Ownership Verified: NooDle’s EV take 2 : The Mullet (Kia EV6)

[NooDle]

More battery / charging weirdness discovered.
As EV drivers know, keeping a chargepoint occupied when not charging is poor form, not done and punishable by death by stoning.
However, as I discovered, apparently there are still charging spots that are free to park, so you are kind of incentivised to stay there for longer.
I thought I had the obvious sneaky solution : set the car to charge more slowly, which gives you more time to faff around at the beach while still getting free parking. Because free is free, right.
SInce my car's last update, I got some actual numbers, although these are still vague.... Before it said "charge speed : maximum, normal, or slow", and now it says 100%, 80% or 60%.
Thinking this would relate to kW speed, this would give me 11 kw, 8,8 kw or 6,6 kw respectively, giving me almost twice the charge time.
Unfortunately it's all bollocks and the car happily charged at 10,9 kw on 3 phase as usual (it never does the full 11 kw for some reason).
Then, upon arriving at home, I plugged (on my 1 phase charger) in and it charged at 4,4 kw, which is exactly 60% of the "normal" full speed of 7,4 kw. So I guess it's an amperage thing and not a kW thing, which doesn't make sense?
Max amps it can take is 32, so by lowering it, it limits itself to 19A, which means fuck all if you use 3 phase, since it's 16A on all phases.
I wonder if this is a deliberate thing or an error, but it seems very strange?

 

[eizbaer]

I wonder if this is a deliberate thing or an error, but it seems very strange?

I think this is kia being lazy and not thinking the feature through, properly. Cause you clearly found out what they were doing (limiting amps), and also clearly found what they forgot to think about: that it's 16A max on 3p and thus, on a 3p connection, their limits should be halved.

... could be that in their home market, where the car and its software are developed, all charging happens on 1p only, like it usually does in the US? hence the people actually making that feature don't even know about that limitation they fell victim to. I'd attribute it to laziness...

 

[NooDle]

Yay update. And since we were talking about how to turn warning beeps off, this sounds good. Until you read the last paragraph

soooo....

 

[Perc]

The ever resourceful Chinese have developed a defeat device for Volkswagens, that goes between the stop/start button and the wiring harness. It "pushes the button for you" after every startup.
I guess the markets are ripe for these kinds of things for every make and model. Imagine if you could program it to turn off and on exactly the features you want every time the car powers up.

 

[Matt2000]

That's genius. It'll be a tiny microcontroller that really will just pretend to be the button. Came across something similar the other day when someone was hacking an old SNES as they needed a sequence of button presses. Shame it won't be as easy for touch screen interfaces with multiple sub-menus.

 

[NooDle]

Well thats neat and all but since it’s technically a safety feature and turning it off has all sorts of legal consequenses I’ll probably pass on this sort of thing. You can give yourself a little leeway on the speed limit beeping thing so I’ll probably start there

 

[Perc]

Yeah it’s technically illegal to program my tail lights to always be on with the daytime lights because it’s a part of the “emissions system”. One year of driving with the rear leds on in daytime probably burns less diesel than me starting the Webasto once. And I use that several times a day all winter long. And it came with it from the factory.

Rules, sense, they make none.

 

[NooDle]

Thinking this would relate to kW speed, this would give me 11 kw, 8,8 kw or 6,6 kw respectively, giving me almost twice the charge time.
Unfortunately it's all bollocks and the car happily charged at 10,9 kw on 3 phase as usual (it never does the full 11 kw for some reason).
Then, upon arriving at home, I plugged (on my 1 phase charger) in and it charged at 4,4 kw, which is exactly 60% of the "normal" full speed of 7,4 kw. So I guess it's an amperage thing and not a kW thing, which doesn't make sense?

Disregard all of this. I tried it again on a public 11 kw 3 phase charger yesterday, and it worked exactly like it should.
For some reason the charger only put out 9 kw, but setting the thing at 60% gave me exactly what I asked for. So there's something else going on that I'm not quite sure of how it works.

Why not just give me a kw or A slider to play with Kia? Tesla does this, and it works just fine, they even show you how many amps are being used currently...
Also I don't see why they should choose the charging speed, if I want to charge at 8A because of a daft reason, it won't let me?

 

[eizbaer]

Yeah it’s technically illegal to program my tail lights to always be on with the daytime lights

That is something I also never understood… why tf aren’t the rear lights on during the day? Makes zero sense… also when the auto lights don’t come on but it’s actually a good idea to be more visible. I don’t get it.

 

[Perc]

That is something I also never understood… why tf aren’t the rear lights on during the day? Makes zero sense… also when the auto lights don’t come on but it’s actually a good idea to be more visible. I don’t get it.

The idea is to save energy. The VW dealer told me they aren’t allowed to reprogram my car because the tail lights being off in daytime is a part of the emissions control system and they can’t tamper with that.

It’s amazing, I know.

And it wouldn’t be such a big issue if all cars had auto lights but they don’t. Lots of mainly Asian cars lack that feature. Lots of clueless Toyota drivers out there trundling along with no lights on at night.

 

[NooDle]

This baffles me. Any modern car has LED lights, which use hardly any electricity at all, hence the fuel savings are nearly zero. Yet, because of this, a SAFETY CRITICAL feature is being turned off? How has nobody sued the pants off manufacturers yet?

(yes yes I know you're always in control of your own car, and if you die because of stupidity and not putting lights on it's your own fault, yadda yadda yadda, but still!)

 

[Matt2000]

That's VW though, we know they're skirting emissions regs by a gnat's cock so I guess even power used by LEDs makes a difference. Makes you wonder how they factor usage of the radio and HVAC into emissions regs.

I'm on the fence when it comes to rear DRLs, on one hand it's safer but on the other hand it's less obvious that the headlights aren't on and people are more likely to drive at night with just DRLs. If you're approaching a car from behind you'll still see the reflectors.

 

[eizbaer]

less obvious that the headlights aren't on

no it's not? or do you somehow drive in 3rd person view or something? why would having the rear lights on be any different to the driver (that is: the one messing up turning on the lights - which btw in this day and age should not even be a thing anymore*) than what's happening now?

* how is it we're mandating emergency braking and shit like that but not auto headlights? or did we and I missed it? in which case: moot point.

 

[Perc]

That's VW though, we know they're skirting emissions regs by a gnat's cock so I guess even power used by LEDs makes a difference. Makes you wonder how they factor usage of the radio and HVAC into emissions regs.

Not to mention the factory installed fuel heater which probably has the emissions of a 1935 Mercedes 260D.

* how is it we're mandating emergency braking and shit like that but not auto headlights? or did we and I missed it? in which case: moot point.

I think we're mandating it now, but not before the manufacturers managed to produce cars without it for a decade and a half.

 

[NooDle]

I guess auto lights (and wipers too) should be considered as a safety feature because some people are too much of a fuckwit to turn them on themselves. But these are to me more important than the "BEEP you've gone over the speedlimit by 1 kph BEEP" warnings, which are just annoying, and not related to safety at all...

Also slightly more on topic : I've found something to complain about with my car : I have ALL of the driver aids on because I'm lazy as hell. This includes the auto steering that many people find offensive and intrusive, whereas I don't. It doesn't wait for you to get all out of shape and then yank you back in the right trajectory (my wife's car does this). No, it just keeps you centered within the lines, even in corners, and is generally unobtrusive.

However, due to stupid legal reasons, it checks every 10 (?) seconds whether you're actually holding the wheel or not. And it doesn't have a sensor like a Tesla that "feels" if you're gripping the wheel, it does so by measuring input. So if you're on a dead straight road, and have both hands on the wheel, but not steering anywhere because you don't need to, it STILL nags you to put your hands on the wheel. A little wiggle of the wheel is enough to get rid of this, but it makes you look drunk/inattentive. it's just bad programming I guess?

 

[leviathan]

Teslas don't have a sensor either, it's the same thing - when Autosteer is on, you have to apply (slight) torque on the wheel for it to detect your hands. The Smart #1 I'm currently borrowing from mom is the same as well. Capacitive sensors in the wheel would do the trick, but presumably it's a cost factor.

 

[eizbaer]

when Autosteer is on, you have to apply (slight) torque on the wheel for it to detect your hands.

this "annoyance" voiced by some is honestly something I don't quite get. I have my hand on the wheel in the 4-5 / 7-8 o'clock position and just have it sort of hang off the wheel... which is usually enough for there to be constant torque on the wheel but not enough to actually cause any steering input. this way, I rarely if ever, get nags about holding the wheel. and maybe I naturally change my position just enough, so that the algorithm doesn't assume I've just taped a can of coke to the wheel and the torque input isn't completely static.

it's just bad programming I guess?

you're holding it wrong!!! but yeah maybe the detection sensitivity is too low or it needs too much torque? if I do end up getting a nag about having to hold the wheel I never actually have to twist it enough to cause any noticeable movement of the car...

 

[NooDle]

maybe the detection sensitivity is too low or it needs too much torque? if I do end up getting a nag about having to hold the wheel I never actually have to twist it enough to cause any noticeable movement of the car...

It’s very slight in the Kia but it is there. Which looks daft from outside because the autosteer can follow corners perfectly even with narrow lanes and everything, but when going completely straight you see the car jiggle every 10 or so seconds

 

[Adunaphel]

My tactic in the Mégane is to just desire a slightly off-center position in the lane and keep a gradual torque on the wheel to the desired side...

 

[NooDle]

^ an ingenious solution to a problem that should never have existed in the first place!