Car looses its brain in Autopilot.

As we jumped back onto I-40 I put the vehicle in Autopilot for the long drive ahead. Within a few minutes the car slowed and simultaneously tried to change into the passing lane as it was braking. I aborted the maneuver and put the car back onto autopilot. This problem repeated which was annoying but then the car did something quite dangerous, as it was returning to the right hand lane it suddenly slowed and returned to the passing lane, the car behind must have been very confused. This could have caused an accident. I stopped using Autopilot after this, even cruise control only was unreliable. t puzzled me what had changed from the first two days where Autopilot worked very well on the interstate.

At our first stop I cleaned the windscreen and all the cameras thoroughly. Unfortunately this did not fix the issue either. As a last resort I re-calibrated the cameras. I have not used Autopilot since re-calibration, I just don’t want the car doing something crazy while we are in the wilderness with no cell signal. I may not use Autopilot again until we are close to Nashville again. I suspect a camera maybe going bad requiring service, something I don’t want to do while on a road trip.

Amarillo to Tucumcari

The cars nav indicated we could make Santa Rosa in one charge. I chose to stop sooner to top off at Tucumcari. This allowed me to drive as fast as I needed rather than eek out a few extra miles. There must have been over fifty miles of wind turbines, Texas have a massive amount of wind energy.

Tucumcari to Santa Rosa

The landscape has now changed from Texas ranch lands to a mesa landscape with much less signs of civilization. We have now entered a true wilderness. It is very eerie.

Santa Rosa to Albuquerque – Navigation mis routes us to wrong supercharger.

The suggested charging stop at Albuquerque was a few miles off the interstate. When we plugged in the charge rate was very poor, it suggested a fifty minute charging session. The station we were routed to is a 150 kW V2 charging station. I knew from planning our journey we should be at a 250 kW V3 station. I looked how close alternate stations were and just a few miles down the road was a V3 station with plenty of open stalls. I unplugged quickly and went down the road saving at least 30 minutes. I have no idea why the Tesla navigation routed me to a busy V2 station when a lightly used V3 station was available and closer to the interstate. Elon there is a glitch in the matrix.

Albuquerque to Gallup via “Route 66 sign” at Grants.

The wilderness continues as we climb through mountain passes into Gallup. About half way to Gallup we stopped at Grants. Grants have erected an elaborate sign that one can park your car under for a Route 66 photo opportunity. This is no doubt an effort to save the city of Grants from becoming a ghost town. After I-40 took all the traffic off route 66, many of the cities that grew up around the trade the traffic brought have fallen on hard times and are sad looking. Let’s hope this sign can save Grants.

When we stopped at the Gallup supercharger we didn’t have to look too far for a hotel for the night. The Supercharger is in the parking lot of a Best Western.