Comment by to11mtm

More or less agree with this;

I've done a few road trips (2023, 2024, 2025) where It was 10 or more hours of driving without even factoring stops in.

Fuel-ups can be as fast as 5 minutes, if you have a co-pilot to run in and grab whatever else you need from inside while you travel. Might have one or two longer breaks in there for a proper lunch.

> Human endurance is more about the end-to-end time.

Yep. You also optimize for the drive itself; i.e. metering your overall methods and timing of hydration etc to avoid needing extra bathroom stops, making sure any food eaten can either be eaten quickly, or safely eaten while driving on a long boring highway (i.e. Tacos bad, simple burgers or sandwiches good.)

For an 800-ish mile drive in one day, longer stops make a huge difference from being able to make it all the way through with reasonable daylight.

> Breaks barely help at all.

Yep, too long of a break winds up having a negative effect where you get too relaxed.

Heck, in 2020 I did a shorter drive to a different region, but instead of a Ford Maverick that got 35-40MPG and 400+ miles to a tank, I was in my WRX which got maybe 330-ish miles per tank, and the extra stops definitely had me much more drained by the end of the trip.

(Although, it's also worth noting that the Maverick is a lot more 'comfy' than my WRX from a posture standpoint, which may have been a factor.)