Out of Spec Charging the Cybertruck to Las Vegas

Vegas wasn’t the plan. Japan fell through, Colorado was too far from work, and somehow we ended up doing what we always do for Thanksgiving — loading up the Cybertruck and heading to Las Vegas. The twist this year: we’re running “Out of Spec” style charging the whole way, and we’ve got FSD v14.2 freshly installed.

What Out of Spec Charging Actually Means

The strategy is simple: stay at a low state of charge before each stop so the charger delivers peak speed. Instead of arriving at 50% and crawling at reduced rates, you show up at 25–30% and hit the steep part of the charging curve — then leave before it tapers off. Arrive low, charge fast, unplug early.

We left home at 32% state of charge. That’s lower than I usually roll out, but that’s the point. Seven charging stops round-trip:

Truck bed packed with blue suitcase, cooler, portable power station, and travel gear.

The Drive Up: Eddie World, Yermo, and the New Baker

First stop was a 72 kW charger near Eddie World — slow, but we needed to run errands. There’s a better option two exits up: the Yermo Sunrise Canyon Supercharger at 250 kW. Way faster and usually less crowded than people expect. I’ve stopped here on the Cybertruck’s first Vegas road trip too — same stop, same logic.

Man in Cookie Monster shirt, Cybertruck and Supercharger in background at Yermo.

The real stop was the brand new Baker Mojave Supercharger — north of the old one, and these are V3.5 at 325 kW. We pulled in at 27% state of charge and hit 252 kW almost immediately, climbing to 191 kW at 37%. For reference, the second-gen R1S doing the same trip tops out around 130 kW at that SoC. The Baker V3.5 also hosts non-Tesla vehicles — saw a Cadillac Lyriq, a Lucid, a Ford Lightning, and a Rivian R1S all charging together.

Man at Baker Mojave Supercharger with charging session data overlay and Cybertruck in background.

Las Vegas: Cosmopolitan, Circus Circus, Fontainebleau

We stayed at the Cosmopolitan. Parked in the underground garage and found some interesting company down there — a white Porsche 911, and a green Rivian R1S. Not a typical Tuesday in the parking garage.

Sentry Mode with the Cybertruck: we lost about 5% over 17 hours parked, 3% overnight on a second night. That lines up with what I’ve seen before — maybe 7–10% per day if the surrounding activity is high.

Food highlight of the trip: Thanksgiving at Max’s Restaurant in Las Vegas (Filipino chicken, pancit, the whole spread), plus a stop at All’Antico Vinaio and Hwaro Korean BBQ on the way in. Highly recommend the Korean BBQ for charging breaks — the dinner stop also got us to 57% before heading to the hotel.

On Thanksgiving Eve we walked over to Circus Circus — still a trip. The Cybertruck looks insane parked under that pink-lit Adventuredome.

Tesla Cybertruck parked at night in front of the pink-lit Adventuredome at Circus Circus.

FSD v14.2: Improvements and One Annoying Bug

I ran FSD v14.2 the entire trip. The good: lane hugging on the left side — which was a consistent problem in v14.1 — is noticeably better. It now holds a more centered position.

The bad: lane changing hesitation is much worse. On the 15 North, FSD would flip on the turn signal, see a car two or three car lengths back, and just… sit there. Before v14.2 it was more assertive. Now it’s timid to the point of being annoying on a long highway stretch.

The weird: a Corolla with aftermarket LED headlights was triggering FSD to treat it like an emergency vehicle — the refresh rate of the LEDs was strobing in the camera feed, and FSD kept slowing down and moving over. I had to disengage for about 30 miles until that car moved on. Submitted a report.

Return Trip: Baker Again, Then Victorville

Same Baker V3.5 stop on the way home. Arrived at 29%, hit 253 kW. That consistency is the argument for the new V3.5 stations — the older Baker location (next to Electrify America) has been less reliable on charging performance lately.

Man at Baker Supercharger on return trip with Tesla charging session data.

Final stop: Amargosa/Victorville Supercharger at 250 kW. Hit 255 kW at 26% state of charge. Plenty of food options and restrooms. Called it the last stop, charged to comfortable range, and headed home.

Man at Victorville Supercharger with Cybertruck in background.

Trip Numbers

Thanksgiving Vegas road trip data: 508.5 miles, 253 kWh, 497.6 Wh/mi, 325 kW peak, 7 charging stops.

Per-stop charging breakdown: location, charger speed, time at charger, energy delivered, and cost for each of the 7 stops.

497.6 Wh/mi on a round trip that includes Thanksgiving traffic, multiple city drives around Las Vegas, and one of the hillier stretches of the I-15 is consistent with what I’ve seen from the Cybertruck on longer trips. The real-world efficiency numbers on shorter hops tend to be worse — highway distance helps the average.

The Anker SOLIX C1000 came with us again for hotel room charging and portable power backup. I also picked up a smaller Anker power bank this trip — more portable, built-in light, USB ports for everything. Good addition for a Vegas trip where you’re away from the car all day.

If you’re doing the SoCal → Las Vegas run in a Cybertruck, the new Baker V3.5 station is now my first choice. Faster than the old location, more diverse charging traffic, and it’s brand new so the hardware is clean. The out of spec charging strategy works — it just requires planning your arrivals and resisting the urge to top up when you don’t need to.