Loading request...
A Better Route Planner's estimates were inaccurate, leading to unexpected battery drain, especially on uphill routes and in areas with no cell service. The planner should provide more dynamic and accurate range predictions that account for real-world factors like terrain and potential connectivity loss.
My friend and I were on a road trip in my Polestar, and one of our stops was Palm Springs. From there, we headed toward Las Vegas, with a planned charging stop in Primm. We used A Better Route Planner (ABRP), which estimated we'd arrive in Primm with around 15% battery (starting from 90%). That seemed totally manageable—until we got on the road. The route ended up being mostly uphill through the desert, with absolutely no cell service. As we watched the battery percentage drop faster than expected, my friend started getting extremely anxious. She kept glancing at me like, “Why aren’t you panicking?” I had AAA, but it didn’t help that we had no signal to even call them if we got stranded before reaching the interstate. Once we dipped below 12%, there was thankfully a decent downhill stretch before we hit I-15, and we gained back just enough mileage with regenerative braking to keep hope alive. By the time we finally made it to I-15, the battery was so low that the car was limiting performance. Merging onto the freeway was nerve-wracking—we had almost no power to accelerate, and it felt like we were crawling into 70mph traffic with no safety cushion. We could only safely manage about 50mph to conserve what little battery we had left. Many cars were passing us. We rolled into Primm with 1% battery and 3 miles of range.