GM engineers decided to take their EVs on a 5,000-mile road trip and ended up finding problems they couldn't have seen in a lab

These GM engineers took their EVs on a 5,000-mile road trip and ended up encountering problems that they wouldn’t have discovered in a lab environment.

The cars in question were a Cadillac OPTIQ luxury electric crossover and a GMC Sierra EV pickup.

Taking them on journeys across the US, the crew was looking to gather data on everything from hands-free driving to charging.

Along the way, they saw some issues that might have gone unnoticed otherwise.

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What these GM engineers discovered while driving some EVs cross-country

There was none of the security that may come with studio testing or dynos – this was out in the open roads of the US.

“We were able to get firsthand exposure to a lot of real-world scenarios,” Tony Kraatz, the quality engineering manager, said.

He was joined on his trip from Michigan to San Francisco – and back again – by software engineers Max Schwinghammer and Chris Cline.

Along the way, they discovered an issue while ‘refueling’ at a public charger – it was charging far slower than it should.

This led them to discover the problem had been caused by a typo in the charger’s software code, which meant they could call the operator, who corrected the error.

But it wasn’t just the chargers that they learned things about.

Long stretches of hands-free driving gave them the chance to observe the vehicles’ performances across a wide range of terrains and temperatures.

But on a sentimental note, the trip was a chance for the three GM engineers to bond.

“The trip really showed how passionate Chris and Max are about the work they do,” Kraatz said.

“Witnessing how much they know about our software, our subsystems, our components – that was truly awesome.”

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Road trips can be eye-opening experiences in a lot of ways

For most people, road trips are a chance to have fun, not to collect data.

But road trips can also open your eyes to new experiences.

Admittedly, most of that would be to do with the wider world, not your own car.

For these two guys driving in a Reliant Robin from London to South Africa, they got to see different cultures up close.

It was a similar story for these Brits who revived a Lada and drove it out to Chernobyl – yes, that Chernobyl.

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