Re:Tesla Completes L.A.-to-New York Electric Model S Drive C... by notatoad on Monday January 27, 2014 @04:29PM (#7133368)

When the supercharger stations are at fixed points, an extra 40 miles isn't much help. You charge where the charging point is, not where you run out of juice.

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