We went digging to see if that widely shared class-action lawsuit accusing Tesla of odometer fraud had any real-world backing. Honestly, we expected it to be overblown. Odometer lawsuits aren’t exactly everyday news, the last one I can remember was a branding disaster for Ferrari. To our surprise, Tesla drivers have been publicly posting about […]
A Tesla influencer randomly caught his odometer double-counting mileage on video. Wild.
I have test all three methods. GPS is the best, but it has drop outs. You can add an inertial gyro system to compensate, but that becomes sloppy the longer it goes without GPS.
The tire method has a lot of variances, but the measure at the transmission is often worse.
It absolutely does. Typically, all 4 wheel speed sensors are polled and averaged, so unless you’re doing lots of extended 4 wheel burnouts, you’re talking an incredibly small margin of additional error.
It’s not really that reliable as it it will depend on the diameter of the wheels that can vary with pressure, wear, and and actual tyre size.
A better method may be a sensor like the one used in optical mice.
I have test all three methods. GPS is the best, but it has drop outs. You can add an inertial gyro system to compensate, but that becomes sloppy the longer it goes without GPS.
The tire method has a lot of variances, but the measure at the transmission is often worse.
So if I replace the wheels on my car with monster truck wheels, I’ll be able to cheat the odometer?
…but what are we actually trying to measure here? The miles travelled, or the wear and tear that’s caused by the wheels spinning?
Mileage by counting the number of rotation of the wheel.
The mileage is a measurement to give an idea of the wear, combined with other information to give a holistic view of the state of the car.
Fair, and thinking about it it doesn’t account for unnecessary wheelspin
It absolutely does. Typically, all 4 wheel speed sensors are polled and averaged, so unless you’re doing lots of extended 4 wheel burnouts, you’re talking an incredibly small margin of additional error.