Featured Rethinking long distance driving

A recent 2,245 mile trip inspired benchmarking and generating this graph:

• Drive segments lines at 40, 60, and 80 mph intersect at zero with the charge curve.
  • Limited to 3 hours (180 minutes) of driving
  • Maximum 30 minutes of charging in 10, 20, and 30 minutes

A horizontal line from one of the three speed lines to the charge curve gives the total minutes for one driving segment, the sum of driving time and charging time. For example, driving at 80 mph for an hour:

• -60 minutes to drive 80 mph
• +8 minutes to charge for that distance at that speed
• 60 + 8 = 68 minutes for that segment
• 80 mi * (60 / 68) = 70.6 mph equivalent speed combined driving and charging

Driving at 80 mph for an hour with required charging, the block-to-block speed will at best be 70 mph or 70 / 80 = 87.5% of the EV driving speed. This leads to a more useful summary chart.

Here is a chart of block-to-block, speed efficiency:

• 80 mph has the worst block-to-block speed efficiency, 80-87%.
• 60 mph is better, 84.5-90.5%.
• 40 mph is best, 100% within the 3 hour limit.

Full Self Driving (FSD) does excellent night driving which is typically cooler and has minimum car traffic and mostly professional driven, tractor trailers. Leaving around midnight and driving for 12 hours, arrives around checkin time at a distance motel. Fortunately there are tractor trailer companies, especially moving vans, that limit their cruise speed to 65 mph. This suggests an optimal EV strategy:

• Get on Interstate in "Chill" mode at 60 mph
• When a truck passes at 65 mph, set "Chill" mode speed to 67 mph
• Stay in lane to follow truck
  • Full Self Driving keeps a safe distance behind, not tailgating
    • FSD nag keeps your eyes looking for any road debris to avoid
  • Truck serves as camouflage so other traffic avoids tailgating
  • Larger truck rear lights improves visibility to following traffic
    • minimizes a rear end collision
  • WARNING - have quality anti-rock film on windshield
• Charge at every charger on way for fastest block-to-block speed
  • Add miles to next SuperCharger plus 30-40 mile reserve

Exit and return segments can't be helped but frequent breaks are good for the human monitoring FSD at night. A lot of miles will be covered without a lot of fatigue and minimum risk.

Bob Wilson