What route planner?

Discussion in 'Cooper SE' started by ZDBRG, Feb 12, 2023.

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  1. ZDBRG

    ZDBRG New Member

    Looking at a trip in a few months (300 miles).

    Has anyone used ABRP? https://abetterrouteplanner.com/

    Seems to be pretty good, but wondering about the accuracy.
     
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  3. SameGuy

    SameGuy Well-Known Member Subscriber

    YUL
    It’s the standard.
     
  4. MichaelC

    MichaelC Well-Known Member

    ABRP is the best available option for planning trips in your SE.

    As for accuracy, you may need to adjust the consumption value. (Alternatively, you can consider paying for a Premium account to feed it "live" state of charge information and allow it to calculate a reference consumption value from those measurements.) Likewise, I recommend experimenting with the values in the Battery menu and the Charging Stops setting to see how that affects the route it suggests.

    Finally, I recommend cross-referencing with https://www.plugshare.com/ to see all available chargers along your route and to review recent check-ins to gauge how reliable they may or may not be.
     
    SameGuy likes this.
  5. I use ABRP as a starting point, but use PlugShare to locate backup chargers if my planned charging point is down. Electrify America has a habit of taking an entire site down with very little (if any) notice. You can find yourself stranded somewhere without enough range to get to another charger. Also, make sure you keep a level-2 charger with you in case you need to charge at an RV campground for a couple of hours.
     
  6. carrrl

    carrrl Active Member

    ABRP gets really frustrating in areas with state run networks and fewer big names (EA, EVgo, ChargePoint, etc.) ABRP will tell you to drive well under the speed limit to avoid using chargers it just doesn't like. Force it to stop manually or avoid certain networks and it still routes you exactly the way it wants to. So much so it adds more and more shorter but meaningless stops. It's also not great at understanding the charging curve, often suggesting full top ups finishing in impossible time frames. Because of that I would take its timing suggestions with a grain of salt as well.

    I agree it's a good starting point for ideas. Figure out the general route, plug it in to Apple or Google Maps. Both of those have better CarPlay integration, real time detours and info is better, and even charger info is improving over time. The only advantage ABRP has is live data with an OBDII adapter.
     
    Last edited: Feb 14, 2023
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  8. MichaelC

    MichaelC Well-Known Member

    I endorse the comments by @beerhecht and @carrrl that ABRP is most helpful for pre-trip planning (exploring options and "what if" scenarios) - something I should have highlighted in my original response. Sometimes, the ABRP mobile app can be crashy/unreliable when used via CarPlay, so I wouldn't rely on it as your only leave-on-a-whim navigation solution for a long trip.
     
    SameGuy and Rogwp like this.
  9. Yup, I also use ABRP for planning purposes, then I plug in the charging points manually into the SE, because I love the SE navigation coming out of the HUD.

    A question though to the forum:

    With state highways now close here in NZ due to flooding caused by cyclone Gabrielle, how do you drag the route identified by ABRP to an alternate route, I think you can do that in Google Maps?
     
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  10. MichaelC

    MichaelC Well-Known Member

    1. Select a location along the route you want to drive (right-click on web; long press on mobile).
    2. Press the "Add Guidepoint" button on the info pane about that location.
    3. Press the "calculate route" button.
    Not as slick as dragging points around like Google Maps, but it works. And you can add as many guidepoints you need to coax ABRP along the path you want to actually drive. This is especially helpful when planning recreational drives.
     
    azausa and insightman like this.
  11. Thanks, @MichaelC, I’ll try it out.
     
    MichaelC likes this.
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  13. JonR

    JonR Well-Known Member

    Wow, that site is bad. It couldn't even map the route and just defaulted to some random trip.
     
  14. MichaelC

    MichaelC Well-Known Member

    It definitely has some quirks and a learning curve. I have probably been using it long enough that they don't trip me up like they used to.
     

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