They get to park "postal style" with the driver right at the curb. In a way that is preferable to always having to step out into traffic. On the other hand when you pull out it is a little harder to use the passenger side view to judge your merge opportunities. Sometimes the US Postal Service has bought UK spec vehicles just so the driver is next to the box...
I was under the impression Mail Trucks were custom made vehicles, so why would they buy UK spec? (Unless you just mean UK spec as in right hand side steering wheel) (Oh yeah, you can PM me the answer so we don't continue getting off topic). -Shark2k
Yes, that is what I meant - to get right hand drive without having to custom make something. This site said: I also recall reading sometime a while back about a British versions of some vehicle the USPS had ordered.
Glacier Blue Roadster using the 120V mobile charger in the Google parking lot, along with a couple Zap Xebras: [see also here] btw, I don't think it's a good idea to have that cord under tension.
Yes. And it's not like the owner is strapped for cable. If you're recharging through the home fast charger it will cut out if the cable is given a tug, and given that the intelligence in the system is the car, I assume this will also happen with the mobile charger.
Actually, there's a tension sensor in the current HPC models, but I'm guessing there's not one in the mobile charger. I also expect the tension sensor to go away in later models of the HPC.
What's HPC stand for? Why do you expect the tension senser to go away? Isn't the tension sensor a helpful warning?
High Power Connector. It is the box and cable that serves as the default home charging connection for the Roadster. Tesla has made statements that they want to make the HPC less complex and less expensive. The current HPC is a box with a tension sensor, a smoke detector, and a bit of electronics that waits to establish a communication connection with the car before sending power through the cable. Only one of the three seems important to me. I suppose it is in the abstract, but I'll bet the 2009 owners would rather have a cheaper solution with a note that says "don't yank on the cord." How much more would you pay for a fancy extension cord that has a tensor sensor? But it doesn't matter what I think. I'm just reporting my speculation based on what I've heard from Tesla. I may be completely wrong about the tension sensor, but I would personally prefer to pay less for a simpler connector.
High Power Connector. A bit of a mouthful, but I think it was Tesla's attempt to give it an accurate name, and to avoid calling it what it's not - a "charging" unit. Whoops! TomSax beat me to a reply. That's what I get for taking too long to finish posting.
Since the Avcon is the charger I assume the box is simply an adapter to allow you to connect to the Avcon.
Technically the charger is in the Roadster. The Avcon connector comes from a charge controller (or "Personal Charging Station"). Really it is just a big relay and some electronics to control when it turns off and on.
Yeah, vfx. I know about those adapter boxes. I mean the cable itself is possibly not one offered for sale.
In addition to the Tesla-compatible cable, there would need to be the pilot signal circuitry, and probably a relay (don't want 240V on that connector when attaching it).