ProPilot using more charge?

I’ve been noticing on my 2018 SL that using propilot seems to use more charge. My commute to work is 94km one way. If I use propilot and go no faster than 95km/h I’ll get to work with 56-58% remaining. If I drive myself and don’t exceed 105km/h I’ll get to work with 63-65% remaining.

This has been verified with multiple trips and myself and my wife driving.

Anyone else notice this?

NavyCuda said:

I’ve been noticing on my 2018 SL that using propilot seems to use more charge. My commute to work is 94km one way. If I use propilot and go no faster than 95km/h I’ll get to work with 56-58% remaining. If I drive myself and don’t exceed 105km/h I’ll get to work with 63-65% remaining.

This has been verified with multiple trips and myself and my wife driving.

Anyone else notice this?

Click to expand...

If that is true then they have some very inefficient system. In reality there should be no noticable difference.

Can't speak about ProPilot, but I've noticed the Adaptive Cruise Control on my Honda Clarity responds much more clumsily than I do. Rather than gradually slow down as the traffic ahead slows, it seems to wait until the magic car length has been breached then it slows much harder, over slows a bit, and then takes a long time to recover once traffic speed resumes. And since it over slowed, it then has to do more acceleration to get back up to speed or reach the magic car length it is looking for. I haven't measured the efficiency aspect as you have done, but I can see how the different driving behavior would adversely impact efficiency. The Clarity PHEV lacks a battery % display, only presenting bars, so rather difficult to measure unless I bother to use the phone to get a more accurate reading. I guess they figure that since it can run on gas that level of granularity in battery level info wasn't that important.

This stuff is still bleeding edge tech and has a good bit of development room.

@darthpuppy

I think you’re on to something. The adaptive cruise in the Leaf is excellent at holding an exact distance, but it will exactly follow the driver ahead.

The wife and I both believe it has to do with the way propilot will stab the throttle or the brakes and isn’t always smooth in its application of throttle or brake.

The majority of the time I’m on highway with no interruptions or traffic.

I haven't noticed a drop with PP on, but it's usually on and I don't drive a lot of miles. I do agree that adaptive cruise is the likely culprit. It pretty much has to be...

LeftieBiker said:

I haven't noticed a drop with PP on, but it's usually on and I don't drive a lot of miles. I do agree that adaptive cruise is the likely culprit. It pretty much has to be...

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It’s the only rational explanation because I use it extensively. It’s been a struggle driving the car the whole time to test this theory.

Had it 9 weeks, 11400km on it.

NavyCuda said:

LeftieBiker said:

I haven't noticed a drop with PP on, but it's usually on and I don't drive a lot of miles. I do agree that adaptive cruise is the likely culprit. It pretty much has to be...

Click to expand...

It’s the only rational explanation because I use it extensively. It’s been a struggle driving the car the whole time to test this theory.

Had it 9 weeks, 11400km on it.

Click to expand...

Wow, at first I thought you added a zero to the mileage, but then noticed your commute distance. Will be interesting to see how your battery holds up, as you are on track to hit almost 66k km/year, or about 41k miles/year.

Are you tracking it with LeafSpy? Your experience may give an early indicator for what's to come for the rest of us "average 12k miles/year drivers".

booper said:

NavyCuda said:

LeftieBiker said:

I haven't noticed a drop with PP on, but it's usually on and I don't drive a lot of miles. I do agree that adaptive cruise is the likely culprit. It pretty much has to be...

Click to expand...

It’s the only rational explanation because I use it extensively. It’s been a struggle driving the car the whole time to test this theory.

Had it 9 weeks, 11400km on it.

Click to expand...

Wow, at first I thought you added a zero to the mileage, but then noticed your commute distance. Will be interesting to see how your battery holds up, as you are on track to hit almost 66k km/year, or about 41k miles/year.

Are you tracking it with LeafSpy? Your experience may give an early indicator for what's to come for the rest of us "average 12k miles/year drivers".

Click to expand...

15,100km as of today. No I don’t use Leafspy. Dashcam is on my list first.

It's entirely possible that Propilot is eating up that much energy. One of the issues that AVs will have to deal with is the large amount of power that their sensors and computing will require. While this will presumably reduce over time as the tech gets better, it will be a problem as AVs are required to do more and more, e.g.

SELF-DRIVING CARS USE CRAZY AMOUNTS OF POWER, AND IT'S BECOMING A PROBLEM

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https://www.wired.com/story/self-driving-cars-power-consumption-nvidia-chip/

A prototype with non-production equipment is an absolute joke comparison. The model 3 does not use crazy power and the only added load would be some additional processing power and some minimal braking at best. EPS is already used and is low drain. Everything else is already presently running, A new chip will add additional drain but nothing like that of a test car loaded with lab equipment. The only issue is for researchers and test cars.

I’m hesitant to believe propilot uses more than 100wh, even that is pretty high. It’s a very simple system in terms of its capabilities. The other sensors are always in operation anyways so there would be no effect on consumption there. To put it in context a 15w apu should be able to handle all the calculations and have processing power to spare.

NavyCuda said:

I’ve been noticing on my 2018 SL that using propilot seems to use more charge. My commute to work is 94km one way. If I use propilot and go no faster than 95km/h I’ll get to work with 56-58% remaining. If I drive myself and don’t exceed 105km/h I’ll get to work with 63-65% remaining.

This has been verified with multiple trips and myself and my wife driving.

Anyone else notice this?

Click to expand...

Based on calculations I have done previously using a 1000-W processing load (the maximum I consider conceivable in a modern car), it would take about three hours to consume 10% of the energy in the 2018 LEAF's battery. It appears your one-way commute only lasts about an hour or so, so it seems unlikely the extra 7% is due to processing.

Perhaps about 1% of the loss is due to processing and the rest is due to driving inefficiency.