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Well, that was interesting. For the trip home, the mapping software showed that if I left Santa Barbara with my current SoC (58 percent), I would need to make one 20 minute charging stop. Made the stop, these were 150 kW chargers. But the stop ended up being about 35 minutes because the unfortunate thing about V2 chargers is they share power with the charger next to you, so a guy pulled next to me and when he plugged in, it dropped the charging rate in half . This is not the case with V3 chargers, which are independent.
After charging to the recommended level, it showed we would get home with 31 percent SoC, and I took off. I noticed though that the ending SoC kept dropping throughout the hour, until it reached 11 percent, at which time the mapping software recalculated, adding a second stop. I thought it was a glitch, but decided not to ignore it. Luckily the next stop was all 250 kW chargers, so it was a quick 11 min stop.
Turned out the area we were driving through had strong gusty head winds, and the mapping software was being abundantly cautious. Had I kept going, I would have gotten home with 10 or 11 percent SoC, but it wanted me to have a bigger buffer, so instead I got home with 31 percent SoC
Just to close out the Santa Barbara trip, the Tesla was a champ at everything, including some mountainous driving on some very steep, winding roads. But I do have to disclose that my brother in law who took his Odyssey only had to fill-up twice, once on the way, and again on the way back. We did about 700 miles total, so I did have to charge 4 times total to his two fill-up's. He also beat me home by 30 minutes, but it did cost me about 50 percent less in fueling costs
The reason I'm sharing this info is it gives people an option to decide if taking a trip in an EV is worth it. For me, with lots of charging infrastructure it definitely is, but for some making charging stops may not be ideal
My Carbon Fiber spoiler has gone through quite the journey
It was supposed to show up Thurs 7/25, but never showed up. To put the above in context, it was shipped from Pomona,CA which is in Southern Cal. It made it to Tracy, CA which is here in Northern Cal. It sat at the Tracy FedEx facility for a few days with no movement, then suddenly showed up in Nashville, TN. It's since travelled to OK, NM, and Arizona. Now it's back in Tracy where it all began 🤣 If only my spoiler could talk, it could tell me all about its journey....
Pretty easy, it didn't already have the tape (came with a roll). About 5 minutes prepping the surface and measuring and marking areas with masking tape, 20 minutes applying the two sided tape to the inside of the spoiler and about another 5 minutes applying it. My daughter helped me apply it, it's better to have two people
Last night my wife, daughter and I dropped my son and the last of his stuff to Berkeley, where he will be be living and going to school for the next at least two years. He brought a foldable scooter with him to get around Berkeley, and when he comes home once a month and on holidays and special occasions, he'll take the high speed rail that connects the East Bay with the South Bay. The Polestar is now parked and will be rarely used, and I'm back to the Model Y. I should probably just pay off the remaining lease and return it, there's about 4 months left on it. It's the most expensive car to insure out of all my cars.
On the Model Y. Tesla just recently pushed out an OTA update (2024.26.7), and the question I have to ask is, how do you make an already intuitive interface more intuitive? I don't know, but Tesla figured it out. They re-did the HVAC controls, making them even more accessible. It's much easier now to access everything from front and rear defrosters, fan speed, as well as turning the HVAC system On and Off.
If only they could figure out how to do auto windshield wipers…
It’s interesting each time there is a new feature. I got the most recent update that has the auto truck/hatch when you stand behind the car. I was like, awesome that will be great. However it’s schizophrenic because it opens when I don’t want it to and other times I stand back there like a fool waiting and it doesn’t open. Good news is it can only get better.
If only they could figure out how to do auto windshield wipers…
It’s interesting each time there is a new feature. I got the most recent update that has the auto truck/hatch when you stand behind the car. I was like, awesome that will be great. However it’s schizophrenic because it opens when I don’t want it to and other times I stand back there like a fool waiting and it doesn’t open. Good news is it can only get better.
Yeah, the auto wipers.... I've given up there
The auto trunk sensor I'm sure they will fix that quickly. Even the kick sensor on my Polestar which uses an actual sensor would open up at the wrong time, like in a carwash once. Now they seemed to have fixed it
Today had the tires rotated, and my mechanic inspected the tires, which are Continental ProContact AS. At nearly 24k miles, they still have a lot of life left, I'll probably get another 20k out of them. He was also amazed at almost no rotor or brake wear, with very minimal brake dust
So far tire rotations have been the only maintenance, but I do seem to go through a lot of washer fluid
. This is not the case with V3 chargers, which are independent.
