Observations from 1st road trip so to speak

[Rip]

Decided to head out to the nearest Tesla supercharger 37 miles one way, just to get the feel for the experience. Headed out with enough juice for the round trip just in case, and it's a good thing I did because the damned cord was way too short to reach, needed to be at least another 3'

Sure I could have triple parked and I would have had I been out on the road, wasn't but 2 vehicles charging at the time amongst 8 chargers. I decided to just head back.

Other observation has to do with blue cruise 1.4, all the way there and back it worked flawlessly, I decided to see how it would react if I blipped the turn lever for a lane change while hands free and another vehicle next to me, it started flashing for a lane change and waited until the other vehicle was past me then made the lane change perfectly.

Last observation has to do with navigation, more specifically Android Auto nav while using it, it does indeed populate the center cluster with direction changes and such just like the built in nav does, woohoo, party, bonus, (someone here posted it didn't) It fills up the space center screen when approaching a direction change then changes back to whatever was on screen before, in this case the trip meter front and center and after the direction change it populates the small area between the two temp gauges top center with the next turn or direction change coming up.

In closing, if I have to make a road trip, I will NOT rely on ANY Tesla charges anywhere. What the hell good are they in saying they're open to other vehicles then purposely shorten the cords under the guise of vandals/thieves thus making them useless to other brands or at least this brand and model.

Every Tesla facility is a little different. I don't think I've ever not been able to squeeze in when there are openings. You do have to park way to the right (sometimes eating up two spaces), and nose in until your grille almost kisses the charger. Maybe the one you visited is older or set up a little differently. Often they have one or more chargers set up 90 degrees from the others, and you can use those easily. I don't like Elon or paying for Tesla charging, but at this point they are still the most numerous (and generally powerful) charging stations around, so it's probably not going to work to just say you'll never use one on a road trip.
There are a lot of networks coming out, though. Walmart is supposedly going to expand its current charging network. I have used the EA chargers at several WalMarts...EA is OK, but frustrating because they often are set up with two sets of cables on a charger, but only one can be used at a time.

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[Robert1380]

Decided to head out to the nearest Tesla supercharger 37 miles one way, just to get the feel for the experience. Headed out with enough juice for the round trip just in case, and it's a good thing I did because the damned cord was way too short to reach, needed to be at least another 3'

Sure I could have triple parked and I would have had I been out on the road, wasn't but 2 vehicles charging at the time amongst 8 chargers. I decided to just head back.

Other observation has to do with blue cruise 1.4, all the way there and back it worked flawlessly, I decided to see how it would react if I blipped the turn lever for a lane change while hands free and another vehicle next to me, it started flashing for a lane change and waited until the other vehicle was past me then made the lane change perfectly.

Last observation has to do with navigation, more specifically Android Auto nav while using it, it does indeed populate the center cluster with direction changes and such just like the built in nav does, woohoo, party, bonus, (someone here posted it didn't) It fills up the space center screen when approaching a direction change then changes back to whatever was on screen before, in this case the trip meter front and center and after the direction change it populates the small area between the two temp gauges top center with the next turn or direction change coming up.

In closing, if I have to make a road trip, I will NOT rely on ANY Tesla charges anywhere. What the hell good are they in saying they're open to other vehicles then purposely shorten the cords under the guise of vandals/thieves thus making them useless to other brands or at least this brand and model.

Yeah I feel your pain. My experience is similar to yours and usually requires multiple attempts at getting angle and distance just perfect and even then you can feel the tension on the cord, trying to stretch. It can be done but it’s a challenge for sure.

 

[Mal106]

Tesla is often a bit of a challenge. I've only had one time where I couldn't charge. The charge area was used as a Tesls parking lot; no charging, just parking. Once I had to touch a bollard to get close enough. Twice the truck port overheated so I now carry a wet rag. Three times the charger charged the Ford account despite trying to use the Tesla app and having an account. Twice I had no connectivity so I couldn't contact Tesla so it charged the Ford account.

In several cases Tesla's prices have been as little as half the price of other chargers practically within sight. Imagine a gas station with $6 gas across from a $3 station. Prices for fast charging are just not transparent nor competitive enough.... yet. It's one of the big hurdles of electric vehicle adoption.

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