Lekfx
Well-Known Member
- First Name
- Lek
- Joined
- Nov 21, 2021
- Threads
- 2
- Messages
- 61
- Reaction score
- 65
- Location
- Santa Barbara
- Vehicles
- BMW X3e, e-surfboard, Taycan GTS Sport Turismo
- Thread starter
- #1
Here is my tragic tale. If you don’t feel like you’re an early adopter, this saga may have you feel otherwise.
Tonight I was invited to join a friend to attend a discussion at University of California, Santa Barbara on artificial intelligence and Neurotechnology. It was fascinating. So now that that’s out-of-the-way, let’s get to the real meat of this: my friend can’t drive at night because of some vision issues. I offered to go pick him up, head to a restaurant to have a quick dinner, run up to the campus, endure the talk, then drop him back at home, and come home. I knew that my Sport Turismo GTS had about 40 miles left in the battery. This should be just about enough to comfortably make it home. Rain was expected later that evening.
Are you feeling me yet?
Everything went fine and it looked like I would have about five or 6 miles left in the battery by the time I got home. I was wrong. When I dropped him off, I had 2 miles left on the battery range estimation, but I was about 4 miles from home! I did my best to drive like a hyper-miler, coasting down lots of hills, super light throttle, surface streets not the freeway… But I got the red colored warning to pull over and park safely about a mile and a half from my home.
And it was raining HARD.
OK, no need to get home immediately and this could be seen as a great way to understand the dynamics of running out of power and the support system existing to help us get to a safe charging situation. Cool! I called AAA and their friendly idiot robot (So ironic after the lecture I just enjoyed) asked me what kind of car I was driving and I told it and it seemed to work. I told it that I needed a battery service (the only option from the menu that was relevant) and they connected me to a local tow service for roadside assistance. I called them directly and spoke to them to make sure they understood that this was a BATTERY POWERED car and not an ICE vehicle. The woman I spoke to used the word jumpstart very quickly and I corrected her VERY clearly that this was NOT a jumpstart situation, but rather a dead battery in an electric car. I asked her if they had a battery charging device that could give me a boost to get my 2 miles of range so I could get home safely and plug-in. (AAA says they carry 5-mile charger devices) She transferred me to a gentleman at the tow yard and I made it VERY clear what I needed and he said “yes we can do that”. I was not too surprised because I do live in beautiful Santa Barbara, a very forward-thinking and sophisticated place with an absolute TON of plug-in vehicles.
OK, I’m feeling pretty good now. I’m sitting in my car in the rain with my flashers on. 35 minutes later Mike shows up with a JUMPSTART!!! Incredible… so now I decide to try Porsches SOS service. OK, this should work, after all, I bought my car from them! How hard could it be? I spoke with a lovely woman in Europe (!) who connected me with the California guy (who sounded like he was on his couch, in his robe. The Dude Abides!) The best they could do is offer to tow me to the dealer which was six times farther than my house and closed, without a public charger available. Great. They offered to tow me to my home, for an extra charge (!), and I’m not talking Electrical Charge! I hung up in deep frustration after explaining to the young man that this offer was absolutely useless. (A fun side note on Porsche’s bot: the BOT asks you to enter a number on a keypad to choose from a menu. THERE IS NO KEYPAD!!! There is NO way to select 1, or 2, or god forbid 3! and it gets worse. Goood luck)
I decided to take my chances and drive home.
It was my finest exercise in hyper ming. I have to say, it went pretty well, with timing the lights just right and taking advantage of any downhill, but the last 850 feet of my drive home is a very steep 15% to 20% grade Uphill. The car barely crept up the last 300 feet, but made it to my driveway where I could dock my car in the garage and plug it in. WHEW! Lesson learned!
I really hope I didn’t damage my battery, but it was really the only viable option. Rather than towing the car, and risking damage to it, to the dealership and coming back the next morning to ask them to plug it in and charge it and then waiting and then driving home. I just didn’t see that happening.
So I learned my lesson, don’t overestimate your range and give yourself a buffer, and keep that damn thing charged up for unexpected situations like this. I also learn more about the likely threats and possible advantages of artificial unintelligence. But this is not the forum for that subject. YMMV.
Tonight I was invited to join a friend to attend a discussion at University of California, Santa Barbara on artificial intelligence and Neurotechnology. It was fascinating. So now that that’s out-of-the-way, let’s get to the real meat of this: my friend can’t drive at night because of some vision issues. I offered to go pick him up, head to a restaurant to have a quick dinner, run up to the campus, endure the talk, then drop him back at home, and come home. I knew that my Sport Turismo GTS had about 40 miles left in the battery. This should be just about enough to comfortably make it home. Rain was expected later that evening.
Are you feeling me yet?
Everything went fine and it looked like I would have about five or 6 miles left in the battery by the time I got home. I was wrong. When I dropped him off, I had 2 miles left on the battery range estimation, but I was about 4 miles from home! I did my best to drive like a hyper-miler, coasting down lots of hills, super light throttle, surface streets not the freeway… But I got the red colored warning to pull over and park safely about a mile and a half from my home.
And it was raining HARD.
OK, no need to get home immediately and this could be seen as a great way to understand the dynamics of running out of power and the support system existing to help us get to a safe charging situation. Cool! I called AAA and their friendly idiot robot (So ironic after the lecture I just enjoyed) asked me what kind of car I was driving and I told it and it seemed to work. I told it that I needed a battery service (the only option from the menu that was relevant) and they connected me to a local tow service for roadside assistance. I called them directly and spoke to them to make sure they understood that this was a BATTERY POWERED car and not an ICE vehicle. The woman I spoke to used the word jumpstart very quickly and I corrected her VERY clearly that this was NOT a jumpstart situation, but rather a dead battery in an electric car. I asked her if they had a battery charging device that could give me a boost to get my 2 miles of range so I could get home safely and plug-in. (AAA says they carry 5-mile charger devices) She transferred me to a gentleman at the tow yard and I made it VERY clear what I needed and he said “yes we can do that”. I was not too surprised because I do live in beautiful Santa Barbara, a very forward-thinking and sophisticated place with an absolute TON of plug-in vehicles.
OK, I’m feeling pretty good now. I’m sitting in my car in the rain with my flashers on. 35 minutes later Mike shows up with a JUMPSTART!!! Incredible… so now I decide to try Porsches SOS service. OK, this should work, after all, I bought my car from them! How hard could it be? I spoke with a lovely woman in Europe (!) who connected me with the California guy (who sounded like he was on his couch, in his robe. The Dude Abides!) The best they could do is offer to tow me to the dealer which was six times farther than my house and closed, without a public charger available. Great. They offered to tow me to my home, for an extra charge (!), and I’m not talking Electrical Charge! I hung up in deep frustration after explaining to the young man that this offer was absolutely useless. (A fun side note on Porsche’s bot: the BOT asks you to enter a number on a keypad to choose from a menu. THERE IS NO KEYPAD!!! There is NO way to select 1, or 2, or god forbid 3! and it gets worse. Goood luck)
I decided to take my chances and drive home.
It was my finest exercise in hyper ming. I have to say, it went pretty well, with timing the lights just right and taking advantage of any downhill, but the last 850 feet of my drive home is a very steep 15% to 20% grade Uphill. The car barely crept up the last 300 feet, but made it to my driveway where I could dock my car in the garage and plug it in. WHEW! Lesson learned!
I really hope I didn’t damage my battery, but it was really the only viable option. Rather than towing the car, and risking damage to it, to the dealership and coming back the next morning to ask them to plug it in and charge it and then waiting and then driving home. I just didn’t see that happening.
So I learned my lesson, don’t overestimate your range and give yourself a buffer, and keep that damn thing charged up for unexpected situations like this. I also learn more about the likely threats and possible advantages of artificial unintelligence. But this is not the forum for that subject. YMMV.
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