All language subtitles for M M S01E14 1080p WEB h264-BETTY_track3_[eng]

[upbeat music playing]

-[car whizzing]
-[Faye] Oh, yeah. Windows up?

[Bisi] We're gonna look
at state of charge.

[Tory] 96 degrees.

We're gonna turn
the heater on.

[raven cawing]

Only a mad person
would do this.

But it's for science.

That's not what
I was expecting at all.

[Tory] Will charging your
phone decrease your distance?

I drive like a grandmother
on the street.

[all laughing]

[Bis] It's looking good
for the myth itself.

It looks like the engineers
knew what they were doing.

[engine accelerating]

[explosion]

[narrator] Meet the team...

[screaming]

[Tory] This might be
the miracle coolant

that everybody's
been searching for.

[Faye] Oh, no!

[narrator] ...with the
mechanical expertise...

[Faye] My main concern
is structural integrity.

[narrator] ...to test
all things automotive.

-Oh!
-The engine died!

[Bisi] The more air
we push through,

the more fuel siphon out
and boom!

[narrator] This
is Motor MythBusters.

-[Tory] Hit it!
-[engine accelerating]

[narrator] Where science...

-[Tory] Whoa!
-[Bisi] Ha-ha.

...meets the streets.

[spaghetti western
music playing]

[upbeat music playing]

[Tory] All right. So, we have
three electric car myths
that we're looking at.

Number one,

using your AC over your heater
will decrease your mileage
significantly.

[Bisi] And, can you
improve your range using
regenerative braking

versus mechanical braking?

[Faye] Ooh!
That's a good one.

But I think the
most practical one is

charging your phone while
driving an electric vehicle

decreases your range
noticeably.

To help us with the myth,
I have a slew of their logging
capabilities.

We're gonna look at state
of charge at all times,

and also...

distance traveled
and I'll be logging it

every second of the way.

-Ooh.
-Okay. Why don't we do
a control test first?

-Sounds good.
-We'll run the track.

We do five laps.
That equals eight miles.

-Ooh.
-See how much range
we get with that,

and then
we'll start our tests.

-Sounds good to me.
-Awesome.

-Do you wanna drive?
-[scoffs] Heck yeah, I do.

That thing? Sure.

-Okay, let's go.
-[Tory laughs]

[Bisi] Not all EVs will
perform in the same way.

So to get a baseline
of comparison for this one...

Okay, guys.
So setting our baseline.

I'm gonna try my best
to be super consistent

around the track
the entire time.

...we need to complete
five laps with the heat,

AC and ventilation
systems off

at a repeatable
and reliable speed.

Hey, Tory.
How does the iDash look?

Looks great.

We have 94.9% charge.

Right.
Oh, yeah, windows up.

-[Tory] Yes.
-We're gonna keep this way
for every single test.

All right, here we go.

Three. Two. One.

Go!

-Okay.
-[Bisi] Very nice.

I'm not a particularly
crazy fast driver.

I like fast cars
although I don't
really drive them fast.

This race track is the perfect
control environment.

I love driving fast cars fast,
but only on the track.

I drive like a grandmother
on the street.

[Faye] I have to vary my speed
for the different corners.

But since it's not a race,
I can just enjoy the drive.

[upbeat music playing]

-[Tory] I like to drive
any car as fast as I can.
-[Faye chuckles]

-Anywhere, anytime.
-[Bisi] Anywhere. Anywhere.

[narrator] Okay...

suffice to say for
the sake of the myths,

the team has the right person
behind the wheel.

This is actually really fun.

[Bisi] Well,
this is our last lap.

-[Faye] Yeah.
-[Tory] That was it.

-[Tory] That is
the end of our run.
-[Faye] Oh, right.

[Tory] And we have gone
almost eight miles.

[narrator] Time to check
how dependable Faye's
lap times are.

And how much battery power
was used for the control run.

So, right here is the...

speed that you had
around the entire track.

-For each lap.
-That's pretty consistent.

-You aren't bad at all.
-Hmm.

And then, in yellow,
is our battery pack charge.

We start off at 94.902%
there of charge.

-[Faye] Mmm-hmm.
-[Bisi] And when we're done
with our entire run,

we're at 92.157.

[Tory] So, about 2.75%.

-All right, sounds like
a killer baseline.
-[Tory] I agree.

That does seem like
we didn't burn through

-that much battery life.
-[Faye] Right.

I was expecting us
to burn through

-a lot more battery life.
-We may be able to.

So, what about heater?

All right, so this time,
we're gonna run
with the heater on?

-You really think that's a--
-In 96 degrees?

-I know, but it's for science.
-It's a horrible idea.

-We have to do this.
-All right.

-[Tory] Five laps again.
-Five laps.

-Sounds good.
-All right.

-Let's do it.
-96 degrees and we're gonna
turn the heater on.

[narrator]
With the baseline set,

it's up to Faye to maintain
an average speed of 38 miles
per hour

to achieve an average lap time
of around two minutes
and 25 seconds

and ensure the data
for each test is congruent.

Oh, yeah,
I'm feeling the heat.

Let's go ahead and begin.

How are we doing
with a zero miles, Tory?

-[Tory] We are zeroed out.
-Good.

[hip-hop music playing]

[Tory] The on-board heat
in an EV comes from
a electric heater.

So, it is possible to pre-heat
the cabin using juice

from the grid while the car's
plugged in to the charger.

But we're testing the myth

that the AC drains
the battery life more than
the heater while driving.

[Bisi] Tory, only a mad person
would do this.

-[Faye chuckles]
-[Bisi] We're in closed
environment.

Full blast heat.

-In an EV.
-And... desert.

It almost feels like seats--

Did you turn the seats
on there?

-No, seats are not on.
-Feels like
seat warmer.

-[Bisi] Oh, my God.
-It does feel like
the seat heaters are on.

Oh, I'm sweating.
How are you guys doing?

-[Bisi laughing]
I'm sweating too.
-[Faye] Okay.

Wait a sec, I'm sorry.

Girls don't sweat,
we sparkle.

-I'm...
-[Bisi laughing]

-...very sparky.
-[Tory] That's good.

I'm sparking
my butt off of here.

I'm serious...
Sparking your butt off.
[laughs]

[raven cawing]

I shouldn't have worn
these warm trousers today.

It's all right, Bisi.

We only have
two more laps to go.

-[Faye] Yeah.
-Oh!

[Bisi] Three laps in

and Faye's lap times
are perfectly consistent

with an average speed
of 38 miles per hour.

[Faye] Fricking dying in here.

[Bisi] The cabin
temperature

tells us how hard
the resistive heating
system's working.

That must be taking a toll
on the battery life.

[car whizzing]

[Faye] Let's come up
with a bunch of different
creative words for hot.

-Okay, sizzling.
-[Tory] Uh!

Steaming.

Sweaty.

Scorching.

Seared. [chuckles]

Hot as [bleep]!

-Oh, my God. [laughs]
-[Faye laughs] What?

-[Faye] Here goes nothing.
The last lap.
-[Tory] All right.

I am dying back here.

-[Tory] Yeah.
-[Faye] Yeah. I'm feeling
pretty toasty.

-[Bisi] Can I roll the windows
down now? Ugh!
-[Faye] Yeah.

-[Bisi] Oh, my goodness.
-[Faye] How do you guys feel?

-[Bisi] Oh, I feel--
-Feel like I've just been
tortured for last five laps.

[narrator] With the data
from the heater test stored,

the team can run
straight into the AC test

and compare
the results at the end.

[Faye] At least, now,
we can do...

the air conditioning test.

-The myth is...
-[softly] I'm dying.

Air conditioning robs
more power, more range,

from an electric vehicle
than heat.

-I've been looking forward
to this one. Okay.
-[Faye pants]

-[Tory] We're going max AC.
-[Faye pants] All right.

-[Tory] Max--
-[Faye] Excellent.
Oh, awesome.

-Oh, yes!
-[Tory] Here we go!

[classical music playing]

[Bisi] Five laps,
here we come.

-Five enjoyable laps.
-[Faye] Oh, wonderful,
beautiful laps.

[Bisi] Oh, this is so nice.

[narrator] Okay. Five laps
at the same consistent speed

will provide them
with enough data

on the efficiency
of this particular EV's
cooling system

to call the myth.

[car whizzing]

[Bisi] Faye, I can tell you're
getting much more comfortable

-with this electric vehicle.
-[Tory] Yeah.

[Faye] I will say that
I'm gonna always have
range anxiety.

Well, that's
what's changing.

If a structure is starting
to prop up everywhere,

your electrons...
As ubiquitously as you fill up
gasoline cars.

I just love the performance...

And clean anno...
That is our king.

It's the be-all, end-all.

[Tory yawns] Longer range.

Yeah. Sometimes gathering
data can be tiring.

[Bisi] Well, data doesn't lie.

I'm gonna pull it and
see what happened.

-[Faye] Sounds good.
-[Bisi] All right.

So, just to recap,

our baseline was
2.75% of usage.

-Mmm-hmm.
-Yes, that's correct.

-Now. The first one we did
was the... Sweltering heat.
-Okay.

[Bisi] Look at that number.

[Tory] 3.138.

-[Faye] Oh!
-[Bisi] That's crazy.

[Tory] That's way more
than the baseline.

-Yeah.
-Oh, yeah.

"The myth says that
if you're using your heater
versus your AC,

-you're gonna be conserving
more energy.
-[Bisi] Yes.

Yeah, we have
the heater first.

-But we don't know
what the AC does yet.
-All right.

-And... Kudos to you.
-Right.

That's excellent driving.
Look at how repeatable
that is.

Oh, my God.

-That's amazing. You--
-I--

-It's almost like you were
following your--
-It's like you're a robot.

You're amazing.

[Bisi] Faye's machine-like
performance behind the wheel,

has abated the margin error
for lap times and speed.

So, we'll be able to call
the myth from the results.

So here's where we ended
with a ace...

Look at that.

-[Faye] Wait, what?
-[Tory] It's the exact same
as the baseline.

[Bisi] That's amazing.

-[Faye] Wait--
-[Tory] 2.75. It means
literally the exact...

same amount

-of energy that we spent.
-[Faye] Oh!

-That's what
I wasn't expecting...
-That's a--

-...at all.
-That's a very efficient
AC system.

-Whoa.
-[Tory] That's crazy.

-But the heater
was really bad.
-[Tory and Faye] Yeah.

[Bisi] We use a resistive
element which consumes
a lot of power.

[Faye] They're way different
than an internal combustion
engine car.

This myth is
completely busted.

-[Bisi] Absolutely busted.
-[Faye] Oh, yeah. Busted.

Okay, guys,
the next myth is as follows.

Can you improve range
with regenerative braking

versus mechanical braking?

-Hmm.
-So, I think it's time
to set the car up for that.

And have some fun.

-All right.
-Heck, yeah. Let's get to it.

[upbeat music playing]

[Bisi] Regenerative braking
is designed to convert

much of the kinetic energy
lost when decelerating

back into the EV's battery.

It's a standard system
setting on this vehicle,

and we know that 2.75%
of the battery charge

is used over our five-lap
course when it's engaged.

So, that'll remain as our
baseline for comparison.

[Bisi] So,
we're gonna disable that.

So, I need you to disable
that one-pedal drive function.

And that will put us
in a position where

you will have to use
your physical brakes

to now stop the car,

and we'll see how much
energy is consumed.

If the myth is correct,
we'll find out that
we will consume

a lot more energy

using our physical brakes.

Right. Absolutely.

-So, one-pedal drive is off.
-Yep. Off.

I'm excited
to see the difference.

-All right. Three, two, one.
-And? Are we reset?

-Go!
-Reset!

[Faye squealing]

[Faye] Regenerative braking
is also known
as one-pedal drive.

Because it's designed to allow
the driver to bring
the vehicle to a stop

without engaging
the brake pedal.

With this system turned off,

the EV drives just like

-a normal car actually.
-Oh.

Like, before I was definitely
feeling like you let off
the accelerator pedal

-and there is drag, like the
vehicle is pulling you back.
-Mmm-hmm.

You can feel the regenerative
brake working,

it was really weird
to get used to at first.

Now I feel much
more comfortable.

-[Faye] It just feels
like a normal car.
-[Tory] Hmm.

[narrator] Each lap consists
of 13 turns
with a mix of fast and slow,

left and right, incline
and decline combinations.

Requiring Faye to use both
hard and gentle braking
to maintain her average speed.

-So you can coast
easier in this--
-Yeah, I'm coasting right now.

-[Bisi] Wow.
-[Tory] Gotcha.

[Faye] And it's fine.

[Tory] What do you guys think?

Do you think this one's
gonna be more efficient
or less efficient?

I think it would be less
efficient of what
she's doing now.

But I think the difference
would be quite subtle.

[Tory] But I wonder
if it's just gonna balance
itself out.

Because you're not really
braking so much
on this course.

-[Bisi] Right.
-[Tory] You're
coasting mostly.

[Bisi] Okay, well this
is the end of our lap.

I'll pull the data and we'll
compare and see how this
fared to our base line.

-With the regenerative
brake on...
-Yes.

...on our base line
we were using
up 2.75% energy.

-[Bisi] That's correct.
-[Faye] Yep.

So now with it off...

Let's see what happens.
So, you see what's really
interesting here, Faye?

Look at that, you don't put
any energy at back
into the battery pack.

-[Faye] Yeah.
-[Bisi] You just consume,

-Yep.
-...and consume
and consume.

That's looking good
for the myth itself.

And, Tory,
what is that delta?

-[Tory] So we have
3.53%.
-Oh, my goodness.

-That's way more
than the heater.
-Yeah. That's crazy!

-[Faye] Oh, my gosh.
-[Bisi] That's amazing.

[Faye] And that's awesome,

because it really shows what
regenerative braking does.

It's like the engineers knew
what they were doing.

-It's like the engineers knew
what they were doing.
-All right, so--

So, you should leave it on.
So that being said,

the myth that you can get
a lot more range using
regenerative braking,

compared to
mechanical braking,

it looks like this particular
myth, in this case,

is confirmed.

-Absolutely confirmed.
-Absolutely confirmed.

-All right, next one.
Charging your phone.
-Yep.

Thank goodness,
'cause I need to.

Will charging your phone
decrease your distance?

By a noticeable amount.

Is it noticeable over the span
of our eight-mile distance?

And so Bisi's got a charger
there, he's gonna put
his cell phone on,

and we're gonna compare
this test to our baseline.

I have the perfect
scenario for you.

-[Faye] Oh.
-[Bisi] My phone is
wireless-charging capable.

This is the way that I think
most people are gonna
charge their phones.

So this is, I think,
more relevant to the test.

-[Bisi] Oh, there it is.
It's charging.
-Yep. It's charging.

All right.
We are set five laps.

-Ready when you are.
-I'm ready. Let's go.

[Faye] Back
to one-pedal driving.
It's so weird.

[narrator] With the vehicle's
factory setting restored,

the original baseline
of 2.75% of power usage

is once again in play.

So, Tory, what do you think
is gonna happen with this one?

I feel like the amount
of energy it takes
to charge your phone,

-it's not gonna be noticeable.
-[Bisi] You're probably
correct.

[Tory] I don't think
we're gonna see
much of a drop.

[Faye] I totally agree
with you.

I don't think that there's
gonna be a noticeable change
over eight miles.

Well, time will tell.
We'll find out.

[narrator] Yep, and while
the test distance might
not provide enough time

to fully charge Bisi's phone,

a long road trip would.

-[Tory] Lap two.
-[Faye] Lap two.

[narrator] So any dip
in battery life

will continue to be relative
to total mileage.

But even a short trip like
this is enough time
to reminisce.

The first car that I ever
owned that really got me
into wrenching,

uh, was 1980
Volkswagen Rabbit.

I still have it.
When I first bought it,
it was diesel.

I wanted to reduce my carbon
footprint in the world.

So, I converted my
Volkswagen Rabbit

to run on waste vegetable oil.

I would filter my waste
vegetable oil
with, uh, pantyhose.

-Um, and I would, sometimes
new, I would just like...
-Oh. Oh...

-...you know, buy them--
-Sometimes new.

Oh, yeah, you'd buy them
in packs and then, you know,

I would just like, use them
as a filtration media.

Just to get out the big chunks
and then add a series
of filtration units,

-and heated coils
and everything...
-Oh, that's cool.

like jacketed fuel lines,
'cause I had the tank
in the back

and brought the fuel
to the front, so...

I used to love going
to the gas stations

and watching people pay,
you know, for a gallon of gas

and I would just, you know,
get out with my funnel
and just pour in

this disgusting
waste vegetable oil

in front of all these people
and just keep on going,

you know, not ever spend
a dollar at the pumps.

[narrator] Faye's vegan Rabbit
might have been efficient,

but it probably couldn't power
her cell wirelessly.

So after five laps in today's
green vehicle,

the guys are about to find out
if charging up the cell comes
at a hefty cost.

Okay, Tory.
Here's where we are.

Faye did an excellent job
as always in keeping
a repeatable driving pattern.

So, that's how we started.

And this is
where you stopped.

Look at that, Tory.

[Tory] 3.135,
that's noticeable.

-It is noticeable.
-Way, way noticeable.

It's way more
than I expected.

And think about it. I did
choose a charging method,
that is wireless.

The wireless charging
services, they always
generate a lot of heat.

-[Bisi] Absolutely.
-Still, it's a lot.

-So, it's crazy.
-Yeah, this one's
100% confirmed.

I agree,
confirmed indeed.

-But I'm shocked
how much it's confirmed.
-[Faye] Yeah.

-Not as bad as a heater.
-[Tory] Not as bad
as a heater.

-But it was significant
compared to our baseline.
-But it--

-It definitely is noticeable.
-[Faye] Yeah.

I'll have to say,
looking at the data,

it's told us a lot about EVs.

[Bisi] It was a really
productive day.
I really liked today a lot.

[Faye] Me too.
I learned a ton.

[Tory] Charge your phone
before you leave the house.

[Bisi] Before you leave
the house. Sounds good.

-All right, guys,
let's get out of here.
-I'm done.

So, Tory, are you, um,
on the EV bandwagon yet?

[Tory] Not yet.