Tesla Model S waffling

[clyde]

Originally Posted by ZBB

That one is particularly nasty. Fortunately, I only needed to touch the handle of the cable -- the unit is activated by an RFID card…

RFID is a nice touch.

Grabbing a pay phone handset covered in...something that I probably don't want to know what it was was what prompted me to get my first cellphone in 1996.

[ZBB]

So I had something odd happen today with the Tesla…

We went to a movie this afternoon. There are 6 free chargers at the shopping place, so I figured I'd charge the car while at the movie. It charged fine and added about 65 miles.

But its hot out -- about 110 today (tomorrow is supposed to get up to 120…). So I turned the AC on from the app while we walked back to the car. But it didn't cool the car down, and sure enough the AC was blowing hot when we got to the car. We were close to the Tesla service center, so I figured I'd stop by to see if anyone was there -- unlikely at 5:30pm on a Sat. So we headed home with the windows down -- thinking the compressor or motor had blown while cooling the battery while charging.

Since it was hot, we stopped on the way home for some gelato. While we were eating the gelato, I toggled the AC back on from the app -- and the car started cooling down. Strange…

I'll call Tesla on Monday and see if they can see if there are any faults (they can pull logs remotely…). I'm guessing some sensor triggered an overheat and shut off the compressor. Cycling the car on/off seems to have reset it.

[ZBB]

I dropped Tesla an email on Monday and they responded today and asked me to stop in so they could do a fix. I stopped in after work and the fix took about 45 min.

Apparently there is a sensor on early Model S cars that is failing intermittently. Newer cars no longer come with that sensor, so the fix is to delete it from the older cars. Here's the description of the work:

"Found suction sensor out of range. Performed sensor delete and performed control unit reset. Verified proper a/c performance at this time."

This is seems to be pretty common... 2 other owners came in while I was there for the exact same issue. There are other reports of it over at TMC also...

[dan]

Big news?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...as-we-know-it/

[dan]

Also why is this thread in the jalopnik forum?

[bren]

Originally Posted by undefined

Big news?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...as-we-know-it/

Yes. That would be a major expansion.

[JST]

Originally Posted by undefined

Big news?

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/...as-we-know-it/

That is potentially a big deal.

The proposed tie-up with Solar City has a lot of bad optics, from a conflict of interest perspective, but it and this show that Tesla understands something that other car companies don't--electric cars require a reinvention of fueling infrastructure, and there is NO REASON that the car company itself can't be the catalyst for (and profit from) that reinvention. In fact, if the past 15 years have shown anything, it's that the car company really needs to be involved to make that reinvention happen.

[ZBB]

Originally Posted by undefined

Also why is this thread in the jalopnik forum?

Must have been one of the thread merges... Can someone move it back to the proper Waffling forum?

[ZBB]

Originally Posted by JST

That is potentially a big deal.

The proposed tie-up with Solar City has a lot of bad optics, from a conflict of interest perspective, but it and this show that Tesla understands something that other car companies don't--electric cars require a reinvention of fueling infrastructure, and there is NO REASON that the car company itself can't be the catalyst for (and profit from) that reinvention. In fact, if the past 15 years have shown anything, it's that the car company really needs to be involved to make that reinvention happen.

Agree.

I'm glad to see that other automakers are getting serious about long range EVs... But high-speed charging is one of the differentiators that Tesla has -- in 2 ways:

1) Speed. Superchargers deliver 120kW today. Other high speed chargers currently available top out at 50kW. 50kW is still usable -- but is still slower than what Tesla has provided for over 3 years now.

Additionally, some of the other charging networks have arbitrary time limits (I've used my new CHAdeMO adapter twice -- one unit cut off after 30 min; the other after 60 min -- in both cases well before the car was done charging). Having to re-start the charge is annoying, and possibly adds more cost (some charge per session, not per minute of charge...).

2) Route network. Superchargers are available along routes -- while other high speed chargers are buried in cities. That makes driving tough between cities. For example, our road trip this summer will be up the Oregon coast. Once in Oregon, there are CHAdeMO chargers every 50 miles along highway 101 (part of the reason Tesla hasn't added Superchargers there), but in Norther CA, there are no CHAdeMO units, and Tesla's 2 Superchargers are still "coming soon" -- so we are planning an overnight stop in Eureka to allow time to charge while we sleep.

[clyde]

Originally Posted by undefined

Also why is this thread in the jalopnik forum?

Oops. Looks like I did that a few days ago. I don't remember why.