{"id":140214,"date":"2019-10-09T16:14:24","date_gmt":"2019-10-09T20:14:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.thedetroitbureau.com\/?p=140214"},"modified":"2019-10-09T16:14:24","modified_gmt":"2019-10-09T20:14:24","slug":"tesla-warns-california-owners-to-fully-charge-cars-due-to-power-outage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/2019\/10\/tesla-warns-california-owners-to-fully-charge-cars-due-to-power-outage\/","title":{"rendered":"Tesla Warns California Owners to Fully Charge Cars Due to Power Outage"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Tesla sent out an alert to California owners telling them to fully charge their vehicles.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Tesla\u2019s often been called a Silicon Valley tech company that makes cars instead of an automaker and two happenings this week may illustrate why, at the very least, Tesla\u2019s a different kind of company.<\/p>\n

The company sent a warning to all owners in California to charge their vehicles to full capacity, instead of leaving them just shy of the maximum that Tesla and other EV owners typically do to improve the life of the vehicle\u2019s battery.<\/p>\n

It sent the note after California\u2019s Pacific Gas & Electric revealed it was planning on cutting power to more than 800,000 customers later in the day. If you own an electric vehicle, a lack of electricity can be problematic.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

(NHTSA Investigating Problem With Tesla Battery Update)<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

The utility was cutting the power due to dry and windy conditions the Golden State is experiencing, hoping to prevent a repeat of last year when electrical lines sparked wildfires contributing the massive Paradise wildfire.<\/p>\n

Tesla got proactive after the alert from the utility, issuing an in-car alert warning owners to charge their vehicles fully ahead of the outage. Tesla is also activating the \u201cStorm Watch\u201d feature on its PowerWall to store excess electricity before the power is cut off, Reuters reported.<\/p>\n

This type of engagement with customers is certainly more attributable to Tesla and its over-the-air updates for its vehicles than its EV-producing competition. By charging to full, Tesla owners are likely to have enough charge to get around town as they normally would without a problem.<\/p>\n

The company also noted that if drivers do happen to start running low on juice, it can check the superchargers in the area to see if they are active, the company noted.<\/p>\n

(Tesla\u2019s Smart Summon Failing Some Early Tests)<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n

However, if one of the moves is to use the newly installed Smart Summon feature on the car, Consumer Reports is warning that it may not perform as expected, calling the feature \u201cglitchy.\u201d The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is looking into several complaints it received from owners who had problems with the new system.<\/p>\n

Jake Fisher, senior director of auto testing for Consumer Reports, says users are not getting fully tested, consumer-ready technology. Tesla owners are non-voluntary beta testers helping to fine-tune the technology. The system costs $6,000, and it\u2019s not necessarily ready for prime time.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat consumers are really getting is the chance to participate in a kind of science experiment,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is a work in progress.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Smart Summon feature is hitting some snags. Actually, it\u2019s hitting other cars, garages and in many cases causing some close calls that leave owners and other drivers clutching their chests as their hearts attempt to beat through them.<\/p>\n

(Musk, Tesla Violated Federal Labor Laws)<\/a><\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

Tesla CEO Elon Musk did say last month before it was released that the system would improve, and that\u2019s the case he\u2019s made for many of the innovative features on Tesla vehicles is that they will get better over time.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tesla\u2019s often been called a Silicon Valley tech company that makes cars instead of an automaker and two happenings this week may illustrate why. The company sent a warning to all owners in California to charge their vehicles to full capacity to ensure they had enough juice to get through the outage. Find out what else happened at TheDetroitBureau.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4389,"featured_media":132414,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,8,5,12,9],"tags":[],"make":[110],"post-state":[],"category_old":[118,150,151,313,123,131,319,155,132,148,291,207,288],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140214"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4389"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=140214"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/140214\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/132414"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=140214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=140214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=140214"},{"taxonomy":"make","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/make?post=140214"},{"taxonomy":"post-state","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/post-state?post=140214"},{"taxonomy":"category_old","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedetroitbureau.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/category_old?post=140214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}