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Charge Rage: Electric Cars Are Making People Meaner In California
HughPickens.com writes: Matt Richtel reports that the push to make the state greener with electric cars is having an unintended side effect: It is making some people meaner. The bad moods stem from the challenges drivers face finding recharging spots for their battery-powered cars. Unlike gas stations, charging stations are not yet in great supply, and that has led to sharp-elbowed competition. According to Richtel, electric-vehicle owners are unplugging one another's cars, trading insults, and creating black markets and side deals to trade spots in corporate parking lots. The too-few-outlets problem is a familiar one in crowded cafes and airports, where people want to charge their phones or laptops. But the need can be more acute with cars — will their owners have enough juice to make it home? — and manners often go out the window. "Cars are getting unplugged while they are actively charging, and that's a problem," says Peter Graf. "Employees are calling and messaging each other, saying, 'I see you're fully charged, can you please move your car?'"
The problem is that installation of electric vehicle charging ports at some companies has not kept pace with soaring demand, creating thorny etiquette issues in the workplace. German software company SAP installed 16 electric vehicle charging ports in 2010 at its Palo Alto campus for the handful of employees who owned electric vehicles. Now there are far more electric cars than chargers. Sixty-one of the roughly 1,800 employees on the campus now drive a plug-in vehicle, overwhelming the 16 available chargers. And as demand for chargers exceeds supply, there have been notorious incidents of "charge rage." Companies are finding that they need one charging port for every two of their employees' electric vehicles. "If you don't maintain a 2-to-1 ratio, you are dead," said ChargePoint CEO Pat Romano. "Having two chargers and 20 electric cars is worse than having no chargers and 20 electric cars. If you are going to do this, you have to be willing to continue to scale it."
The problem is that installation of electric vehicle charging ports at some companies has not kept pace with soaring demand, creating thorny etiquette issues in the workplace. German software company SAP installed 16 electric vehicle charging ports in 2010 at its Palo Alto campus for the handful of employees who owned electric vehicles. Now there are far more electric cars than chargers. Sixty-one of the roughly 1,800 employees on the campus now drive a plug-in vehicle, overwhelming the 16 available chargers. And as demand for chargers exceeds supply, there have been notorious incidents of "charge rage." Companies are finding that they need one charging port for every two of their employees' electric vehicles. "If you don't maintain a 2-to-1 ratio, you are dead," said ChargePoint CEO Pat Romano. "Having two chargers and 20 electric cars is worse than having no chargers and 20 electric cars. If you are going to do this, you have to be willing to continue to scale it."
That will be the end of humanity
It would seem electric cars are simply giving mean people another way to express just how mean they can be.
>> Employees are calling and messaging each other, saying, 'I see you're fully charged, can you please move your car?'
Um...isn't this the way the world is supposed to work? Or is getting someone's attention and letting them know that it's time to move along now considered a microaggression?
Californians are just terrible people in general, and no amount of "green" technology or reduction in fossil fuel consumption can change their nature.
Or another alternate headline: "Rich people fight over free lunches"
Or another alternative headline:
"Demand for Electric Vehicles Outpaces Recharge Ports." This is kinda how this stuff works. Supply follows demand.
Only in Anti-Tesla Slashdot world would we get such a whacky spin like "EV's make people mean". Something tells me that there will me more charging ports put in. The shocking truth.
The shepherds did so well protecting the flock that the sheep no longer believed that wolves existed.
Oh, waah, cry me a river. I live in Ohio, and the only place I have ever found to plug in my car is in my own garage, at my home. There ARE no public charging ports, anywhere. They don't exist here. So when I hear about Californians crying because they can't conveniently find enough public charging ports, excuse me if I don't get all weepy about their struggle.
That's my idea. If they want these prime spots right near the building that also give their cars free fuel, why not require a permit and have them pay a monthly fee? Then you can use the money to build out all the outlets you need.
As the article states, it's worse to have too few than to have none.
Ah, what is the world coming to! After spending $100000 on a Tesla, people can't find recharging spots. Obviously, "for the environment", we must mandate more more recharging spots, so that the poor, environmentally conscious "middle class" of Silicon Valley can recharge their cars.
(Actually, a far bigger problem with Teslas and other electric cars is that people get quiet "insane" acceleration and start driving like mad men.)
Because they want to look "environmentally conscious", so they put two chargers in their parking lot and then add a slide about how "green" they are for the shareholders' meeting.
People pay large amounts of money for electric cars so they can feel superior to the rest of us average drivers. They are saving the environment and you are destroying it. So They are better than everyone else.
Of course people like that are more or less petty by default. So combine Petty with snootiness and you have a recipe for fights over status.
So let them pay for the charging spot. Running wire is pretty cheap.
Accurate analysis from the very first post. This is a classic economics problem, overuse of a good that is given away for free; and has a classic economic solution: put a price on it.
This is silicon valley. Make an ap for them them to sign up for their spot online.
http://www.geoffreylandis.com
Why are they giving away the electricity? Is it difficult to meter or something?
Free is the key thing here. Yes, the solution is just charge for time on the charger, and used that money to put in more chargers. But humans are uniquely curious when it comes to free stuff. Give away free stuff and everybody wants some, and they hate it when someone else gets free stuff and they don't. Charge just a little bit for it, and then it changes the whole attitude.
What is interesting is that most EV drivers probably don't need the charge to get home and carry out their daily errands. If they do then they probably made the wrong vehicle choice. They just want to charge up on someone else's dime.
Of course, there will be a few who would somehow feel entitled and would see such a change and respond.... "can you believe they are taking away our free charging!".
You can just charge for time at the charger. Time metering is cheap and easy.
You can't park within 1000 feet of the supermarket doors in their own parking lot now.
- 20 Handicapped spaces
- 6 "expectant mother" spaces
- 4 spaces to pickup internet orders
- 4 EV charging spaces
Gamingmuseum.com: Give your 3D accelerator a rest.