Supercharger is NOT your personal parking spot

[Robert.Boston]

When I was young there were no handicapped parking spots. People have learned not to park in these spots not through moral suasion but by police handing out hefty fines. A similar approach with EV spots would at least reduce ICEing. Much harder to manage the EVs that are plugged in but not charging, inasmuch as there is no standard way of telling whether a car is charging or not. With the Model S, there's no way to tell at all unless the EVSE has some indicator.

 

[cpa]

When I was young there were no handicapped parking spots. People have learned not to park in these spots not through moral suasion but by police handing out hefty fines. A similar approach with EV spots would at least reduce ICEing. Much harder to manage the EVs that are plugged in but not charging, inasmuch as there is no standard way of telling whether a car is charging or not. With the Model S, there's no way to tell at all unless the EVSE has some indicator.

"moral suasion!" I love that locution! I first encountered "suasion" in the term, gentle suasion.

 

[Robert.Boston]

"moral suasion!" I love that locution! I first encountered "suasion" in the term, gentle suasion.

Thanks--not original to me, but a handy phrase. See The Common Parlance: Suasion v. Persuasion

 

[mknox]

I think the idea is to notify at 80% charge when the rate becomes really slow with the taper-- so those who don't need the last 20% will move on and make space for others.

In my case, I had the slider set to 90% and it was about 80% when I got the notification. I wonder if it is as you say or some calculation based on reaching x% of what the owner has the slider set for?

 

[ken830]

I think therein lies the rub: A lot of activity could transpire in 1-2 hours, after one is fully charged even though upon arrival I am the only one there. I Supercharged all the way to Denver and back in June, hitting 13 different Superchargers with 16 visits. I saw 3 other Teslas; my stays were 30-45 minutes. Contrast that experience with my two most recent journeys: Oxnard had one car charging when I arrived, and six cars (including mine) when I drove off 35 minutes later. Rancho Cucamonga had 3 cars charging when I arrived, and 8 when I left 40 minutes later. Ft. Tejon had two cars charging when I arrived; I stayed with my vehicle for 50 minutes; two drove off, and three more arrived.

Yes, it is a hassle to walk a quarter-mile to shop or eat, interrupt your activities after 45 minutes just to move your car, and then walk back and resume. But you know, in the bad old days of parking meters, many had a one-hour time limit, so we were forced to return to our cars every hour to put another dime into the slot if we still had unfinished business, or risk a $25 parking violation (a lot of money for most) in the '60s.

But you wouldn't do that without leaving a contact note on your car if there were only two stalls, would you?

Since you're not at your car for that period of time (1-2 hours) how do you know how many people have come and gone? How do you know that all the stalls didn't fill at one point and people were waiting? Isn't it a hard and fast rule that one should be courteous and think of others? Superchargers are not parking spots, they are fueling spots.

Then just leave your contact information on the car. What you cannot account for is a group of drivers coming through (and it does happen), on a road trip - and they all need to charge.

Good example: Last summer the TeslaRoadTrip.org group traveled cross-country for TMC Connect and would swarm superchargers. Leaving your car unattended at a virtually empty supercharger would have delayed the group unnecessarily. No one wants to be 'that guy'. Leave your contact information on your car if you're not coming back when it finishes charging.

I can see the Supercharger stalls from across the parking lot, and really, there's no reason to move the car if there's only ever one or two cars there. If even half the stalls were occupied, then I'd move it before going into a store for 15 minutes. But if I'm at the car or can see the car and there's no shortage of open stalls (8 or 9), then why should it be moved? And having a car there definitely helps brand awareness. I'm just saying this strict rule about always moving immediately is just that -- too strict.

 

[TexasEV]

I can see the Supercharger stalls from across the parking lot, and really, there's no reason to move the car if there's only ever one or two cars there. If even half the stalls were occupied, then I'd move it before going into a store for 15 minutes. But if I'm at the car or can see the car and there's no shortage of open stalls (8 or 9), then why should it be moved? And having a car there definitely helps brand awareness. I'm just saying this strict rule about always moving immediately is just that -- too strict.

What you are saying is use common sense. That wasn't clear in earlier posts.