Tesla Stuff

I unexpectedly bought a new Model Y near end of February 2024.  Tesla offered a deal that I felt that I could not pass up.

 "What was the deal?" You might ask.  They offered to transfer both FSD AND free SuperCharging from other of my Teslas to a new car.  I transferred free SuperCharging from my 2013 Model S and FSD from my 2022 Model Y.  The people driving the 22 Y had little enthusiasm for FSD and the 13 S is nearing the end of its life.  Free SuperCharging is now rarely to never offered though it was frequently offered in earlier Tesla history.  FSD pricing seems to have settled at $8k to buy for the life of the car or $100/month if car owner wants to use FSD only occasionally.

In case you are a Tesla newbie:  FSD is Full Self Driving.  I have been avidly following and using FSD for about 5 years.  In the early years, interest was mostly academic.  The early versions required constant attention; most drivers found it not worth the effort of supervision.  After a long period of development with software updates coming every month or two, a step function improvement occurred in early 2024 with version 12.1.x; previous versions were <= version 11.x.x.  Right now, I'm running 12.3.6 and eagerly anticipating 12.4.x.  

Rather than recounting current capabilities, I'll refer the reader to YouTube.  WholeMarsCatalog has well demonstrated the current capabilities.  Short story: one can drive great distances and not have to "intervene"  (correct the car's behavior).  Software updates (each with at least some improvement) come every few weeks.  Complete autonomy is likely to come within a year.

https://www.youtube.com/@WholeMars

Down to business! I'll describe a really fascinating incident shortly after I replaced V12.3.4 with V12.3.6. I was returning from Kyle to Dale in heavy afternoon traffic and allowing FSD with navigation to do mostly what it wanted.  This was Wednesday June 12 about 4pm.  As l recall.  The incident was trying to cross SH21 from the north on a county road in northern Caldwell County (I may do a little research to identify that county road).  Traffic was fairly heavy, both east and west bound, on the four lane SH21.  Perhaps it is two traffic lanes plus paved shoulders on the sides.  I needed clear spots in both directions since I was continuing straight across SH21.  I perceived threats mainly from SH21 traffic though there was a car facing me, north bound on the south side of the intersection.  After allowing the car to wait several minutes for clear sections in both directions,  I finally decided to press throttle to tell the car to GO at an opportunity that it was not otherwise willing to take.  I continued to not steer.  The car is not able to over ride my throttle GO command but I allowed it to continue steering.  The next thing I knew, the car took an abrupt violent turn onto left/east bound 21.  Only in retrospect did I realize that the oncoming car in front of me had decided to take a left/west turn (to west bound 21) in front of me.  Ignoring that I had the right of way.  Unable to brake because I was on the throttle, the car (FSD) avoided a collision by turning left/east on 21.  This turn was not part of planned navigation. A short way down 21, I made a U/west turn, then a left/south on the road I had been attempting to go straight on.

Had I not been using FSD, the heavy traffic might have induced me to make a right/west on 21, then a U/east, then a right/south on the county road.  I'm exceedingly pleased with FSD performance.  Though it would have been best had I let the car do what it wanted.  Which might have resulted in a long delay waiting for 21 east bound and west bound breaks to be synchronized at the intersection.

With my wits fully functioning, I would have been prepared to preserve the car's video of the incident.  With the proper command, just after an interesting incident, the car will preserve about a minute of all videos of action just past.  There are five or more cameras that are continuously recorded but uninteresting recordings are overwritten after a few minutes or an hour.

I realize that this is a fairly complex incident and that my writing and language skills may be lacking.  Comments with corrections and clarifications are solicited.

Car Delivery

 

https://photos.app.goo.gl/ew6F9mdmKFeDCW2r7

Above link to an album of high resolution photos taken at delivery center just south of San Antonio airport.  On display was a camping equipped Y and a CyberTruck.  The first CT I've entered.

New car is a long range Y to which I was able to transfer Full Self Driving (from another car) and free SuperCharging (from yet another car).

PV wind damage

 

https://photos.app.goo.gl/uBvHqYuF9687R3HHA

Six rails.  One completely down.  Another, about half down.  Only two rails producing some power, a few kw.  Note one inverter blown off it's mount.

StarLink "Service"

 I've been remiss in making recent blog posts.

My StarLink died in my absence on the Yukon trip.  That, apparently due to a thunderstorm.  That failure left me with no internet access at the house.  Since about June 9, I've been struggling with SpaceX to get repair/replacement parts.  In case you have not heard, SpaceX/StarLink has TERRIBLE customer service.  Which I will recount here.

After I returned from the trip in late June, I fiddled with things and confirmed it was a StarLink problem.  With some difficulty, I contacted StarLink "support" and described the problem.  They decided it was a bad cable from the outside antenna to the inside router.  It took about two weeks for the cable to arrive but the cable did not resolve the problem.  Meanwhile SL closed my "ticket" which made continuing the dialog more difficult.  They then sent me a router.  That router resolved the problem.  But for only about half an hour.  Then, that router died.  Again, I had to go through the rigmarole again.  They said they were going to send me another complete SL kit containing all parts needed for SL service.  I waited about three weeks for the parts to arrive.  So, I go through all the rigmarole yet again; they knew nothing of the commitment to send a new kit but promised again to send one.  I wait another several weeks before contacting again.  This time, they actually did send a kit which arrived about November 20.  The router out of the kit fixed the problem; the fix has now lasted several days and I have been enjoying internet access at the house for the first time since the June trip,  SL did refund several of the monthly service fees which I had paid.   In consideration of the low level service I was receiving.

My intent had been to pretty up my trip posts and add a photo album.  But, that fell by the wayside and I have not done it because I had internet access only through my phone or out in the pool area where SL was providing only local wifi rather than wired service into my extensive LAN.  I have had no access to my PowerWall since.   The PowerWall (installed at my house) continued to work, charging in the day from PV and discharging to provide night time power.   That is, no grid power used, day or night.  A few weeks ago, the PW quit working and I am minimizing night time power use.  I am just beginning to address the PW problem.  In the past, I have been forced to fix PW problems myself because I have been unable to get ANY PW service from Tesla. 

12/16/23

Last week, I spent around a day twiddling with at least two different ways to "reset" the PowerWall.  I thought that I had failed and put the project aside.  BUT, while traveling the past few days, I discovered that the PW was working and talking to my Tesla app!  Everything seems to be working properly and I can, in real time, look at current power levels.  As well as looking at historic power and energy levels.  So!  After nearly SIX MONTHS of pain over failed StarLink and PowerWall, my trial seems over.

12/17/23 

 https://www.google.com/maps/@26.3230503,-97.4405342,4006m/data=!3m1!1e3?hl=en&entry=ttu

On the way back from South Padre Island, we drove by this place.  The take-away is that a 2300 acre shrimp farm in Arroyo City was abandoned in 1990s due to a shrimp virus.

My last Flo visit

 I arrived at the Flo station in Ft St John.  It is behind a GM dealer.  I found myself unable to charge because the GM shuttle Bolt was plugged into the CCS side.  I went into the show room to see if they wanted to remove the connector to the Bolt.  Shortly, TWO Ford pickup EVs arrived.  Apparently belonging to the same guy from Vancouver or somewhere in the area.  Complete EV newby.  I was unable to convince him/them that the charger would work on only one (CCS or chademo) at the same time.  The Flo girl on his phone apparently did convince him.  After quite a bit of pain, I eventually got a charge session started after a GM salesman removed the connector to the Bolt.  ~15 minutes later, my charge errored off.  More pain.  More phone calls.  Flo eventually remotely rebooted and I got another charge session started.  Meanwhile, a Canadian Model Y arrived and hooked to the CSS cable.  Amazingly, that did not screw up my charge and I got charged above 90%. 

So, over a short period of time, we had FIVE EVs contending for that single fast charger.  The Bolt, my car, TWO Fords, and the Model Y.  I was the only one that got a charge while I was there.

Most interestingly, the Model Y had a CCS adapter and reported no problems using it on several Flo stations.  So, most of my Flo problems may be associated with my chademo adapter.  I did not get to observe his CCS actually working, though.

I hope to be done with Flo.  Tomorrow, I hope to reach the Edson SuperCharger.  But first I will have to do a slow charge probably at Shrek's RV Park about half way between here (Dawson Creek) and Edson.

I'm thinking this:

https://www.maxwellvehicles.com/campers.html

may be the answer to the troubles.  A Maxwell (Fiat/RAM converted to Tesla  running gear).  I would want at least a 300 mile battery with significant deployable PV.  I'm thinking at least a total of 3kw in PV.  Maybe flexible that can be rolled up when not deployed.

I am a Banana Eating Fool

 As I approached Liard (lee ard) Hot Springs Lodge around noon day before yesterday, I decided I could go no more.  Going in with the attitude that they could screw me over any way they wanted,  I got a room for about $200C and told them I would like to charge at one of their "30 amp" RV stalls.  Another ~$70C.  The next morning, I found the RV park full so they were justified in charging the $70C.  I stayed in bed for about 20 hours there but recovered little.  I subsequently learned that they have a poor reputation.  Something about "First Nation" land.  "First Nation" seems to be Canadian politically correct speak for Indian / Indigenous Peoples / etc.  Since most such lodges in the area have gone to StarLink, I was surprised to learn that I could not immediately get a wifi password.  Why?  They were in the middle of a daily password change.  That lodge seemed to be trying to squeeze customers for every dollar possible without regard to customer inconvenience.  The daily password change was to minimize the number of drop in customers using wifi but not paying.   I later learned that they are still on geosynchronous satellite service.  StarLink data is MUCH cheaper so that there is no incentive to squeeze customers.  Changing the password is a significant labor cost.   I was not permitted to hook the car to wifi so the car had no internet presence.   The car was nearly visible from my room but I could not access it.  Normally, I leave raising car windows and locking to be done from the comfort of my room.  To do that in areas with no cell service, hooking car to wifi is required. The walk to the car was arduous in my condition so I left the windows down during an overnight rain.   They were on a boil water notice so they gave me two pints of bottled water to carry up the stairs to my room.  Over the night, I drank all that water and could find no more even though I looked. 

I left just after dawn and was surprised that I was doing so poorly.  I attributed to my two week diet of almost exclusively junk food.  Normally, I eat one or more bananas each day.  I could not find a comfortable driving position.  All limbs hurt.  Normally, only my left leg hurts significantly.  After a few ~40 mile stops to walk a bit, I got to a place I had stopped on my way up.  It was quite a contrast to Liard.  On the way up, I was allowed to charge off of a normal 120vac outlet.  But, generator voltage fluctuations limited charge rate to about 3mph;  "normal" is about 5mph.  That place is Testa River Lodge (as I recall).  The first time through, the guy did not want to charge a fee but I made him take $10US.  I later learned that the fee for charging in that area was $60-$70C.  This time, I asked the guy if he had any bananas and/or Tylenol.  He gave me two slightly old bananas and three sample packs of expired Tylenol.  I took Tylenol and ate both bananas in short order.  And, immediately felt a lot better; little pain in three limbs.  I was able to drive normally without un necessary stops.

I had to seek a charge going up at Testa because a Rivian was sitting on the 6kw J1772 charge station provided at the Ft Nelson visitor's center.  In Ft Nelson, I had stayed at Blue Bell Inn which is probably the cheapest of the Ft Nelson options.  By my standards, completely acceptable at $80C.  So, I'm staying with them again tonight.  Between my two stays, I had acquired a TT30 to normal 120 adapter which allows me to charge off of "30 amp" RV outlets.  Right now, I am charging at 9-10 mph at the hotel.  Should be ready to roll about 4am.  I did the same at Liard and, charging to 95%, brought it up to about 250 miles.  About 260 miles should be a 100% charge.  When the car was new, 100%  was 315+ miles.

Tomorrow I hope to get to Ft St John early enough to get my cell phone glass replaced by the guy that saved the trip last time through.

Edson is the closest SuperCharger.  I have a report that Edson was evacuated because of fires.  So. I'm eager to hear more news on that situation. 

Muskeg

 One of the few tales that my father would tell is how they dealt with Muskeg in building the Alcan Highway in 1942. He told of how bulldozers (they used hundreds or maybe thousands of bulldozers) would push trees over the Muskeg and then build the road surface on top of the downed trees.   With trees subject to rot, I imagine that was a fairly short term solution of 10-15 years before reworking/repair was required.

Until recently, I had little idea of what Muskeg is and where it is found.  I had the impression that Muskeg was associated with permafrost and that it would be found farther north.  Today, I chatted with a fellow patron of the Tetsa River Lodge who was wearing a T shirt that mentioned Muskeg.  He informed that Muskeg is soft marshy ground that can swallow both people and vehicles.  Once swallowed, neither is likely to be extracted.  This guy works oil projects.  He said that Muskeg is not much of a risk if trees growing on top are large; small trees are likely to be found growing in Muskeg.  He said that there is a lot of Muskeg around Fort Nelson which is near the beginning of the Alcan.  The guy also said that Muskeg might catch fire in a forest fire.  If so, it can smolder through out a winter and burn again the next season. 

I'll stick in some electric power comments here.  I noticed what might have been some wood power generation plants in the vicinity of Edson.  Here in northern British Columbia many areas are supplied from diesel engine generators, both utility owned to supply entire communities and small private off grid diesels.  I was greatly surprised with the dearth of PV.  I talked a bit with the owner of Tetsa River Lodge who operates his own diesel powered micro grid.  In order to provide for some diesel down time, he has a small battery setup.  He was using 12 large single cell sealed lead acid configured in two banks of six in parallel.  I guessed that each cell was about 300 amp-hours but he informed me that they are about 800 ah.  He charges the battery while the diesel is running rather than from PV panels.  That got me to thinking about how PV panels might be used in the far north.  Even though summer is their primary season, I heard several comments that the problem with PV is low winter production.  My current thinking is that panels should be near vertical, perhaps 10-20 deg off vertical and pointing several directions.  They could not rest on the ground as mine do because of snow ground cover.  I've heard it said that they have knee deep snow coverage for around 7 months.  Near vertical would likely allow snow to slough off.  The ground mount would have to hold the panels several feet off the ground and allow snow removal equipment to operate.

Another aside.  While passing through burned areas, I was thinking what a good opportunity for some carbon sequestration that would be.  Neighbor Ray has long experimented making charcoal for soil amendment and sequestration.  But, he is not oriented to low cost and efficiency.  I offer the idea of, in burned areas, bulldozing trenches and pushing fire debris into the trenches.  Then, making charcoal in place and leaving it.  Details are left to the reader.  Maybe I should do another blog post on charcoal.

With less than 100 miles in my battery, I leave Toad River Lodge for expected better charging 40 miles down the road at Northern Rockies Lodge.  If I get a good charge rate there, I will make Watson Lake later today.  I look forward to seeing the Northern Lights facility that is there.  Watson Lake is supposed to be the end of a string of Flo 50kw chademos that go toward Alaska.  This "charge for 10-15 hours in order to drive less than 100 miles" sucks.

Here I am at Northern Rocky Lodge charging at 5 kilowatts I think. Paying dearly for both charge and Wi-Fi access. I think around $70 Canadian. Their silly web-based Wi-Fi access prevents the Tesla from hooking up. So I have cell phone access but not car access nobody knows where the car is. To kill some time I just loaded up blogger on this cell phone on their Wi-Fi and an experimenting. That is expanding on this post with voice to text. Seems to be working very well.

To reach Watson Lake where there is supposedly Chademo   charging, I will need four or five hours of charging. Watson lake is abouOne attraction to Watson Lake is the Northern lights facility they have there; I'm eager to learn more about the Northern lights.

Let's see if I can insert photos directly from phone.

not what I wanted.  The \above is block heater outlet charging maybe at Ft Nelson. Trying again:

Better.  The above is charging at Northern Rockies Lodge.  Let me set up an album where higher resolutions can be used:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/ucvzV3PwaaJbhrkKA