First RoadTrip! Got vaccinated, visited mom. Used ABRP (A Better Route Planner). Learned some.
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This is from my leg leaving Lexington heading towards Huntington. The Blue line is what it was expecting me to do – this is based on a 100% modifier to the speed limit (70mph). The Green dot and projection is where I was actually at and the estimated battery level at the next charger.
But, i had a bit o’ fun.. i went a wee bit faster.
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I ended up driving a bit more aggressively. A couple of things to note: The green tracking only was enabled once I got to this screen, and I think only while I stayed on it. (This is on my phone). How you drive has a huge impact on battery drain and range.
So, now I’m planning my return trip. I know more.
A) I can be comfortable bringing the bottom charge all the way down to 5%. I was afraid before of going below 20%. Now that I know i can very easily see where I’m going to end up at, i can lower that to 5%.
B) Faster speed = more drain = longer charging, thus there’s a point at which more speed does not equal more time gained. I’m going to play with that in a moment for the return trip.
C) Most of the Superchargers were at Sheetz Gas Stations, which were awesome. Fresh Decaf coffee, grapes, cheese, good bathrooms. Loved it. I have marked one (Lexington, VA) to avoid due to lack of amenities.
Planning the way back
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My final version: This is going at 75 mph on 70 which is 107% –
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The actual cost to me is $0, because at the moment, I have 633 free supercharger miles left from someone using my referral code to buy a Tesla. All because I was nice to them on reddit. yay!
The actual driving is amazing. I use Autopilot with assisted lane changes, so most of my interaction is choosing to speed up / slow down to get around people or let people in. The car does most of the driving. I mostly … sit in silence, listen to a podcast, sing, sing more, or talk on the phone, with hands on the wheel. And then the monotony is interrupted with a cute drive to find a supercharger, and some snack acquisition, and walking around a bit. Its nearly perfect.