Stalls blocked by Tesla Owner

[whitex]

Charging, as in IDLE fee charges? Someone could legitimately move the car 10ft from the "last" stall to a parking space adjacent to the last stall. I've also seen legitimate parking on the "back side" of the stalls. Tesla would have to not charge idle fees for that tiny move. But you just can't rely on GPS for that small a move reliably.

Back to the original problem. What is the incentive for these fleet renters to leave them in front of the stall unplugged in the first place. They are only shooting themselves in the foot by raising awareness.

Nobody would probably know this is even happening if they didn't leave the car there. Maybe they are less likely to get towed if "security" sees a Tesla in front of super charger. Regardless if it's plugged in or not.

That's why I said 6ft, not 10 ft. If you moved your car less than one car length, you're still in stall parking.

As for your question why, many possible reasons I could come up with, for example:

1. Free parking. Not sure where you live, but I don't have extra 6 parking spots on my driveway.
2. You probably don't have 6 extra chargers are home either. Charging 6 cars a day is complicated at home.
3. If you are renting, you have to recharge the cars. 6 cars, full charge once a day is 6 hours of your day. By parking the cars there, you just drive up for 5 minutes twice a day, once to plug them in, once to unplug. So 2 trips, no waiting at the SC, vs. 6 trips, 1hr waiting each time.
4. You don't want people to come up to your house to pick the cars up. Just leave the key inside in a metal can and unlock remotely when customer shows up.

 

[TexasEV]

Tesla banned commercially used vehicles (taxi, Uber, etc.) from superchargers only starting with vehicles purchased after 12/15/2017. Are these pre-facelift Model S? If so, they're all old enough to be eligible for supercharging. If facelift Model S you would need to see the VIN to know if they're eligible. My guess is he bought used Teslas to do this and they're old enough to be eligible. Regardless, they should not be using supercharging stalls as their home base. If Tesla doesn't take action perhaps the property owner would.

 

[KArnold]

Is this it?
Rent a Tesla to drive for Uber/Lyft
EVFleet

If so - I assume he's making money at these rates. I wonder why he doesn't rent for longer periods? Cheaper than Turo if local and used regularly. Maybe insurance would prohibit a non-Uber/Lyft/Turo rental. Interesting idea though - but he doesn't have to abuse the system to do it. But I digress.

 

[Pinot.Noir]

Much less of an attack surface than an ICE car gas cap (which in some models are not lockable).

None of them are truly lockable if you have a flat head screwdriver handy.

 

[Bill Price]

Your point?

There are sometimes legit parking spots even closer. back to back with the stalls or one parking space over from a stall.

My point was Tesla can’t rely on GPS of the car to tell them an unplugged Tesla is taking up a stall. Which is what was suggested and explained why it won’t work.

Got it!

Your point? Obviously you have your own agenda. Mine was to answer another's question if there were nearby legit parking spots....nothing more, nothing less. Some people "read into" what other people are saying. Perhaps they have a chip on their shoulder? In any case, my only point was answering another's question, Chippy.

 

[aesculus]

Does it open using the same UMC when the car is unlocked? It sounds like either you have a unicorn, or maybe there is something wrong with your car or UMC (causing bad rf reception of UMC open signal).

Works perfectly when the car is unlocked (will sometimes you have to move the wand around a bit).

My car is a bit of a unicorn though. It is a very early Model X with an active spoiler that is not a P model.

 

[mswlogo]

Your point? Obviously you have your own agenda. Mine was to answer another's question if there were nearby legit parking spots....nothing more, nothing less. Some people "read into" what other people are saying. Perhaps they have a chip on their shoulder? In any case, my only point was answering another's question, Chippy.

We (I) got off track over who was talking about what.
You replied to my discussion around someone else's suggestion to use GPS to validate if the car is in front of the stall. And I was saying, you can't.

I had also suggested why don't they park elsewhere and suggested why they might be deliberately staying in front of the stalls.
Basically they might be parking in front of stalls to avoid other long term overnight parking rules that might apply in some locations.

 

[Bill Price]

We (I) got off track over who was talking about what.
You replied to my discussion around someone else's suggestion to use GPS to validate if the car is in front of the stall. And I was saying, you can't.

Wasn't me.

I had also suggested why don't they park elsewhere and suggested why they might be deliberately staying in front of the stalls.
Basically they might be parking in front of stalls to avoid other long term overnight parking rules that might apply in some locations.

That could be a valid reason, if it were so. However, the location of this SC is at a LaQuinta hotel where there are roughly 400 parking spots for cars and regular trucks and maybe 20 parking spots for semi-trucks. To my knowledge, there are no overnight parking rules there, but as I have never stayed overnight there, I cannot say with 100% surety that there are no rules.

 

[mswlogo]

Wasn't me.

That could be a valid reason, if it were so. However, the location of this SC is at a LaQuinta hotel where there are roughly 400 parking spots for cars and regular trucks and maybe 20 parking spots for semi-trucks. To my knowledge, there are no overnight parking rules there, but as I have never stayed overnight there, I cannot say with 100% surety that there are no rules.

But perhaps this renting company had issues at other sites and now just routinely parks in front of stalls not knowing the rules at each site.

Probably Good visibility, less vandalism etc. in front of the stalls than sitting alone out in the parking lot.

Just a hunch.

 

[mswlogo]

That's why I said 6ft, not 10 ft. If you moved your car less than one car length, you're still in stall parking.

As for your question why, many possible reasons I could come up with, for example:

1. Free parking. Not sure where you live, but I don't have extra 6 parking spots on my driveway.
2. You probably don't have 6 extra chargers are home either. Charging 6 cars a day is complicated at home.
3. If you are renting, you have to recharge the cars. 6 cars, full charge once a day is 6 hours of your day. By parking the cars there, you just drive up for 5 minutes twice a day, once to plug them in, once to unplug. So 2 trips, no waiting at the SC, vs. 6 trips, 1hr waiting each time.
4. You don't want people to come up to your house to pick the cars up. Just leave the key inside in a metal can and unlock remotely when customer shows up.

Maybe it's just laziness. He unplugs and doesn't bother to move it.

 

[Bill Price]

Tesla banned commercially used vehicles (taxi, Uber, etc.) from superchargers only starting with vehicles purchased after 12/15/2017. Are these pre-facelift Model S? If so, they're all old enough to be eligible for supercharging. If facelift Model S you would need to see the VIN to know if they're eligible. My guess is he bought used Teslas to do this and they're old enough to be eligible. Regardless, they should not be using supercharging stalls as their home base. If Tesla doesn't take action perhaps the property owner would.

I do believe you are correct. However, the property owner (LaQuinta Hotels) probably doesn't give a rat's gluteus maximus.

 

[MarcoRP]

I do believe you are correct. However, the property owner (LaQuinta Hotels) probably doesn't give a rat's gluteus maximus.

Is this at the Beech Grove Supercharger? Found these photos on PlugShare so it might be it.

 

[demundus]

This is SORTA what Tesloop did in the Indio and surrounding chargers. They would leave them plugged in and the driver would get in an ICE parked nearby and leave. A new driver would show up and park their ICE and wait for the fares to arrive before unplugging and leaving. Interesting idea that I partially support, until it got out of hand and 4 of the 8 stalls were Tesloops idling for passengers.

Glad I saw it with my own eyes, I wouldn't have believed it otherwise.

 

[GMan324]

well if someone pulls off the massive idle fee prank, Tesla might add the 'lock chargeport' option to a software update, it's a WIN-WIN.

I don’t want Tesla to change that. I want people to be able to plug me in. When EV charging spots are full, I park next to a charging car and they are kind enough to plug me in when they leave.

 

[Iowa2]

If this is indeed a business and these cars are operating not in Montana I would think a friendly call or mail in to the DMV would cause them to look into forcing the owner to at least get them registered in state. Which from the prior posting leads me to believe it would be a major cost (and possible fine) to the owner. It won't stop the parking and taking up a spot but it would cause him/her to think about what they are doing.

 

[RaeW]

At a nearby SC in Indy, I have noticed several black model S cars sitting in charging stalls not hooked up and charging, effectively blocking other Teslas from charging. Almost every time I drive by there, there is a black model S or more sitting there not charging. Upon further investigation, ALL of those black model S cars are plated in Montana. I have seen different individuals pull up in other ICE cars and drive away in these black model S cars, never the same person. Recently, I talked to another patron that was there charging and he told me the scoop about these black model S's. According to him, there are five of these black model S cars, all plated out of Montana and the guy is renting them out to drive. Apparently he advertises somewhere that people can rent these cars for a few hours, the day or a week and he charges them all free at this SC location and, I am told, is making a killing at it. Apparently, one owner that was charging there asked him about his enterprise and got a barrage of eff you and mind your own effing business, etc. etc. While it is my opinion that nobody should be running his own business renting out model S cars and charging them for free at the SC, my most obvious problem with this is the net effect of blocking several stalls while not plugged in, keeping other Tesla owners from charging their cars at those stalls. I have sent emails to Tesla customer support about this along with the VIN of the offending cars. I don't know if I'm spinning my wheels or not since I've had no response. If he is running a business that is making him money from all these cars and also blocking Tesla owners from charging, do you believe he should still be able to charge his cars freely? I have called on the 800 line also to report this individual, but after waiting longer than 10 minutes and still can't talk to someone, I've given up. Am I going about this correctly? Should I report this activity or just ignore it, and if so, how should I report it?

Infuriating for sure. I recently witnessed a LYFT driver parked blocking a SC at Darien, CT I-95 Westbound. I took pictures of his license plate, but did not do anything with them.

 

[RaeW]

I don’t want Tesla to change that. I want people to be able to plug me in. When EV charging spots are full, I park next to a charging car and they are kind enough to plug me in when they leave.

At SCs? Aren't the cords too short?

 

[wcorey]

I have sent emails to Tesla customer support about this along with the VIN of the offending cars. I don't know if I'm spinning my wheels or not since I've had no response. If he is running a business that is making him money from all these cars and also blocking Tesla owners from charging, do you believe he should still be able to charge his cars freely? I have called on the 800 line also to report this individual, but after waiting longer than 10 minutes and still can't talk to someone, I've given up. Am I going about this correctly? Should I report this activity or just ignore it, and if so, how should I report it?

Call your local state rep and senator. Also talk to your local town or city manager. Blocking a SC stall while not even using it is restraint of trade and such action should be ticketable. As for 'running a business', are they licensed to to do business in that state? I think the 'making a killing' is highly dobious.

 

[ewakko]

I was down there a few weeks ago and thought it was weird to see a bunch of Teslas parked at a crappy hotel. Fortunately, none of them were at the supercharger.

 

[ItsNotAboutTheMoney]

If this is indeed a business and these cars are operating not in Montana I would think a friendly call or mail in to the DMV would cause them to look into forcing the owner to at least get them registered in state. Which from the prior posting leads me to believe it would be a major cost (and possible fine) to the owner. It won't stop the parking and taking up a spot but it would cause him/her to think about what they are doing.

Personal registration depends on state law.

Rental cars often have out-of-state license plates.