Sentry Mode captured commuter confused? by electric vehicle chargers

[spkane]

I finally got some time to figure out how to retrieve and review the Sentry Mode video in a reasonable way. Most of it was pretty boring. Saw a few people admire the car, grabbed the video of me leaving my friend's Dodge Challenger SRT behind when taking off from an intersection, but luckily nothing bad has happened so far. That being said I noticed this video and really wish I knew what was going through this guys head. I can't really tell if he is confused, annoyed, or upset. So much so that he turns around near the end of the video to contemplate the whole situation some more.

 

[RayK]

I can't really tell if he is confused, annoyed, or upset. So much so that he turns around near the end of the video to contemplate the whole situation some more.

Perhaps he was not aware that there's EVs in the world and was wondering why someone would be gassing up their car totally unattended. Or why the "gas pump" didn't have any price or gallons display.

 

[smatthew]

Perhaps he was not aware that there's EVs in the world and was wondering why someone would be gassing up their car totally unattended. Or why the "gas pump" didn't have any price or gallons display.

Maybe this was just the first time he had seen an EV plugged in to charge. Making fun of people isn't a habit anyone should get into.

It seemed to me he was just curious about what was going on. Nothing wrong with that! How else will people learn?

 

[srs5694]

Maybe this was just the first time he had seen an EV plugged in to charge. Making fun of people isn't a habit anyone should get into.

It seemed to me he was just curious about what was going on. Nothing wrong with that! How else will people learn?

Indeed. I've had discussions with passersby who are curious about my charging my Model 3 (and the Chevy Volt I drove before my Tesla). Mostly these discussions have happened at home, since I have a driveway but no garage, so my home charging sessions are visible to anybody who happens to be walking by. Lots of people don't understand EVs and ask questions about the charging process, what it costs to drive on electricity, etc. Most recently, I and another Tesla owner had a ~5-minute discussion with somebody at a Tesla Supercharger. This person seemed to be enthusiastic about EVs, but didn't understand a lot of the practical details.

 

[spkane]

Yeah. My intention was not to make fun of him, I just really wish I knew what was going through his head.

He might simply be curious, but it was that turn and contemplate at the end of the clip that really makes me wonder if it is as simple as that. Not that this mystery is going to get solved here, of course.

 

[dmurphy]

Perhaps, he also owns an EV, and wanted to see if the cost for charging here was posted.

I’ve done (and I’m sure looked) very similar at an office building with a ChargePoint Charger. Wanted to see what the price (if any) was. Then I took a quick look at where the vehicle was plugged in, to see if it was J1772 or not. Probably even turned around after I walked away to decide if I wanted to move my car to the charging spot or not since I think the cost was cheaper than charging at home. (30 amp @ 240v with some losses= about 6kWh. I pay $0.14/kWh at home so at a penny a minute, the ChargePoint would be cheaper.)

So I probably looked very similar to this guy - checked out the pedestal, and then the plug interface.

(For the record, it was $0.01 per minute. I didn’t move to use it - had plenty of battery left and was lazy.

Just an “alternate viewpoint” - not everyone is wandering lost....

 

[spkane]

I've had discussions with passersby who are curious about my charging my Model 3 (and the Chevy Volt I drove before my Tesla).

I love talking about EVs with folks who are curious about the details. I guess I just don't really expect people to be super surprised to see a plug in car nowadays, even if they aren't very familiar with them.

 

[KenC]

I like dmurphy's answer. The only other thought I had was perhaps he assumed Teslas could only charge at Superchargers, and so was a bit puzzled seeing a Tesla at a non-Supercharger.

 

[DavidElg]

I saw things a little different, in my head he was going.. "Oh hey, I didn't know there was an EV charging area here. Let me check this out.. What are these CharePoint? Blink? What's the cost per kwh? Very cool, I should bring my Leaf here next time"

 

[MountainJedi]

I like dmurphy's answer. The only other thought I had was perhaps he assumed Teslas could only charge at Superchargers, and so was a bit puzzled seeing a Tesla at a non-Supercharger.

This seems to be a fairly common belief among people I've talked to about my Tesla. I've had to explain to nearly everyone that Tesla's don't have to charge at a Supercharger and don't have to have a special wall charger at home.