# Here's a Glitch Tesla Had Better Fix With Their Cars, Fast! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [October 17, 2008, 8:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heres-a-glitch-tesla-had-better-fix-with-their-cars-fast/468355 "2008-10-17T08:39:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Tuckerfan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/eada6e/32.png) [@Tuckerfan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tuckerfan)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2008, 8:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heres-a-glitch-tesla-had-better-fix-with-their-cars-fast/468355/1 "2008-10-17T08:39:00Z")
[Holy crap! A Tesla _uses_ huge amounts of juice just **parked!**](http://www.autobloggreen.com/2008/10/16/eberhards-tesla-wastes-some-electrons/) > [@](#): > > Astonishingly, the car’s battery constantly has coolant run through it, just so long as it’s at least half-charged. Because his car is nearly always fully charged, Eberhard’s pump is always running. To track its power usage, a meter was installed and Martin was very surprised to find that 22-percent of his car’s energy usage was being used while the car sat! They really need to figure out a better way to cool the batteries as Eberhard estimates it could cut the life of the batteries by 2 years (and who knows how long the pump will last). ---
**Author:** ![Ethilrist](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ethilrist/32/4604_2.png) [@Ethilrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ethilrist)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2008, 7:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heres-a-glitch-tesla-had-better-fix-with-their-cars-fast/468355/2 "2008-10-17T19:06:54Z")
Doesn’t sound so much like a glitch as it does an inherent flaw in the technology. ---
**Author:** ![Sunspace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sunspace/32/1250_2.png) [@Sunspace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sunspace)\ **Post date:** [October 17, 2008, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heres-a-glitch-tesla-had-better-fix-with-their-cars-fast/468355/3 "2008-10-17T19:11:36Z")
Why would the battery need to be cooled if no power is being drawn from it, if it isn’t being charged and it isn’t being used? Is this one of those self-creating situations where the battery needs to be cooled because it’s being used, but the only use is the cooling system? ---
**Author:** ![iamthewalrus\_3](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/258eb7/32.png) [@iamthewalrus\_3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iamthewalrus_3)\ **Post date:** [October 18, 2008, 12:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/heres-a-glitch-tesla-had-better-fix-with-their-cars-fast/468355/4 "2008-10-18T00:15:00Z")
> [@Sunspace](#): > > Why would the battery need to be cooled if no power is being drawn from it, if it isn’t being charged and it isn’t being used? Is this one of those self-creating situations where the battery needs to be cooled because it’s being used, but the only use is the cooling system? I could see needing to run the cooling system after stopping for a little while. My projector (for example) continues to run its fans for a minute or so even after you turn it off because it’s not good for the bulb to stay hot. Maybe it’s best to cool the batteries down below their normal operating temperature as soon as possible. However, even if the cooling system _did_ run for a while after stopping to continue to cool the battery, it would eventually shut off. I mean, what good is a cooling system if it doesn’t result in a net cooling effect? Maybe the threshold for the cooling system is set too low. My first guess would be that this is a case of a faulty heat sensor that’s constantly telling the cooling system to run because it’s measuring too high a temperature.