Did John Broder (NYT) sandbag Tesla?

[Dauntless]

So he won't ever buy a Tesla. There are worse things.

 

[TylerDurden]

Tesla Road Trip - debunking the New York Times
SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 17, 2013
Xander Walker
Strassenversion

"After arranging the cars in some classic internet meet-up poses, we headed out on the highway and began the journey. Seven cars left Rockville with two planning on only making the trip to the Delaware Supercharger station because of prior commitments that night. Four or five more Tesla Model S would meet the convoy in Delaware and continue on the journey. I managed to get a ride in one of the Delaware bound cars and enjoyed my first ride in an all-electric car. "

http://strassenversion.blogspot.sg/2013/02/tesla-road-trip-debunking-new-york-times.html

 

[John in CR]

Thanks for the link TD. I love it.... "The term "Brodering" was coined: running out of power due to human error, or generally dropping the ball when dealing with electric cars."....

We should help make sure this term sticks. I try to avoid Brodering, but if I slip up at least now I know what to call it.

John

 

[liveforphysics]

I love how Broder claims he was told that he didn't need to worry if the cars reported range was lower than he needed to go, because frequent stop/start driving would use regenerative braking and recharge the battery pack. What a freaking moron.

Not really a "moron", but not yet educated to EVs (or physics)--just like almost everyone besides those of us actively using or developing EVs.

I think that if Tesla and other EV manufacturers took the time to make an "Idiot's Guide to EVs", especially a simplistic video course they could show to all potential buyers and testers well before actual driving, with a Q&A session afterwards headed by someone that can actually explain things (and actually understands them themselves!), there would be a lot less misunderstandings and problems like this article.


But I think that most people dealing with EVs on a manufacturing scale either don't care whether people really understand them or not, or they dont' *want* them to, and want them to think of them exactly like ICE-powered cars, when they're not.

I dont believe it was anything like that. I believe he set out with the goal in mind to make a story about an electric car failing from the get-go.

 

[Joseph C.]

I dont believe it was anything like that. I believe he set out with the goal in mind to make a story about an electric car failing from the get-go.

Yep, he completely fails the reasonable man test - only a crony judge would let him off if it made it to court.

No one in their right mind would spend a quarter of an hour driving around a car park when the fuel gauge reads empty unless they had an agenda.

 

[John in CR]

I love how Broder claims he was told that he didn't need to worry if the cars reported range was lower than he needed to go, because frequent stop/start driving would use regenerative braking and recharge the battery pack. What a freaking moron.

Not really a "moron", but not yet educated to EVs (or physics)--just like almost everyone besides those of us actively using or developing EVs.

I think that if Tesla and other EV manufacturers took the time to make an "Idiot's Guide to EVs", especially a simplistic video course they could show to all potential buyers and testers well before actual driving, with a Q&A session afterwards headed by someone that can actually explain things (and actually understands them themselves!), there would be a lot less misunderstandings and problems like this article.


But I think that most people dealing with EVs on a manufacturing scale either don't care whether people really understand them or not, or they dont' *want* them to, and want them to think of them exactly like ICE-powered cars, when they're not.

I dont believe it was anything like that. I believe he set out with the goal in mind to make a story about an electric car failing from the get-go.

...and paid well to do it. There's just too much money involved for those who benefit from slow adoption of EV's.

 

[Hillhater]

Yep, he completely fails the reasonable man test - only a crony judge would let him off if it made it to court.

No one in their right mind would spend a quarter of an hour driving around a car park when the fuel gauge reads empty unless they had an agenda.

Not taking sides here, but there is a lot of mis-information on both sides.
for instance...
Where did the "quarter of an hour driving around a car park" .. come from ? ?
..Even Musks ( understandably biased) analysis of the data , only said it was "half a mile" ,.
.....(which in a strange car park, looking for a charge point, is quite possible)

My personal take on this whole saga is that all newspapers are under enormous pressure from falling sales figures, and hence are prone to publishing more controversial articles in order to draw attention to themselves to win back readers.

 

[TheBeastie]

I always been a huge fan of Anandtech especially articles written by Anand him self, non the less it looks like Anands connections have come up with quite a good article about the EV performance/Tesla and NY Times understanding of EVs.
http://www.anandtech.com/show/6759/tesla-model-s-effects-of-temperature-on-ev-efficiency-and-range