North America 2021 Roadtrip #1: The Bergmans, Kennedy Space Center, Key West and the Tesla Autopilot Experience
I left Nashville in the rain, and it didn’t get much better along the way. Not a good harbinger for the rest of the trip I hope!
In the car’s built-in navigation system, I set the destination for my friend Noel J. Bergman’s house in Columbia, South Carolina and let the car choose its path and charging stops along the way. I’ll make a separate post and a video about the Tesla supercharger experience. In summary, one of the key reasons that Tesla has been successful is the rollout of a global high-speed charging network. I know with certainty that I can just get in the car, enter my destination and the car will get me where I need to go and indicate the places where I should briefly stop to charge up along the way. This is not the case for any other electric vehicle, and the experiences of the owners of those cars bears it out. EVs are still in the infancy stage of the S curve at less than 3% of new car sales, and will not be widely adopted until charging is readily available, rapid and easy.
The trip planning system built into the car is excellent, but of course there is an alternative called A Better Route Planner, that claims to provide a more optimized trip solution for many models of electric car along with advanced routing options. www.abetterrouteplanner.com As I get more comfortable with the car, I’ll give it a try to compare & contrast.
Heading towards my first Tesla Supercharger stop in Knoxville, it was bucketing down rain and traffic was at a standstill for 15 minutes due to a huge multiple semi truck and car wreck. Be safe out there people!
After a while the rain let up and I put the car into Autopilot self-driving mode for the first time. www.tesla.com/autopilot Now you may have heard some controversy about Autopilot. First, the word Autopilot itself. Some people say that’s the wrong word to use because they think it means you can just fall asleep and the car should drive you right to your destination. Let’s actually look up the word and think about its meaning.
Wikipedia says “An autopilot is a system used to control the path of an aircraft, marine craft or spacecraft without requiring constant manual control by a human operator. Autopilots do not replace human operators. Instead, the autopilot assists the operator’s control of the vehicle, allowing the operator to focus on broader aspects of operations (for example, monitoring the trajectory, weather and on-board systems).”
The Federal Aviation Administration says “While the autopilot relieves you from manually manipulating the flight controls, you must maintain vigilance over the system to ensure that it performs the intended functions and the aircraft remains within acceptable parameters of altitudes, airspeeds, and airspace limits. An autopilot can be capable of many very time intensive tasks, helping the pilot focus on the overall status of the aircraft and flight.”
It is exactly the same thing driving a Tesla while in Autopilot! When engaged, you must always have your hands on the steering wheel and be ready to take over at any time to avoid an incident. The car will warn you if it doesn’t sense your hands on the wheel and if you continue to ignore the warning it will safely bring the car to a stop. This has happened multiple times already when drivers have had a medical issue or fallen asleep. This is the proper response, not a bad thing! Elon’s #1 goal is to make every Tesla the safest car on the road. This goes from the design of the chassis achieving perfect 5 star crash ratings, to the passive and active safety systems. Right now, Teslas are already 9 TIMES safer than driving any other car.
The autopilot system is not perfect yet, nor is it described as perfect, so it’s your job to fly the car while letting the 8 cameras and state-of-the-art computer do things like provide voice navigation guidance, keep you in your lane, maintain speed in traffic and alert you to any dangers. After driving with it for just a few hours, I realized it’s actually my job to understand its capabilities and limitations, allowing me to trust it more and more over time. By the afternoon I was still vigilant but comfortable letting it do its thing with steering and speed control. There is yet a higher level of driving assistance in beta testing right now called Full Self Driving, or FSD, that I’ll describe in another post, and trust me, it will blow your mind.
I stopped at the supercharger stations in Knoxville and Ashville and arrived at Noel’s after dark. I had a nice chat with his family until everyone headed for bed. In the morning I set out for Kennedy Space Center, stopping at the Columbia and Yulee superchargers along the way.
I picked up an insider’s discount ticket via my friend Rose Dutson Lovell Atkinson and met up with my friend Martha Geisler and we headed to the KSC Visitor Center, The rain continued through the day so we ran from building to building, hitting the movies and exhibits. Due to COVID the bus ride to the Apollo center didn’t go past the SpaceX pad, but I saw it last time I was here. I could barely make out the SpaceX launch complex through the pouring rain, as you may be able to see in the picture. Unfortunately I was a few days late to see the launch of the Inspiration 4 mission with the four civilian astronauts who were doing a fundraising effort for St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital. After splashdown, Elon said he was chipping in $50 million that he found in coins under his couch cushions…
I stayed overnight in Martha’s under-renovation house and in the morning I flew the drone around her property and got a good view of how the previous owner had cut a section of the roof out to allow a tree to grow within inches of the side wall of the house!
I headed south and stopped at the West Palm Beach and Florida City superchargers before arriving in Key West. As I was driving from key to key I think I spotted the section they blew up making “True Lies.” This is my first time in Key West and it has been on my bucket list for a long time. I’m here for 5 days, walking around the historic neighbourhoods and on the lookout for Ernest Hemingway’s polydactyl cats – thanks to Rose – Google it! The marina is beautiful and the live music scene is great, reminding me of 6th Street in Austin back in the day. I booked a ticket for a glass bottom boat sunset cruise and need to find the Arcimoto 3-wheel electric motorcycle rental place, as I’m a shareholder and want to experience a ride before I visit the factory in Eugene Oregon.
Next up – Tampa and Panama City with Sharon McClellan Thomason
