Having been away from the car when it finished charging it could take more than 5 minutes to get back to the car. I know I'm an anomaly, but I don't always carry my cell phone with me and may not have it to connect to the car with the Tesla app and know when it's done. Though that would only happen on a regional day trip when I needed to charge to get home. On a longer trip I would have my cell phone.
Things will probably change when the Model 3 comes along, but congestion at Northwest superchargers isn't currently an issue. I have driven in California and the traffic on those superchargers is much higher than the NW. I was careful to be back to the car before it was done charging most of the time. The one time in California it was done before I got back to the car, my car was the only one there when I got back and it was only about 10 minutes. In that case I was at a restaurant and waiting for the bill when the car finished charging. I was alone and I may have had some people in the restaurant thinking I was dining and dashing if I had run out after eating to move the car.
For me, a white guy with about 1/2 white hair people don't tend to be terribly suspicious of me, but that is different for some ethnic groups and for younger people. The Model 3 will be affordable to more younger people and it's likely there will be some pretty youthful people traveling alone and some restaurant people might call the cops first and ask questions later. And some people are suspicious of people of certain ethnic groups regardless of their age.
I can see some potential bad press as Tesla owners get the cops called on them because they ran out of a restaurant to move their car to avoid parking charges.
Things will probably change when the Model 3 comes along, but congestion at Northwest superchargers isn't currently an issue. I have driven in California and the traffic on those superchargers is much higher than the NW. I was careful to be back to the car before it was done charging most of the time. The one time in California it was done before I got back to the car, my car was the only one there when I got back and it was only about 10 minutes. In that case I was at a restaurant and waiting for the bill when the car finished charging. I was alone and I may have had some people in the restaurant thinking I was dining and dashing if I had run out after eating to move the car.
For me, a white guy with about 1/2 white hair people don't tend to be terribly suspicious of me, but that is different for some ethnic groups and for younger people. The Model 3 will be affordable to more younger people and it's likely there will be some pretty youthful people traveling alone and some restaurant people might call the cops first and ask questions later. And some people are suspicious of people of certain ethnic groups regardless of their age.
I can see some potential bad press as Tesla owners get the cops called on them because they ran out of a restaurant to move their car to avoid parking charges.
