Gas car parked at a Supercharger

[BrianC]

Couple quick things that always bother me with these threads

1) DO NOT TOUCH OTHER PEOPLES CARS! This is a great way to meet the wrong person and the police get involved with the aftermath of what breaks out.
2) If you dont own the parking lot and the place that does own it does nothing, you have no right to do anything.
3) TELSA needs to start getting some ad money going and letting people know what superchargers and the vehicles they make are. My parents still have no idea how great these cars are after about a few dozen times explaining to them.
4) DO NOT TOUCH OTHER PEOPLES CARS

 

[jeffro01]

I say key their cars and slash their tires, that'll show 'em...

Seriously though, you're going to have people who park there intentionally because they think it's some sort of hilarious game or they want to stick to "rich" people. I know a few people like that who brag about parking in EV stalls... I had an argument with a BMW owner in March at a garage in Oakland where he was about to park his BMW in a clearly marked EV stall only me behind him I honked furiously and pointed at the sign before he got the gist and moved (our Volt which needed a charge to make it back home without using gas), only to come back and ask me what my problem was pointing out that I had a gas engine so I didn't need to charge so what's it matter? I was less than polite in my response, I'll just leave it at that...

The long term solution to this problem is legislation that makes it easier for people to be towed, at their expense, for parking in EV designated spaces. I believe a few states already have such laws, and then enforce them. I can promise you that no level of ideology or seriously misplaced humor will return once someone pays to get their car back...

Jeff

 

[artsci]

Believe it or not Delanman told me he saw some kids put the Supercharger plug into their gas tank, thinking it was a gas pump. Stupid? Out to lunch may be a better description.

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Tesla could very easily go a long way towards fixing this problem, they just need to replace those ridiculous and completely useless red signs with the appropriate no parking except for EV charging signs, with a picture of a tow truck at the bottom, and then start towing.

People won't make the same mistake again.

Easy to say but Tesla does not control these spaces -- the property owner does. Tesla has no legal right to enforcement. Every supercharger location requires a deal with the property holder, some much better than others.

 

[sorka]

Since it was a Tesla destination charging...I thought it was up to the hotel.

The hotel front desk did not want to do anything about moving the other truck...

What a bummer !

Right, they said they couldn't do anything about but i guess that's because they didn't *want* to do anything about since they could have had it towed.

 

[Electricfan]

Since it was a Tesla destination charging...I thought it was up to the hotel.

The hotel front desk did not want to do anything about moving the other truck...

What a bummer !

The only hotel I've charged at had an orange cone blocking the spot. Maybe suggest that for future use. I guess a bold ICE owner would move it anyway, but at least its putting them to a little more trouble, and they can't claim innocence so easily. "Oh, I didn't know I couldn't move that orange cone..." doesn't work so well.

 

[ozweepay]

I want traffic spikes on every SC stall that lower when you press a button on your MS console.

Then I want a Supercharging snake to automatically start charging my car without my having to manually insert the plug.

And then I want a cookie. Chocolate chip, preferably.

 

[green1]

Easy to say but Tesla does not control these spaces -- the property owner does. Tesla has no legal right to enforcement. Every supercharger location requires a deal with the property holder, some much better than others.

And yet Tesla arranges with the property owner to put up signs that mean absolutely nothing, when I bet every single one of them would have accepted a useful no parking sign in place of the red one that nobody honours because it has no meaning.

This isn't property owners blocking Tesla from doing the right thing, this is Tesla being stupid and intentionally using useless signs.

They may not be able to deal with towing, but they can absolutely put up no parking signs.

 

[wdolson]

I want traffic spikes on every SC stall that lower when you press a button on your MS console.

Then I want a Supercharging snake to automatically start charging my car without my having to manually insert the plug.

And then I want a cookie. Chocolate chip, preferably.

I don't think spikes would be necessary, but some kind of barrier that could only be lowered by a car equipped for supercharging would go a long ways towards preventing this problem. It could be done with a firmware upgrade, though to do it well would probably require new hardware on the car.

As for the snake, I posted a while back that I think Tesla is thinking about that technology for a Supercharger upgrade at some point in the future.

 

[artsci]

And yet Tesla arranges with the property owner to put up signs that mean absolutely nothing, when I bet every single one of them would have accepted a useful no parking sign in place of the red one that nobody honours because it has no meaning.

This isn't property owners blocking Tesla from doing the right thing, this is Tesla being stupid and intentionally using useless signs.

They may not be able to deal with towing, but they can absolutely put up no parking signs.

I met totally by chance at the Indpendence, MO supercharger on my cross-country drive the contractor who does the supercharger installations nationwide for Tesla. While it's easy to assume that Tesla controls what signs get posted and facile to accuse then of being stupid, that's not the situation. Based on what the contractor told me the property owner makes that determination based on what it's willing to enforce. That's why the signage varies from place to place, as does the configuration of the superchargers themselves. On the cross country trip I saw many different and sometimes odd supercharger configurations and signage that varied from threats to tow for illegal parkers and the familiar 30 minute warning.

 

[AlanSqB]

We should have a name for the X plus trailer combo blocking a stall...

I'm voting for "X'd out."

 

[nbbody]

Well, yes... but the reason these stations are usually "front and center" is because that is closer to the building and hence closer to the building's electrical supply. Running cabling can be the most expensive part of installing charging stations.

Most of the superchargers I have seen have had their own service drop and transformer, with the exception of one at a mall in Bethesda. In those cases, the gear was fairly close to the utility poles. Distance from the secondary side of transformer to inverters is a lot more important than primary side, because of voltage drop.

 

[smartypnz]

Problem with installing at rest areas is the availability of that kind of power. Shopping malls are much easier.

 

[e-FTW]

Problem with installing at rest areas is the availability of that kind of power. Shopping malls are much easier.

Yes, I know. But one can only wonder, since it seems like such a good fit. Maybe a solar plus power wall setup? Lots of power walls...

 

[ozweepay]

Is it known what the contract is for Tesla and the property owner? How does Tesla pitch the idea to them?

"You will get a lot of high net worth people stopping in for a coffee, snack, or other purchase, plus exposure for your brand, for approx 40 mins as they pass through."

??

 

[wdolson]

Is it known what the contract is for Tesla and the property owner? How does Tesla pitch the idea to them?

"You will get a lot of high net worth people stopping in for a coffee, snack, or other purchase, plus exposure for your brand, for approx 40 mins as they pass through."

??

The pitch probably is something like that. For retailers and restaurants, it's a captive audience. Unlike with ICE where people stop for 10 minutes, it takes longer to refuel a Tesla, so having something for people to do while charging is good for business.

 

[mknox]

Most of the superchargers I have seen have had their own service drop and transformer, with the exception of one at a mall in Bethesda. In those cases, the gear was fairly close to the utility poles. Distance from the secondary side of transformer to inverters is a lot more important than primary side, because of voltage drop.

Yes. I was referring to Level 2 stations in that comment. Although there is one Supercharger location that I frequent and it is right up front and center by a hotel entrance. It was constantly getting ICE'd. It ended up costing Tesla more in utility fees to locate it there, because utility power was closer to the far end of the parking lot, but the property owner wanted it right up front. Kind of a shame, because the other end of the lot is always free of cars, and is a closer walk to some of the other nearby amenities. I guess the property owner wanted users to come to his restaurant in the hotel and not the others nearby.

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Tesla could very easily go a long way towards fixing this problem, they just need to replace those ridiculous and completely useless red signs with the appropriate no parking except for EV charging signs, with a picture of a tow truck at the bottom, and then start towing.

At some locations, Tesla has been adding this sign below the somewhat confusing Tesla one:

 

[ggr]

We already have a term for this: ICEing. And we already have a very extensive thread, making pretty much everything above just a rehash of what has gone before. Merge?

 

[JenniferQ]

I may have some insight on this: Back in Austin, at a hospital parking lot, there were a lot of EV spots up front but i did not see chargers there and there truly are very few EV cars in Texas, or were then anyway. So, everyone parked in them, but especially BIG trucks, Suburbans, etc. I think they also said something like EV/Carpool parking or something. So it really did look like "preferred" parking spots rather than necessity spots. I'll have to take a look next time I'm back and see if there were actually any chargers there, because if so, they were always ICEd by monster trucks.

 

[TexasEV]

I may have some insight on this: Back in Austin, at a hospital parking lot, there were a lot of EV spots up front but i did not see chargers there and there truly are very few EV cars in Texas, or were then anyway. So, everyone parked in them, but especially BIG trucks, Suburbans, etc. I think they also said something like EV/Carpool parking or something. So it really did look like "preferred" parking spots rather than necessity spots. I'll have to take a look next time I'm back and see if there were actually any chargers there, because if so, they were always ICEd by monster trucks.

Those preferred parking spots for EVs are to get the building LEED points for being "green". The program is worse than useless-- it actually does a disservice by contributing to the image of EV owners being entitled. It's really unlikely anyone would buy an EV to get a better parking space. What we want are charging spaces, and we don't mind walking from a distant part of the parking lot to have them. LEED points should be given for providing EV charging, not preferred parking.

 

[green1]

At some locations, Tesla has been adding this sign below the somewhat confusing Tesla one:

View attachment 97067

Honestly it should REPLACE the red one, but at least that's the right sign to have there. I just wish they'd put them everywhere.