Tesla now includes wind speeds, air density, and humidity in battery range remaining estimates

After including weather and elevation in its post-trip energy remaining calculations, now Tesla has added more external factors to account for when it gives you a range estimate before and after a set journey with its EVs. According to renowned Tesla-hacking personality Green, the new 2022.8.2 update brings with it not only new interface elements and preconditioning changes for Teslas with LFP batteries, but also adds more environmental scenarios to the range estimate guessing game. Teslas with the new software, possibly only in China for now, will be able to account for headwinds and crosswinds, as well as humidity and even air density when they try to calculate and visualize the energy expenditure of a trip.

Granted, these additions are unlikely to dramatically increase the accuracy of the battery energy remaining estimates, but they are not without merit either, and present a more complete picture to avoid overly optimistic numbers as so often happens during Tesla road trips now. As to why does Green mention the new feature may be China-bound for now, is anyone's guess, yet Tesla often uses its presence in the country for testing new options that, for one reason or another, would be harder or more expensive to do on this side of the pond.

The speculation is that China's Baidu mapping service integrates weather data on the back end, and that's what made the feature possible there first. In any case, Tesla's otherwise fairly credible range estimates have reportedly been rather off in the presence of strong headwinds, so the new update will at the very least remedy the accuracy in those situations.

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