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Comment by zero_intp | Hacker News Reader

In my opinion, a damning comment in the journalists rebuttal causes him to lose all credibility on it's own. "Mr. Musk has referred to a “long detour” on my trip. He is apparently referring to a brief stop in Manhattan on my way to Connecticut that, according to Google Maps, added precisely two miles to the overall distance traveled from the Delaware Supercharger to Milford (202 miles with the stop versus 200 miles had I taken the George Washington Bridge instead of the Lincoln Tunnel)."

Anyone who has driven this trip knows that a "2 mile detour" into Manhattan will cost them an hour+ of their lives, and a quarter of their soul, much less a stop and go hell ride. A true testament to his disinginuity is his pretending to think that stop and go is more efficient than highway mileage. He has no place as an energy reporter unless acting as a shill.

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> A true testament to his disinginuity is his pretending to think that stop and go is more efficient than highway mileage. He has no place as an energy reporter unless acting as a shill.

Why is everyone here conflating gas-powered machines with EVs? There's a reason Tesla recommended he slow down and go through a city. There's a reason the Prius has a higher mileage rating for city driving than highway driving.

The reason is that driving faster requires proportionally more energy. It's always been that simple. The reason cities have historical given poor mileage is because of energy wastage from idling and from braking, both of which many EVs (incl. Tesla's) can minimize the energy loss from.

The data doesn't show a significant loss of charge when he was in NYC, though(which, I believe, is around the 250 mile mark). His speed is all over the place, which would be consistent with stop and go city driving, but there isn't any significant drop in range or battery charge.

So the 2 mile detour didn't appear to do anything except add 2 miles to the total distance. As far as the data shows, highway driving is actually not more efficient than stop and go traffic.

Stop and go may be inefficient since it takes a lot of energy to get a still car moving. Regenerative braking can't capture all of the energy lost when decelerating. That said, city driving may still be more efficient than highway in an electric vehicle. Note that the speed which maximizes fuel efficiency for most vehicles is around 30mph. So driving 60 on the highway isn't as good as driving consistently 30mph. Depending on how much speed deviates from 30mph and how good the regenerative braking is, fuel efficiency could plausibly be higher at 30mph with some stop and go than a consistent 60mph.

Of course, I imagine Manhattan is not the place to test this hypothesis...

That's bullshit. Traffic isn't that bad in manhattan. I've driven there for 10+ years now. Two miles is going crosstown. At worst it might take you half an hour. Typically, it's more like 15 minutes.

Not really. After his stop he went up the FDR or West Side Highway to head to Conn. The highway traffic usually moves just fine.

I found that interesting in the other direction. Elon Musk originally claimed it was a "long detour." When Broder pushed back, the "long detour" claim went away; now it's just a "unplanned detour" through Manhattan.

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