Clueless NYT reporter manages to get stranded in Model S

You appear to have not read the NYT article. Below is the relevant report

Get it ? The reporter was under the impression that battery "conditioning" would give him back the 90 miles of range he thought he had but was 'lost' overnight due to the cold. In short, he followed Tesla's advice to ignore the range meter.

 

That presumes "truth" on Neptune is the same as it is on this planet. Apparently it is. With the CNN reporter easily making a similar run with no problems (even taking it up to 100+ mph for a bit) there's only one way to reconcile the difference ... unless of course we factor in the Neptune thing.
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Common sense, clearance Conditioning or not, if the range meter does not show it when you are about to unplug, you have not recup the 90 miles, unless GOD cleared you.

 

I'll guess the reporter knows that now
As I wrote above though, the reporter was simply following Tesla advice that it would OK to continue on his trip after an hour of charging. I have to say, the more I read the NYT review, the more I think the reporter's main error was in trying to shave charging times in order to report a total travel time that was not way greater than what an ICE driver would experience.

 

no - he already knew

(after working for the public defender you learn that) The beauty of mental intent is that you can claim what ever, after the fact. "Oh ... I didn't mean to kill everyone in the elevator ... I though my uzi was unloaded and i was just messing with the trigger. Gee I feel so bad".
some jury will believe it. Just as we do too at prius chat dot com.

 

No. He followed Tesla advice.

 

Oh, great this stink is on the front page of our local which is same as San Jose Mercury News...

and the inside page includes the photo of Model S being lowered off flatbed. The story is about the flap between Tesla / Model S vs NYT

Someone else mentioned the most dangerous types of people are the crafty ones who do just enough wrong and paint themselves in the best light.

The reporters charging habits on the trips stink. It sounds like he was totally bored while waiting to charge up, nothing to do, thus undercharging at Milford the night before. Then he seems to have really tried to set Tesla up by not plugging the damn thing in that night...

Yet it begs the question, how easy would it have been to plug in at the hotel?

 

Tell ya what, don't think I'd want to be in Ra and Merendino's shoes at Tesla right now.

 

I would.
CNN is only the first news organization to repeat the same route. I am guessing more will want to try, if for no other reason than to show that 'their' reporters are smart enough to fill a 'gas tank' and the NYT'S is not.
Heck, the Post has already poked fun at Broder: Inspired by NYT Tesla test, here are my consumer trials of some products

Basically they are getting free publicity showing specifically that this can be done.
The most negative view someone can rationally take is that Tesla's communication to Broder was awful, but charged correctly, the car works great.

 

About 500 people have died in automobile accidents since the first post was made here. To me that is a solid indicator that we have a huge problem with either 1) Cars not ready for safe use or 2) Drivers not able to properly operate their vehicle.

Absolutely nothing in this story indicates that the Model S is suffering from problem 1) above. Everything in this story indicates that Model S does suffer from problem 2).

 

Yes, #2 is "Possibly" true, but is't NOT #2 because you've left out the "dishonesty" factor, hidden as simple ignorance. It appears from history that the tester is an EV hating gear head, if you read up on him. Yes, there are idiots that can run cars out of fuel - #2. Hate to rehash, but that's not what's going on. Journalist sad to say - know best how to skew truth into half truth and couch it as ignorance or innocent error once they're busted. Let's not play stupid. True character/morality knows that there is no "middle ground" here. Journalists are not supposed to write fiction. It was up to him to be truthful and he wasn't.

 

In the realm of feigning innocence mixed with idiocy, I just read this and it's worth quoting
To-Broder-or-not-to-Broder-that-is-the-question

Please try to work this newly coined word into your conversation and post the results here. I think both definitions have promise, so I think we should allow both. Please feel free to offer refinements to the definition and/or syntax.

to Broder: to waste time and/or energy in an attempt to fail at some task

examples:
1. I didn't want to go to the meeting so I just Brodered back and forth between my office and the lunch room for 15 minutes until it started. Then I didn't go because it would have been rude to show up late.
2. I didn't want to have hamburgers again today, so last night I Brodered all the propane away by leaving the barbeque running after I was done cooking.

to Broder: to blatantly ignore obvious empirical data about the task at hand

examples:


1. The recipe called for a cup of flour, but I only had a half cup handy -
so I Brodered and used that. The muffins turned out like inedible hockey pucks.
2. Our kicker had never before made a field goal longer than 40 yards, but
the coach Brodered and had him kick from 80 yards away anyway. We lost.

 

So the 32-mile range in this case may have been much less with the heater at 74?

"GM's benchmarking engineer for heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems explains, "It requires as much energy to heat the interior of a car on a cold day as it does to drive at a constant speed." Chevy Volt's HVAC system designed for grueling winter weather

 

He actually made it about 50 miles. The 32 miles takes into account the current state of the battery and car. So as the car continued to warm up, the range would increase. However, I am unsure what HVAC power the rated range uses. Probably what ever the EPA used in there tests.

I also believe the heating in the Model S is more efficient than the heating in the Volt. If for no other reason, the Model S is surprisingly well insulated.

 

I've long since learned that journalism now has no relationship to the journalism of my generation. None. The story is not being reported by a journalist, it is being created by a journalist. Don't let that little detail slip by. This is not reporting news, this is making news. No matter how good or bad the ethics of the reporter, the direct link between what is reported and the NYTimes corporate focus ensures the result......There MUST be "News". Ultimately, I somewhat agree with you, but I differ on who is really the instigator(s) here. The "journalist" is doing exact what he was tasked to do. He may be sacrificed by the NYTimes, but that is entirely based on revenue impacts, not a change in the media's integrity.

(PS. I can just as easily turn to Fox news and find out that solar power does not make sense. Same thing, different group to mine.)

 

It's called "News Entertainment" now.

 

We now have a CNN and soon a Washington Post reporter making the identical trip as our anti EV Times reporter and both are flawless journeys. One can only conclude foul play or user error. The Times needs to fire this guy

 

See my thread about Consumer Reports observations of Model S in winter chills.

 

Hardly.

The NYT reporter tried to drive 200 miles on a single charge on his winter day and failed. That is not at all surprising. The surprising aspect of this story is that Tesla was so clueless about winter driving.

Our E-vangelists keep trying to impinge the integrity of the NYT reporter by raising all the missed opportunities to recharge, when that is simply completely besides the point. All the NYT reporter set out to test was whether QC stations spaced 200 miles apart allow an 85 kwh Tesla to drive between them. The answer is clearly no, at least on cold days if cabin heating is used and ~ 65 mph speeds are maintained. The recent test by CR found the same. The car running out of fuel is incidental.

 

It looks like he made it between the Delaware Supercharger and the Milford Supercharger. It's pretty obvious he could have made it with miles to spare if he had started from Delaware with a full charge.