You can help mitigate this on Teslas (and probably others) by leaving the car plugged.
The Model S has a 6kW battery heater, which will hit your range while driving in addition to the lower battery function - to help this, if possible when going on a long journey with the Tesla, put it on a supercharger for a few minutes - it will heat the battery up.
I did the I-70 and I-15 route all the way back in 2016 in a Tesla - it was fine. The only possibly reasonable and normal explanation I can give is if he was trying to avoid winter driving.
I also wonder if he was aiming towards Mexico and a change of plans occurred...
I traveled quite extensively around inner Alaska in the winter of 2021. It was a lot more civilized than many other areas of the country... let alone the blue cities. Honestly, Alaska is great (outside of Anchorage, which has become a smaller, colder Seattle)
That's a cellular SOS mode - the iPhone 10 does not have the satellite hardware. Basically that means the phone can see a mobile network, but is not authorized to roam on it. For example, you have T-Mobile and there is only an AT&T tower available. You can use it to call 911/112, but not anything else.
On the devices with the satellite hardware, a different icon appears in satellite SOS mode. It appears in the last image on this page in the screenshot if "Emergency SOS": https://support.apple.com/en-us/101573
In my opinion, while much better than nothing, the emergency SOS on iPhones definitely is NOT a replacement for true satellite phones and communicators (like a Garmin inReach).
The connection to the GlobalStar satellite requires quite a lot of power, which is difficult to achieve from a small device, so using the satellite SOS requires aiming the phone and is rather slow, whereas the InReach devices and other satellite devices have quite large antennas and do not have this issue. Note how chonky the Iridium 9575 Extreme is - this is a current model, the older ones are even bulkier: https://www.iridium.com/products/iridium-extreme/
The other issue with iPhone satellite SOS is that if it sees any mobile network at all - even one that is completely unusable (poor signal or a network issue where the tower works but can't connect upstream) it won't even let you connect to satellite. You cannot currently force the satellite SOS, or use it from airplane mode, which means if you don't put the phone in airplane mode while in edge cases like hiking in the mountains, you'll also experience terrible battery life.
Because of these, I'd say if you're going Innawoods/out of range on purpose, take an InReach or some other real sat device- they're not super expensive, and they work much better. At the same time, the existence of the satellite SOS as a last resort is a good thing, and it will/has probably helped some people.
That being said, I'm very interested to see how T-Mobile/Starlink LTE roaming works out.
It's Globalstar, one of the older satellite phone networks: https://www.theverge.com/2024/11/1/24285347/apple-globalstar-investment-expansion-emergency-sos-satellite
Another one is Iridium - which until Starlink hit the poles was the only truly global satellite phone network. The phones basically work anywhere except inside a building/under a cover. Unfortunately, on the original GlobalStar and Iridium networks, data service is/was abysmal - Iridium's raw data speed is 2400 baud or 2.4 kilobits/s. Some of their newer devices are a bit faster. It's also extremely expensive compared to Starlink.
Satellite phones are fairly common in Alaska and on boats that travel in the open ocean. Garmin InReach communicators use the Iridium network.
https://archive.is/M1od4 Archived around 14:00 utc.
Order page is still in their portal, but it doesn't work on the weekend: https://thehouse.misofi.net/index.asp?&intOrderID=&intCustomerID=
Link from Drew Ferguson's site: https://ferguson.house.gov/news/documentsingle.aspx?DocumentID=3866
https://rumble.com/v5alsc4-elon-musk-interviews-donald-trump-mon-800-pm-et-.html Badlands media got in - seems there are some techical issues.
Technical term is Platform Screen Doors - good technology.
Also used sometimes in Europe - in London on the Elizabeth Line and the Jubilee Line extension, for example.
They also make the station much less noisy, and allow air conditioning or heating the platform area.
Some airport peoplemovers in the US effectively have this as well (ATL, MCO, DEN, EWR, JFK, SFO, MIA, probably others)