Milepost 918

I've about decided that I've had all the pain that I can enjoy. That is, I may be turning around in the morning.  Or in a few days. I'm contemplating making an excursion perhaps to Dawson City or Prince Rupert or somewhere else. I see in the Canadian news that Edson may be evacuated due to forest fires. You might recall I spent a night in Edson a few days ago. I imagine the fire threat will be over by the time I get back there.  I've seen no evidence of recent fires since I left Fort Nelson.  But, there was a lot of evidence of fire in the Edson area when I was there and for a hundred miles or so in any direction of Edson.

Venting at Milepost 635 Watson Lake

 I arrived at Watson Lake yesterday evening after a harrowingly slow drive.  As slow as 30mph in order to maximize range.  I arrived at the Flo charger with 9 miles of range left.  That meant no stopping at roadside attractions.  I found a conveniently located very pricey hotel that specializes in dim room lighting.

The Flo charger initiation was even more aggravating than expected.   About half an hour on the phone to get charging started.  So far the sole redeeming feature of Watson Lake is the spectacular Northern Lights planetarium type show; I had never before been to a planetarium.  With about 100 miles put in the car at the chademo station, I decided to charge at hotel from a block heater outlet.  Which gave me a solid 5 mph at 120vac all night.  The problem with many grid voltage charging opportunities up here is low voltage of 100-110vac.  That's usually a result of three phase power which is nominally 100/208 where split phase is 120/240.

On the road from Muncho Lake yesterday, I saw bear and buffalo at several locations.  When I get an album put together, I'll post the URL 

I'm thinking of turning around at Whitehorse where I hope to find a/some TT30 adapters.  Connecting to RV parks "30 amp" outlets would make such charging more palatable.  I think I'd would rather deal with 200 mile days charging at RV parks than deal with the Flo nightmare that might give me 300-400 miles in a day.  Probably more BrandX charging venting later.  Right now, I will just say that Tesla has solved the charging problems but the various BrandXs have refused to adopt Tesla's strategies on billing, navigating, and maintaining.

A light rain this morning in Watson Lake so I'm waiting a bit before I  depart to do battle with Flo chargers in Testlin and Whitehorse.  Fellow travelers have warned me that Whitehorse is not a good overnight stop but I will likely be forced to stay there tomorrow night.  215 miles in the car right now.  I think Whitehorse is 300+ miles so I can not hope to skip the Flo in Testlin.

The End

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BXqPNlng6uI

I decided this morning, in the large town of Whitehorse, capitol of Yukon Territory, to go ahead to Dawson City and then, perhaps make a loop in Alaska to return on the more southerly route.  I did three successful Flo/chademo charges during the day.  When I arrived at Dawson City, I could not get the Flo/chademo started.  After about an hour on the phone with a nice and helpful Flo girl, she admitted that it was broken.  And that Flo would have a repair person out within 5 days.   Enough of this Flo horseshit!  I'm turning around in the morning.  Fortunately and unexpectedly, The Triple J Hotel has several cabins with J1772 charge stations.  I am getting 30amps/30mph out of it "as we speak" so I should be fully charged in the morning.

Dawson City is of interest to me because it is one of the settings in the TV series "Yukon Gold".  YouTube has at least several episodes.  Here is one:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAD-3GFvgKU

Reading my "Alaska" trip odometer, I see I have traveled 4172 miles since departing Dale.  I need to do a summary but Triple J Hotel has weak wifi in my cabin.  I should mention that this is the fartherest north I've been.  In mid June here, the daylight hours are about 4am until about mid-night.

StarShip5!

I failed to get my streaming (LABPadre} started until about 3 minutes after launch.

At about 7:11am (Sunday, October 13, 2024}I DID observe the first catching of a StarShip booster on "chopstick" launch tower.  In  Boca Chica.  There are MANY firsts here.  First catching of ANY space vehicle.  And first catching of a StarShip component.  Yet ANOTHER verification of Elon Musk's rapid and low cost development strategy.

The StarShip5 experienced a sudden unplanned disassembly around 8:30 as it was attempting a hover just above Indian Ocean off the west coast of Australia.  That was not very relevant since near all mission goals had been achieved.  After the flight, LABPadre introduced us to the first Neuralink  patient.  I did not divine the reason for his presence but he is to control a LABPadre camera for the StarShip6 launch.  We hope within about two months.  To belabor: here is a paralyzed (below his neck) guy who is now able control many devices through his Neuralink which is implanted in his skull. 

Early on in my Teslaite career, about 2012, I noticed Elon Musk's odd personality and ill considered utterances.  With the success of Tesla Motors, his behaviors became completely immaterial in my mind.   With the successes of other of Musk companies, the relevance of personal behaviors became even less.  The Boring Company.  SpaceX.  Neuralink.  What have I missed.  Each and every of the Musk companies has greatly contributed to the progress of civilization; pushing achievement forward decades and at affordable costs.  Many people I've encountered, by way of Tesla car ownership, I have watched shift from "Elon is an genius who single handedly brought EVs into common use" to "Elon is an asshole, I will never buy anything produced by any of his companies".  I have had no such changes in judgement/attitude.  Of the perhaps 100 of the Tesla early adopters that I met in the first few years, at least 50% have gone to the other side and are now Elon haters.

Elon, obviously, has many talents.  Perhaps the most obvious of Elon's strategies is  the "break it as early as possible then, just as quickly as possible, make corrections/fixes".  Right behind is Elon's inspiring and then hiring highly talented and motivated personnel to carry out his plans.  Ms Shotwell, SpaceX CEO, is perhaps the most famous of Elon's minions.  However, there are likely thousands of Shotwells working for Elon's companies.

A pelone:  Looking for SpaceX equity?  It is NOT publicly traded and not listed on any stock exchange.  Look at the mutual funds BPTIX/BPTRX.  SpaceX is SUPPOSED to spin off StarLink in a year or two.  I expect it to be a big stock market event.

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.