Electric Vehicles: Tesla specific talk, current firmware, purchasing, modifications

[DT]

About 3 or 4 months after I took delivery of my model S, in 2013, I was driving down route 280 and I felt the car wobbling left and right. I had to constantly make adjustments to the steering wheel to keep the car moving straight. Turned out some axle bolt came loose. They’ve got some creative automotive engineers over there on deer creek road, i guess.

There was a guy a few years ago, had a seat hinge pin break, this is the pin that connects the bottom frame to the top frame and allows the seat to pivot forward. He pulled everything apart and it was a hollow, undersized pin (so allowed for a lot of movement at the hinge point), and it was just pinched at the end, not a threaded fastener, not a cotter pin.

That's some sloppy design and execution.

 

[Eric]

BTW here's the thread on Reddit I posted about it if anyone wants to see feedback from the community over this one. BTW the r/realtesla sub is awesome because it's a safe place for current owners to say both positive and negative things about the car without all the kool aid drinkers.

Bloomberg news reached out to me today for an interview regarding my reasoning and experience with this trade, was an interesting conversation with the reporter who called out of New York. Sounds like they are working on a bigger story and want to include this as part of it.

 

[Cmaier]

Bloomberg news reached out to me today for an interview regarding my reasoning and experience with this trade, was an interesting conversation with the reporter who called out of New York. Sounds like they are working on a bigger story and want to include this as part of it.

You’re going to end up on a list.

 

[Eric]

You’re going to end up on a list.

This list is more concerning I think right now. Stay safe out there.

From SFGate

‘Inflict physical damage’: Calif. group plans to vandalize Tesla cars​

A Northern California police department said it’s received several reports from Tesla owners about threatening notes left on their vehicles. The messages demand that they trade or sell their cars before Wednesday or face vandalism.

Sgt. Heidi Grossman with the Arcata Police Department told SFGATE that four Tesla owners in the city have contacted the department since last week about written threats of vandalism left on their cars. A note left on a Tesla in Arcata, first published in Lost Coast Outpost, said: “No Nazis in America. Tesla owners trade or sell before Feb 12. After that it is open season.”

A group calling itself SANE — Students Against Nazi Extremism — claimed responsibility for the threats in documents mailed to the outlet, which were received Monday, adding that SANE planned to target Teslas in four California cities.

 

[Cmaier]

This list is more concerning I think right now. Stay safe out there.

From SFGate

‘Inflict physical damage’: Calif. group plans to vandalize Tesla cars​

A Northern California police department said it’s received several reports from Tesla owners about threatening notes left on their vehicles. The messages demand that they trade or sell their cars before Wednesday or face vandalism.

Sgt. Heidi Grossman with the Arcata Police Department told SFGATE that four Tesla owners in the city have contacted the department since last week about written threats of vandalism left on their cars. A note left on a Tesla in Arcata, first published in Lost Coast Outpost, said: “No Nazis in America. Tesla owners trade or sell before Feb 12. After that it is open season.”

A group calling itself SANE — Students Against Nazi Extremism — claimed responsibility for the threats in documents mailed to the outlet, which were received Monday, adding that SANE planned to target Teslas in four California cities.

I’m not worried. Anyone can see my car’s Jewish, not a Nazi.

 

[diamond.g]

We're talking about related, but different things here. Yes, there are sensors in the handle which tend to be the ones to trigger derating, but there's also the design of the system.

Tesla wants an easier to work with cable, so you design for that. But it means going thinner, with less insulation or more flexible insulation which can have other drawbacks. Normally, you go for thicker gauge wire and insulation for commercial situations like this because you are aiming for high utilization and durability, and the usual guidance is for thicker current carrying wire to reduce heating when high utilization is expected. What Tesla has done instead is the opposite which exposes them to more heating at multiple places (resistive heating, undersized connections between the wire and the plug, etc), and they are relying on the temperature sensors to protect things. This is also why they've told people on social media to not use the wet rag trick as it defeats the protection mechanism they rely on to prevent damage to the cabling.

Everything I've seen seems to indicate that the plug/connector is the limiting factor with respect to heat. But I won't argue the point. Makes you wonder how the megacharger connector handles things.

I think Telsa allows up to ~650A draw, which is out of CCS spec, for a "short" amount of time to get these crazy high numbers (325kW) for cybertruck. That is assuming the post are pulling 500V, which I don't think they do, so the amp draw is probably even higher.

This list is more concerning I think right now. Stay safe out there.

From SFGate

‘Inflict physical damage’: Calif. group plans to vandalize Tesla cars​

A Northern California police department said it’s received several reports from Tesla owners about threatening notes left on their vehicles. The messages demand that they trade or sell their cars before Wednesday or face vandalism.

Sgt. Heidi Grossman with the Arcata Police Department told SFGATE that four Tesla owners in the city have contacted the department since last week about written threats of vandalism left on their cars. A note left on a Tesla in Arcata, first published in Lost Coast Outpost, said: “No Nazis in America. Tesla owners trade or sell before Feb 12. After that it is open season.”

A group calling itself SANE — Students Against Nazi Extremism — claimed responsibility for the threats in documents mailed to the outlet, which were received Monday, adding that SANE planned to target Teslas in four California cities.

It would make more sense to destroy the factory, more so than to deface owner vehicles. But maybe that is just me.

 

[Nycturne]

Everything I've seen seems to indicate that the plug/connector is the limiting factor with respect to heat. But I won't argue the point. Makes you wonder how the megacharger connector handles things.

The thing is, you are very likely correct that the handle Tesla uses is the weakest link in the chain. I'm pointing out that Tesla's "advantage" in terms of cables is by pushing the limits of the NEC commercial code, while other operators are playing it safe, and yes, that does include under-building the handle for the current it will see. The fact that they use four total conductors to run the DC lines adds some flexibility versus two larger conductors, but makes the connection in the handle more complex which could easily be contributing to some of the heating we are seeing in practice. I just wish someone who has seen the inside of the cable itself could share some of the details on the conductors they used. Ultimately, without some hard evidence on the exact source, just seeing temperature sensor measurements is a bit fraught. The heat sensors in the handle and the charge port are basically going to read the same thanks to how easily heat will flow along the connectors and conductors in the handle.

The connectors themselves are similar in terms of surface area as CCS1/2, which to me suggests the connector should be comparable to CCS.

If you've seen the pictures, the connector pins on the Megacharger are much bigger, and the cable is thicker as well.

I think Telsa allows up to ~650A draw, which is out of CCS spec, for a "short" amount of time to get these crazy high numbers (325kW) for cybertruck. That is assuming the post are pulling 500V, which I don't think they do, so the amp draw is probably even higher.

Yeah, this is where I really start to question Tesla's engineering practices here. They claim the NACS connector itself can handle 1000A which I think is beyond what it can actually do consistently, and is more "it can take the current for some short period of time without immediate failures". Yet, the Megacharger connector is much more in line with what I'd expect for a 1000A connector.