[fleitz]

Every laptop that uses a lithium ion battery should have this problem. Oddly enough every laptop manufacture has included circuitry that cuts battery power when it reaches 5% (when the OS reports 0% it's actually ~1-5%). Tesla should have no problem fixing this, the onboard electronics will die anyway when the battery dies so why not have them die a few hours earlier and allow 'recovery' by charging the vehicle.

[modeless]

Batteries self-discharge, even when disconnected. 5% is probably not enough to last months, especially if the car is exposed to high temperatures.

[pkulak]

So will my laptop "brick" also if I don't plug it in for a couple weeks?

[modeless]

Yes. If you completely discharge your laptop and then stick it in a closet for a couple of months without charging it, the battery will likely be completely unrecoverable. The exact amount of time it takes will depend on the battery of course (and the ambient temperature).

[maaku]

Yes, and I've done that. Took longer than a couple of weeks though. Brand new battery in a MacBook that discharged then went in storage for a while (a half-year I think). The next time I opened it the battery was completely dead and wouldn't hold a charge.

[EwanToo]

Yes, I've bricked my old Macbook by doing that (for several months).

I bought a new laptop, so closed down my old Macbook, and stuck it away.

A few months later, I found I wanted to grab file from the old macbook, and noticed it wouldn't run from battery. It'll work fine plugged in, but the battery is registered as full discharged, and the Apple page says "Buy a new battery".

[schiffern]

I would be amazed if Tesla Motors was running that pack at 90% depth of discharge. 80% is far more typical.

The other thing to consider is that as the voltage drops, so does the leakage current.

Really, this whole thing could be solved by putting a tiny solar panel on the back dash.

[rrrazdan]

Which is what the Nissan Leaf does(pretty nifty idea, I'd say). But its not really a solution in the sense that it wouldn't work for cars parked inside.

[schiffern]

If it's parked inside, generally either A) you have a plug, or B) it's artificially lit 24/7. That should be enough to compensate for leakage current.