I think Merritt isn't generally isn't that bad. The server at Boston Pizza asked if we were there for the country music festival or just happened to be passing through on the busiest weekend of the year. I planned my travel to avoid needing to charge in Kamloops or Revelstoke because I believed those were more likely to be congested (but both have active construction of additional superchargers.)
-
Want to remove ads? Register an account and login to see fewer ads, and become a Supporting Member to remove almost all ads.
Supercharger - Merritt BC - De Wolf Way
- Thread starter Jeff Thomson
- Start date
richteer
Member
The Tesla person that I spoke to said that they did have two sets of Valets, one for each Supercharger.
richteer
Member
Yeah! Where the old info centre was would’ve been ideal.
I feel like the APP needs an upgrade. The few model S and X that can't take 150KW, should be shuffled to the old chargers. My old S tries to start over 100kw, but not long it's back to the 60s. So I'm sitting watching model 3 and y come and go while I charge up. A valet tent is cute and all, but software should be handling wait times and who is next when they are busy. As well as who should park by whom in a shared situation. A driver should only see which supercharger is suggested and a stall number when it is ready for them. Also, if they don't take it in 3 min. goes to the next person. Also if a specific stall is set up for towing, anyone towing would get priority there. I'm not the brightest person in the world, but if I can see a lot of this, I'm sure Tesla could figure this out, and should have a couple years ago, especially with the backups and lines in Cali. Especially Cali, where stealing a spot in line could get you shot.
The issue isn't that they don't see these things, but that it adds complexity that the average person won't like. Like at a gas station, people want to pull up to any spot, fuel as fast as possible, and drive away. Only the minority of us who take the time to be in these forums and think about how it could all be optimized would be happy with a more complex arrangement.
That, and for the majority of sites and for most days/times of the year, the "just pull up and plug in" approach works great.
richteer
Member
I was in Merritt on Friday. Looks like it’s almost ready to go: just needs a meter installed and maybe some asphalt laid.
Looks like there might be a pad for a BCH transformer on the far right of the photo. Also, your photo seems to confirm 7 stalls, rather than 6 in the supercharge.info posting.
richteer
Member
Yes, you’re correct about the BC Hydro pad. Also, there are 8 stalls at this location: the 7 you can see in the photo plus one behind where I was standing.
RTPEV
Active Member
There's always resistance to this idea...not that I don't agree that most desire a simple solution, but I think people underestimate the ability for software to make the process simple.
And even in the gas station analogy, who wouldn't want a way to have some kind of system direct you to the pump that's going to free up soon when they arrive at a gas station that is full, or in a more general case, point you to the right line at the checkout that is likely to move the fastest?
Most people. That's sort of my whole point. Non-enthusiasts hate complexity and the fact that charging isn't as fast and simple as queueing and fueling up at a gas pump is one of the biggest barriers to adoption. Telling people they need to use a phone or vehicle screen based reservation system would just add to the perception.
Maybe there's value on the few critically busy days per year at the busiest sites, but what about 98% of the time? I can see several things that would make it a challenge to implement everywhere. Specifically, handling:
- the conditionality of needing spots assigned on the busiest days, but it being no problem most of the time to just pull up.
- cars with trailers
- queueing and traffic management/flow. You need a design that prevents someone who does not know how the system works or thinks it's in "free for all mode" from pulling up and plugging in not realizing that the spot is reserved.
- pedestals being down but the fault not being recognized. You'd need a "assign me to another one because this one won't work" feature
Of course, they're pairing that that with ongoing and rapid expansion of either the size or number of sites in key locations like Hope and Merritt.
If you wanted to improve on it at chronically busy sites, the more passive Costco Gas Bar method of a single (or limted numbers of) queues that feed into the charging area would be a good approach. For larger sites where you can't see all the stalls, something off vehicle could direct you to the next spot that opens up like at the checkouts at some stores. The benefit of that over something in car is that it can be ignored if that pedestal is down, it works for both Tesla and non-Tesla vehicles without needing to study the app while driving (potentially illegal in many jurisdictions), and it doesn't need to somehow determine the order vehicles are queued.
RTPEV
Active Member
Why is the assumption that this would be anything other than 95% transparent to the user, the main exception being that, yes, they need to look at their screen to see which stall they are assigned to. Given that they probably looked at their screen 1000 times en route to the station, is that really a burden?
Okay, yeah, maybe there are some people that can't even be bothered with even using the nav system to navigate to the next Supercharger (and thus don't get the benefit of pre-conditioning the battery, etc.) but I'm willing to bet that the vast majority of people driving to a Supercharger (or other fast charger) are doing so with their nav system activated. The exception may be people that live locally, don't have home charging, and rely on fast chargers. For those, yes, it may be necessary to confirm a simple pop-up on their screen that asks whether they want to join the queue when they arrive in the vicinity of the Supercharger.
For everyone else, the car can handle all the details such that when they arrive at the site they are directed to a specific stall.
If this were a real issue (which I don't think it is), then the system could simply only enable itself when the particular site was full, and at other times it would allow "open" charging. But even on non-busy days, at V2 sites anyway, it would be helpful to have assigned stalls. How many times have you been at a wide open 8-stall site with no other cars and then another Tesla pulls up and plugs into your shared stall, despite there being 6 other options? I've even been to a V2 stall site once that was exactly 50% occupied, so I was going to have to plug into a shared stall...but which one? When this happened to me, I parked my car off to the side to go ask the other drivers what their status was, and in the meantime another car pulled up and took one of the spots (although karma was good to me because I found a spot where the paired driver was just leaving!)
You continue to make my argument for me! How is this handled today? Answer: it's not. But with a stall assignment system trailer (or really bike rack in most cases), as well has handicapped accessible spots, those spots would not be allocated until all others were in use, giving priority to people that had their "trailer" or "handicapped" bit set in their nav system/profile.
Again, how is traffic management flow handled today? Again, it's not, which actually DOES create traffic flow issues and confusion. A queue/reservation system is better because there doesn't need to be a physical line like there is today. Waiting vehicles can park nearby out of traffic out of driving lanes until their stall is ready at which point it's as simple as driving to your assigned stall.
Yes, just like it is without a system in place. Probably at most one car would be inconvenienced by this, as the stall would be taken out of rotation after the first report, and the affected car would be put at the top of the queue after such an incident.
No reason that system couldn't continue to exist as well.
The topic of this thread is the supercharger that is under construction on De Wolf Way in Merritt, British Columbia. Please begin a new thread in the appropriate sub-forum if you wish to start a discussion on another topic.
dark cloud
Active Member
I was going to get one, but they don’t open till 11. Are you from Nashville or something?
Still waiting for a meter
No, I just like Mary Browns a lot. It’s a Canadian business.I was going to get one, but they don’t open till 11. Are you from Nashville or something?
Still waiting for a meter
View attachment 873904
dark cloud
Active Member
I never did get one of those Nashville chicken burgers Supposed to get pretty cold this weekend, with a little snow. Looks like a perfect time to take a cruise out there on the weekend.
e.
Supposed to get pretty cold this weekend, with a little snow. Looks like a perfect time to take a cruise out there on the weekend.e.
Tesla Super charger page got updated from Coming soon to Running !!!!
www.tesla.com
@Big Earl
Merritt, BC - De Wolf Way | Tesla
Schedule a Tesla test drive at a time and date that is convenient for you.
www.tesla.com
@Big Earl
sc.info typically wants more evidence than the (historically unreliable) findus page to update to Open. Hopefully someone local can stop by (and take pictures and post them here!) or we can wait and see if it pops up in the Nav (much more reliable than findus).Tesla Super charger page got updated from Coming soon to Running !!!!
Merritt, BC - De Wolf Way | Tesla
Schedule a Tesla test drive at a time and date that is convenient for you.
@Big Earl
Similar threads
