How to improve the Guess-O-Meter

[JSeis]

… and we’ve been driving for decades with 5 hash marks and gassing up when what? 1/2 a needle past 1/4?

Range, battery %, mi/KWh are easy to understand if you understand % to driving. Otherwise charge up when your at 20% of battery.

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[Gimme_my_MME]

I mean most ice cars don’t tell you how far you can make it.

Most have distance to empty

 

[GoGoGadgetMachE]

I think it would be more useful if it updated its guess in real-time. In winter, it assumes I’m going to use the heat. But sometimes I don’t. If I have the heat off, show me the range with the heat off. When I turn the heat on, drop the range to reflect that. A lot of EV and PHEV GOMs work that way.

To be clear, it does update, just not that drastically. It updates over time. I've literally seen it go up while driving.

You are right though that a lot of cars (including my former Fusion Energi) do change "in real time".

 

[KevinS]

I think it would be more useful if it updated its guess in real-time. In winter, it assumes I’m going to use the heat. But sometimes I don’t. If I have the heat off, show me the range with the heat off. When I turn the heat on, drop the range to reflect that. A lot of EV and PHEV GOMs work that way.

I agree 100% with this. Our 2016 Ford Focus has the ability to show what the current MPG and mi to empty with active feedback to driving conditions. I think just reporting the data live would be a massive help in people understanding that driving habits and climate factors affect range.

If I know to just keep my foot off the pedal a little bit will help me in a measurable way, I'll do it. But I need to know about it first.

 

[GoGoGadgetMachE]

Most have distance to empty

And many will go negative on it, or change to "low" or something at the low end.

An Explorer for example will at least go to -7 miles. ?

 

[Gimme_my_MME]

I think it would be more useful if it updated its guess in real-time. In winter, it assumes I’m going to use the heat. But sometimes I don’t. If I have the heat off, show me the range with the heat off. When I turn the heat on, drop the range to reflect that. A lot of EV and PHEV GOMs work that way.

I forgot which EV showed you how much range you have like a fuel gauge then showed real time as you turned features on and off how much you impacted it

 

[Gimme_my_MME]

And many will go negative on it, or change to "low" or something at the low end.

An Explorer for example will at least go to -7 miles. ?

So will the Mach-E

 

[GoGoGadgetMachE]

So will the Mach-E

I don't have direct personal experience with a GOM below 3mi on the Mach-E.

Yet.

That Explorer experience though, yeah... ?

 

[macchiaz-o]

I think it should just show battery percentage and average kWh. I mean most ice cars don’t tell you how far you can make it. People just intuit it. I know charging is different then fueling up. I hope eventually though we end at a point where it won’t be as big of consideration and we just see battery percentage.

I would like all three: DTE, SOC, and MPK.

It might cause clutter... How 'bout if we could pick any two of those for our driver profile? Or rotate through them with the OK button or something.

I really like seeing distance to empty because I pretty much trust this car's computation to be "close enough to reality" and that helps me know if I'm straying too far away from the nearest fast charger.

 

[Gimme_my_MME]

I don't have direct personal experience with a GOM below 3mi on the Mach-E.

Yet.

That Explorer experience though, yeah... ?

Me either, but luckily someone else did for us. Though if I had a borrowed car I would do it to

"But all is not lost if you are unable to reach a charging station before the indicated range hits zero. In our testing, the Mach-E was able to maintain our set highway speed of 65 mph for 5.8 miles after the instrument panel indicated an empty battery. After this point, the speed began to drop as we ran on whatever the electrical equivalent of fumes is. The Mach-E puttered for another 1.5 miles before it was rendered immobile."
https://www.edmunds.com/car-news/what-happens-when-your-ford-mustang-mach-e-dies.html

 

[generaltso]

I forgot which EV showed you how much range you have like a fuel gauge then showed real time as you turned features on and off how much you impacted it

My wife’s RAV4 Prime shows range with and without HVAC. The Chevy Bolt shows a min and max range based on best/worst case scenario. The IONIQ 5 changes in real-time as you change drive modes or HVAC settings. All of these are still just guesses, but it shows the driver how fluid the estimated range really is based on how they use the car.

 

[GoGoGadgetMachE]

Me either, but luckily someone else did for us. Though if I had a borrowed car I would do it to

"But all is not lost if you are unable to reach a charging station before the indicated range hits zero. In our testing, the Mach-E was able to maintain our set highway speed of 65 mph for 5.8 miles after the instrument panel indicated an empty battery. After this point, the speed began to drop as we ran on whatever the electrical equivalent of fumes is. The Mach-E puttered for another 1.5 miles before it was rendered immobile."
https://www.edmunds.com/car-news/what-happens-when-your-ford-mustang-mach-e-dies.html

Did it show a negative number though? It's not clear to me from reading it.

A current Explorer will literally show a negative number in the range.

I have rented other cars that at say 25 miles left just change to the word "LOW" and I'm like, "damn it this is exactly when I need the number!"

 

[Gimme_my_MME]

My wife’s RAV4 Prime shows range with and without HVAC. The Chevy Bolt shows a min and max range based on best/worst case scenario. The IONIQ 5 changes in real-time as you change drive modes or HVAC settings. All of these are still just guesses, but it shows the driver how fluid the estimated range really is based on how they use the car.

Do you know if those customers are happy with those types of displays or are their forums still full of "What's happening?!?"

 

[JamieGeek]

I forgot which EV showed you how much range you have like a fuel gauge then showed real time as you turned features on and off how much you impacted it

The Focus Electric had a really cool "Status" display that was a +/- value meaning different things:

• If nothing was set in the nav the Status value was the difference between the "full" range and your projected range now. This gameified your driving incentivizing you to drive more efficiently each time (always want a positive status value)
• If a destination was set in the nav the status was the difference between the current projected range (e.g. GOM value) and the distance to the waypoint. Thus if status was <0 you're not going to make it (e.g. slow down). If status was >0 it was how far you could go beyond the waypoint.

Once you understood how status worked it was a cool way to know your efficiency at a glance.

I liked it a lot and wish the Mach-E had something similar...

 

[Gimme_my_MME]

Did it show a negative number though? It's not clear to me from reading it.

A current Explorer will literally show a negative number in the range.

I have rented other cars that at say 25 miles left just change to the word "LOW" and I'm like, "damn it this is exactly when I need the number!"

Good point, I'm not sure if it goes negative. And now I really want to know but not enough to test it myself.

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