Follow Slashdot blog updates by subscribing to our blog RSS feed

The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way. Find Charging Stations

Maybe if you folks in the middle of the country weren't so determined to roll coal or block EV charging stations [businessinsider.com], maybe you could be included.

Car companies have sales figures, they know what markets are buying EVs.

The federal money in the recent bills for charger networks actually is spread our nationwide, as it should be.

Mercedes putting chargers where they sell a bunch of Mercedes is free market at work

Maybe best not to leave ciritical infrastructure to those who are going to naturally gravitate to what maximizes profits

Why do you keep voting for people who keep making your state shitty and poor?

This will change in time, right now EV chargers are the second class citizens at the gas station, eventually that will flip and the chargers will be under cover

Hell be green about it: I'm an advocate for solar carports and parking lot covers.

It's actually quite simple: Standard solar panels are strong enough to act as roofing structures, with only support to hold them in place necessary. While they're not quite suited for being waterproof enough for actual roofs, if the only object is to keep most of the sun and rain off, they work excellently.

As a bonus, because you're installing solar, the whole structure(you're elevating it to keep the panels out of the car'

For the past 20 years I have been with you but biofuel is only second to fusion in the "it's only 10 years away!"

Algae based fuels, cellulosic ethanol, kudzu as feedstock. All those things people accuse battery tech of doing (all announcements, no progress) is the story of biuofuels. Corn ethanol turned out to be a huge bust, and even the darling of the sector biodiesel has never escaped it's niche commercial applications and looks to always be a small fraction of the market.

Meanwhile year over year batt

Also I would say that biofuels should still be researched and I think still will have an impact in commercial and industrial uses (heavy disel construction and mining and such) but for passenger vehichles that boat has sailed, it's over.

1. Range: 300 miles, like the recent Teslas, is too short for you? 2. Stuck in a traffic jam: Unlike a car, which is at its most wasteful of fuel when stopped, EVs aren't burning electricity when they're not moving. Well, other than relatively minor climate control/entertainment(like radio) costs. Unless you're stuck in a traffic jam for literally days, odds are that the gasoline vehicles will run out faster than the EVs will. 3. Charging does take a bit longer, but you don't need to visit a specialized station to refill it. You can reload at home, when you don't care. If you're traveling, just taking breaks like you're supposed to gives you plenty of time to keep the car charged. 4. Batteries very expensive once they die: I have to point that the battery cost has been dropping like a rock. Since 1991, it's dropped 97%. [fool.com] I think that's a bigger drop than with solar panels! At the same time, expected lifespan has increased as well, to the point that Tesla is anticipating that most of their cars will never need a battery change. 5. Meanwhile, you're saving money on avoided gasoline and maintenance. Just take the money you WOULD have spent on maintaining a gasoline car(oil changes and such) and odds are you'll be able to buy a new battery when the old one finally dies(short of things like an accident or abuse).

You don't have to stand there holding the charger while it works. Plug in and leave. So there is less need for cover.

It would be nice, but they probably see it as a way to make you go wait in the shopping area.

Didn't GM and Ford get the same thing, times 5, done for one-fifth of the cost by paying Congresscritters to funnel taxpayer funds into this?

https://www.whitehouse.gov/bri... [whitehouse.gov]

here's the deal; its been mentioned in the summary but its worth a thread of its own.

I own a model 3 tesla and when I was on the forum (a few years ago), I remember a thread where a woman was truly concerned about charging in an unknown location late at nite. I fully understand that; you are stuck there for 20 minutes or more and if its late at night, you may be the only one there. IT IS UNSAFE!

what would solve this, at least going a long way: ejectable charge ports. not hard to do, just some engineering. magnetic would even work, but solenoid (which is still magnetic..) is also a workable method. FROM INSIDE YOUR CAR, it would be so cool to just hit the 'emergency depart' button and have any connected charging cables disconnect so you can get out of there, fast.

not kidding. think about it. this is not liquid gas. ejecting an electrical plug is not unsafe. its just a cost issue.

I used to work in the car industry and tbh, I never was able to convince people in my companies to listen to new ideas like this. but I offer this so that someone who reads this MAY be able to talk their boss into giving this some serious thought.

first company that does this and someone's life is saved, will get some serious payback in PR value.

again, this is not gas, eject a power plug and worst that happens is that someone has to pick it up next time when they charge their car.

I really hope some vendor runs with this idea. someday.

there's no fear mongering that I'm aware of. no one seems to care about the safety issue. I raised it and as a car owner who sits at a supercharger for 30 minutes or more, often enough, I'm fully aware of how much of a sitting duck you are and if some strange person wants to make trouble, you can't just pull away and leave. you MUST leave the car and unhook the charge cable before you can drive off.

you dont think that's a safety issue? even with gas cars, you CAN just drive off. I did it when I was rea

Okay, you tested driving off with gasoline filling. Which probably left a hazardous situation at the gas station, with gasoline possibly spewing everywhere. I'm not sure that the automatic stops would function well in that case.

Has anybody actually tested what happens if you try to drive off with the charging cable still in place? Do they actually have an interlock that disables your vehicle until it is unplugged? Or would the car move - and some part of the cable or connection would eventually rip off if

the snap nozzle is designed to fail gracefully. I was not the first to have this happen. and gas did not spew all over. I dont remember any coming out (this was over 40 years ago; I said I was just learning to drive. the story, if you have to have it: growing up in NJ, they insist that they fill your car, so you're not even given the option of self-serve. you give the credit card to the guy, he starts to fill you up and he lets you know when you're done. often its a tap on the car roof. well, you can

Even removing fear factor, it's a very good engineering idea to automated the ejection and cable collection at the end of the charging. There is no reason for the user to have to go back outside. An ejection and recollection system are not going to be a determining factor in the cost of the charging base (which is expensive for other reasons), while adding a lot of convenience when charging in adverse weather. It also visibly signals the station as free while avoiding users to touch each other's car if a ch

Might not be a big deal because of the spread of cell phones and cameras. IE if anybody pulls stuff with you at a charging station, they're likely on multiple cameras. Teslas themselves record. There's probably a camera watching the charging stations(expensive vandalism target), etc... You're locking in your car, so if they're not fast enough, 911 means police are on their way. Etc...

what if the 'person' pulling stuff is, perhaps, a bear?

one of the car companies (that makes electric trucks) wants to locate chargers out in the middle of nowhere (camping theme, I guess). and so the bear analogy is not unrealistic.

but even if its 'just' a human attacker, you think getting the attack on video is of any solace to the person who got attacked?

I dont mean to insult you, but you are not thinking this thru. I dont see why anyone would object to a fast disconnect on the charge cable so you can g

What happens if they simply made it so you could just drive off with it plugged in? Ejection be damned and the line just snaps off (of course you look like a fool on the road). People do that at gas stations all the time. Also, they need to have the plug robotic so you don't have to get out of the car even to plug it in.

first company that does this and someone's life is saved, will get some serious payback in PR value.

first company that does this and someone's life is saved, will get some serious payback in PR value.

Before we point to lives being saved can you point to lives being lost? I know I'm a privileged westerner but generally the people here don't go around raping and killing women charging their Teslas. They aren't as easy targets as you may think. If you're in your car you have a somewhat protective bubble. Locking the doors alone affords you enough time to call the police.

Honestly while I won't go so far as to say it sounds like a solution looking for a problem, it definitely does sound like a solution for a

I've made several thousand mile plus road trips and I don't use any Apps for charging, I just plug into the SuperCharger.

There may be more comments in this discussion. Without JavaScript enabled, you might want to turn on Classic Discussion System in your preferences instead.

Qualcomm's Going Toe-To-Toe With Apple's Satellite Messaging Feature

ChatGPT Creator In Talks For Tender Offer That Would Give It $29 Billion Valuation

Electric Vehicle Charging Points How many QA engineers does it take to screw in a lightbulb? 3: 1 to screw it in and 2 to say "I told you so" when it doesn't work.