Tesla is now starting to account for wind, air density, and more when doing range calculations in an attempt to be more accurate.
Range calculations are difficult regardless of the type of powertrain, electric or internal combustion engine.
There are just so many factors that can affect the efficiency of a vehicle on a road that it is hard to determine how far it can go on a full battery pack or tank of gas.
But it is important. I’d argue that accurate range prediction is better at curbing range anxiety than longer range.
Tesla has been a leader in efficiency and long-range electric vehicles for a long time, but despite that, it still has issues predicting the energy consumption of a trip.
In 2018, Tesla added more environmental factors (elevation changes, weather, etc.) in the calculation. It helped, but it is still far from accurate. You put a destination in the system and Tesla’s trip advisor tells you how much energy you will have left by the time you get there, but it’s not rare to see the amount of energy go down fast as you drive.
Now Tesla is making new improvements to its energy consumption calculations.
The automaker has started pushing a new software update (2022.8.2) that includes a few UI changes, better charging calculations, and a preconditioning update.
That’s according to the release notes, but Tesla hacker Green found a few more changes under the hood.
It includes accounting for crosswinds and headwinds, air density, and humidity in the energy consumption calculation when the data is available:
While these factors could only account for a few percentage points of difference, it can be a big deal for some trips. Every percentage point counts when doing efficiency and range calculations.
Green did note that this feature might only be available in China for now, which is often the case with new Tesla features.
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