We’ve now broken 10,000 miles driving to test America’s cell phone data networks, and we’re still on the road. With our annual Fastest Mobile Networks project, we drive three Ford cars through 30 U.S. cities to see how AT&T’s, Sprint’s, T-Mobile’s, and Verizon’s networks are performing.

Our technology partner, Sensorly(Opens in a new window), has been feeding us results, and they’re now a 93MB spreadsheet with more than 200,000 lines of data. (And we’re only 2/3 done!) For a spreadsheet this large, not just any PC will do, so our desktop reviews team built the Steiger Dynamics LEET Reference PC to crunch the data down into our annual Speed Scores. The overclocked hex-core Intel Core i7-3930K at 4.7GHz is making quick work of a lot of AVERAGEIF statements in Excel.

Meanwhile, our drivers are back from their first few go-rounds with the Ford Fusion Energi(Opens in a new window) and C-MAX Energi(Opens in a new window) plug-in hybrids, and they have strong opinions on how to approach these high-tech vehicles.

Ready, Set…Charge!
We sent our drivers out with cards and subscriptions for the ChargePoint and Blink electric car charging networks, and they did a good job finding chargers on the road. The problem is, charging your electric vehicle when you’re out and about does nothing.

“The cars are designed to be plugged in at night at home, or during the day while at work, so you can start with a fully charged battery and get some miles in before switching to gas. You can also schedule the car to ‘warm up’ and prep so that the cabin is at the right temperature and the battery is conditioned. But these things take hours,” PCMag.com lead analyst Jamie Lendino said. 

PCMag Digital Edition editor Matthew Murray concurred: With 30 minutes of charging at the botanical gardens in St. Louis, he scored just four minutes of additional electric driving time.

Whether charged by a charging station or the gas motor, though, the Ford cars’ electric modes got solid ratings from our first-wave drivers. 

“The fact that the car shifts in EV mode at speeds up to 85mph is significant; no other hybrid, plug-in or not, does that, unless you count the Chevy Volt’s somewhat different approach to electric vs. gas power. Also, transitions between gas and electric have a very slight shutter, but it’s extremely quick, and the shutter isn’t as bad as on some hybrid cars. And you can use the A/C idling at stop lights, unlike the (non-plug-in) Honda Insight hybrid,” Lendino said.

The cars’ dashboards turn regenerative braking into a game, which was a hit with software analyst Max Eddy.

“Every time you brake, it tells you how much of the energy you recovered in doing so. This was a big motivator for me, but it only displayed the final percentage when the car came to a complete stop. Some of my best brakes went unscrutinized,” Eddy said.

On To The End
We’re headed into our last round of cities before tallying up our data for our big mid-June feature. Next week, we’ll take a look at what our drivers thought of the Ford Sync entertainment system and what Ford thought of their driving abilities.

Here’s where we’ll be for the rest of our trip. Tweet our drivers at @PCMPhones(Opens in a new window) if you have a great idea of somewhere to eat, somewhere to test, or any other local tips for our drivers.

Saturday, May 18: Austin, TX and Tampa, FL

Sunday, May 19: Portland, OR

Monday, May 20: Dallas, TX and Miami, FL

Tuesday, May 21: Seattle, WA

Check out the next few pages for a look at some of the cities we visited this week.

Kansas City

Phoenix

New Orleans

Los Angeles