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Supercharger Burn-in: Darien

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As always, I start a post by expressing my gratitude to Elon, George and the Tesla team for such a magnificent vehicle - and now for building out the supercharge network as committed. Darien is a huge add for us in New England, as it is now much easier to get back and forth to NYC without having to top off in the city.

We just completed our 3rd road trip in the last 6 months - we are traveling more now that we have an EV than we did with an ice car - it's such a pleasure to drive, and cost and convenience are far superior.

That said, there is a lot of learning to do in the provisioning process for new superchargers - as the network is building out, I hope the Tesla team can benefit from some feedback.

- I called Telsa road service twice to confirm that Darien was online after receiving the email; both times, the Tesla rep said 'let me check' and confirmed a few minutes later. This was great to hear as I had a July 4th trip planned to White Plains, and it made it easier to get to NYC for the fireworks

- We drove past the northbound side, and several miles later found the southbound service stop 'closed for construction' so we had to loop around and head back north - would have been good to know that

- Then, we found ice cars in each of the 4 Tesla spots - we found 2 of the spots had no signage whatsoever (in contrast to Milford which is clearly marked), and two had insufficient signage (ok to park here if your car is efficient)

- We went into the service area and was directed to the manager of the Subway who is the site manager - he was quite helpful, but couldn't do too much - he did make an announcement and this did get a BMW from Brooklyn to move, so I was able to get charging after about 15 minutes

- Then, a 60KW pulled up heading to Wilmington - and we again had to go to the site manager - he put cones up on two of the spots and got another ice car to move (two people moved the cones and parked ice cars in our spots again). Since there was no signage, you can't blame the ice drivers

- The site manager then said signage was Telsa's responsibility - I called the roadside number and they tried to find someone local to address the problem - as of midnight, there were still no signs and ice cars continued to park in the Tesla spots

- Also, at least two of the supercharges were not quite ready for us - both were clamped and it was not clear they were ready for us even if someone had a wire cutter

Net: as Tesla builds out its supercharger network, work is needed on the provisioning process and readiness criteria - otherwise, the risk of a high profile brodering incident is high

Jack
 
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You can totally blame the ICE drivers, common sense should tell them not to park in a spot designated for electric vehicle charging. They must have known the spots were for electric vehicles as the 2 other spots had signs, a reasonable person can make the connection that even though there is no sign, the parking spot is for EVs seeing as how the same equipment is there.
 
Was there the other day and saw the same lack of signage and ICE issues...wrote to Tesla Ownership at ownership.teslamotors.com and within 15 minutes go this respons

"Hi Charles,

My name is William and I’m part of the Ownership Experience Team at Tesla Motors.

Thanks for letting us know about your experience with the Darien Supercharger location. I’ll send your note over to our Supercharger team, and we’ll work to ensure that those spaces are properly marked for Tesla owners only.

In the mean time, thanks for utilizing the Supercharger network, and let us know about any of the experience, whether good or bad. We want to know how everything is running and want to make sure that our customers can use this network to the best of its capacity.

Additionally, if you have any more questions or concerns, contact us at [email protected] or email me directly. I’ll do my best to provide a prompt response.


Best Regards,
William ------------- |Ownership Experience Advocate
3500 Deer Creek Rd. | Palo Alto, CA 94304
p 877.79.TESLA (877.798.3752)
|e[email protected]

 
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I blame ICE drivers!

The obvious solution: after SuperCharging, park the Model S at the fuel island, hopefully blocking multiple gas pumps.
If someone stops to question you, just say "just returning the favor, since the ICE car drivers have no issues blocking our EV charging spots, we have no issue blocking your gasoline pumps" gets the point accross, doesn't it?
 
The obvious solution: after SuperCharging, park the Model S at the fuel island, hopefully blocking multiple gas pumps.
If someone stops to question you, just say "just returning the favor, since the ICE car drivers have no issues blocking our EV charging spots, we have no issue blocking your gasoline pumps" gets the point accross, doesn't it?
It might get you keyed and/or towed. And it's also sinking to their level....
 
The obvious solution: after SuperCharging, park the Model S at the fuel island, hopefully blocking multiple gas pumps.
If someone stops to question you, just say "just returning the favor, since the ICE car drivers have no issues blocking our EV charging spots, we have no issue blocking your gasoline pumps" gets the point accross, doesn't it?

Here is a simple solution: Why not install IP video camera for each parking slot? Tesla doesn't have to monitor it -- just let's people who uses supercharge station to monitor and keep an eye out before they would arrive. If there is an ICE'd occurrence, an email of text message can be sent to Tesla Customer Service so they can call a towing service.
 
Here is a simple solution: Why not install IP video camera for each parking slot? Tesla doesn't have to monitor it -- just let's people who uses supercharge station to monitor and keep an eye out before they would arrive. If there is an ICE'd occurrence, an email of text message can be sent to Tesla Customer Service so they can call a towing service.

I don't think Tesla wants to be towing people and the restaurants near there sure as hell don't want that. You're talking about stranding families. Would be a mess. Signage should be enough. The other option is to not make the Tesla spots prime spots where people will want to park...
 
I don't think Tesla wants to be towing people and the restaurants near there sure as hell don't want that. You're talking about stranding families. Would be a mess. Signage should be enough. The other option is to not make the Tesla spots prime spots where people will want to park...

The Tesla spots are nearest to where getting power to them is easiest.
If they made the cables longer, you could park behind the offending ICE and still charge.
Then they would have to wait for you, also sends a message without anyone having to be towed.

Edit: new thought high amperage Model S extension cord, kept inside the rest area for when a car is ICEd, would only be needed if the ICE driver doesn't respond to the paging system announcement "NY plate XYZZY, your car is on fire" :)
 
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Thanks for the suggestion and email for the ownership experience wormhole - I followed-up there too. This is not only an issue for Darien, but a more general problem that can affect our community if not managed properly.

Frankly, as much as i'd like to - and as much as I let the BMW owner know my PoV - this one's one us. We can't expect an ice owner to know what a supercharger is - and to avoid a prime spot when there is no signage. It puts us in an odd situation. As for blocking the petrol bays - there are 50 or more of them, so that would take a lot of S's. There is no such problem at Milford when the signage is there - we need to ensure that there is good readiness criteria before a station is declared open.

The spots are in a good location (broder-proof) and should be fine with the proper signage.
 
I don't think Tesla wants to be towing people and the restaurants near there sure as hell don't want that. You're talking about stranding families. Would be a mess. Signage should be enough. The other option is to not make the Tesla spots prime spots where people will want to park...

Towing might be a bit over the top - but a $200 ticket would seem to be appropriate. The facility manager does not have the authority to do so, and indicated that even when semi's park in fire lanes - all he can do is call the CT state police - not encouraging.

I'll be writing to the CT DOT EV advocate who did the milford and darien deals and see if he has any suggestions - as zesty indicates above, good signage should do - but tagging violators seems fair given the impact on us - it was enough to have a negative impact on the trip to have to fight that battle, even with a receptive site manager.
 
I used Darien Friday night. Wasn't iced in, but did get a lot of questions.
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- We drove past the northbound side, and several miles later found the southbound service stop 'closed for construction' so we had to loop around and head back north - would have been good to know that

I don't know if you got the e-mail (did they send to everyone east of the Mississippi? just east coast? just northeast?), but it did say "DARIEN NORTHBOUND I-95 SUPERCHARGER" (all caps theirs, not mine). The web site says "I-95 North," which would be more consistent as "Northbound" like the e-mail and like the Milford ones ("Northbound" and "Southbound"). But yeah, on the phone it would've been good to clarify. I believe the Milford ones came online together. Maybe they figured if someone knows enough to ask, they know where it is/what the deal is.

Anyway, sorry for the repeated ICEing. ;-( And thanks for the detailed report! I wonder if they'll announce when the clamped ones are available, or if we'll need spies like you checking it out. ;-)
 
After the first few moves you've already lost. Getting my car keyed is a loss, regardless of anything else that happens.

Of course.

Plus, what do the people who are at the gas pump have to do with the people blocking the charging station? When I was ICE only, I don't recall any compulsion to block EV charging stations. Punishing innocents doesn't seem to be particularly helpful.