I still don’t get why the cars cant create a virtual line themselves .. thus allowing people to know the wait time and park and/or shop until their number comes up. Pretty simple to coordinate since all the cars can talk to Tesla.
I have been advocating for a reservation system (a bit different than just a virtual line) for a while. The feedback I've gotten is that it's either unnecessary, impossible to implement, or inherently unfair. Ironically, such a system would create the opposite of an idle fee: a no-show fee!
It does seem like if one was navigating to a Supercharger, with an expected arrival time, the system should be able to reserve a slot or place in line more or less automatically for you in advance of your arrival. Once enabled, you would be assigned a slot at say 15 minutes before arrival. At that point, in the event that there is only one open stall available and someone without a reservation pulls up, the stall will not initiate a charge (they should have made their own reservation en route to the Supercharger). If you fail to show within a 5 minute grace period, or cancel inside the 15 minute window, and the one empty stall situation exists, you would be assessed a no-show fee and your reservation cancelled (opening up the stall for the next reservation holder or people that just show up without a reservation).
Your virtual line idea is basically a subset of this concept, except you are assigned a slot on site.
The idea is not without its challenges:
What do you do about physically damaged, ICEd, or inaccessible stalls that Tesla can't automatically detect that you might get assigned to?
What is the UI? Is it completely automatic, and if so, how does it differentiate between a car just driving up to the shopping center that hosts the site without intending to plug in? Instead, would there be a prompt that detected that you were in the area (or navigating to the site) and asked if you wanted to join the queue/reserve a slot?
How does this all work if/when the station is open to non-Tesla vehicles? Is all this done through the app? Is it manual? automatic? semi-automatic?
How about those that need pull-in stalls, or handicapped stalls, or a stall with a CCS adapter (see previous one)?
How do spontaneous arrivals slot in? Are they required to grab a reservation/queue slot? What happens if they cannot (poor signal)?
I don't think any of those are insurmountable (except maybe the first one--that worries me) but they are things that would have to be thought out.