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Elon Musk Pledges To End "Range Anxiety" For Tesla Model S

Posted by Soulskill on from the update-will-burn-out-your-amygdala-with-lasers dept.

An anonymous reader writes: Elon Musk has used his Twitter account to announce a press conference on Thursday which he claims will end "range anxiety" for Tesla's Model S sedan. Whatever change they're making will be implemented through an over-the-air software update to the cars, affecting the entire fleet. Range anxiety is the term for a fear that your vehicle won't have enough fuel/charge to reach its destination. It's a common reason for people to avoid buying electric cars, given the much smaller infrastructure build-out compared to gas stations. If Tesla is improving the Model S's range through a software update, then it likely involves optimizations to the battery and to the ways in which power is used. Tesla has also talked about developing a feature called "torque sleep," which puts one of the drive units to sleep while not needed. They say it can wake up and begin delivering torque again "so fast that the driver can't perceive it."

4 of 286 comments (clear)

  1. Or, it could be unrelated to actually extending by Rei · · Score: 5, Insightful

    .. range. For example, more charging stations and/or a better locator (perhaps with a partnership with a nationwide chain of stores or two), better range calculation, a service to have charging trucks come out to you to you should you run out of charge (maybe even heading to the point where you would run out of charge before it even happens so that there's no wait), or all sorts of other possibilities. There's no guarantee that it actually means more range.

    Of course, it could mean that.

    --
    "TAMS shouldn't be destroyed. They should just tag us before releasing us into the wild." -- Maeglin
    1. Re:Or, it could be unrelated to actually extending by itsdapead · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Of course, it could mean that.

      No - your suggestions are all better. Unless they're going to download new laws of physics to the cars, the sort of incremental range improvement that a software update might bring is hardly going to end "range anxiety". Range anxiety isn't so much about the absolute range - its about the scarcity of recharging stations c.f. petrol, the time taken to recharge, the uncertainty of the quoted range and the need to be towed to a recharge station if you do run out.

      --
      In a survey of 100 programmers, 111111 thought that duck-typing was a good idea.
    2. Re:Or, it could be unrelated to actually extending by jellomizer · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I think the tipping point for electric vehicle range would be 1000 miles on one charge. Yes that is 2 to 4 times as much as most cars, however, the charging time for an electric car is much longer than gasoline, So in order for you to have a car good for all purposes ( Not an electric car for your commute, and a gas car for long trips ) 1000 range, means you can drive for 16 hours then take 8 hours (when you are sleeping ) to charge up.

      I think this 1000 mile per charge should be a goal for Electric auto makers. That or they need to need to match the charge time to a refueling time, and have at least 250 miles per charge.

      --
      If something is so important that you feel the need to post it on the internet... It probably isn't that important.
  2. Re:No, it couldn't. Read the post. by PhilHibbs · · Score: 4, Insightful

    That says nothing about extending range. It talks about ending range anxiety. Which could be, for isntance, adjusting the sat nav so it calculates how much further you can drive before you go out of range of the nearest charging station.