Supercharger - Hollister, CA (Casa De Fruta, LIVE 12 Mar 2018, 20 stalls)

[Tyl]

A few still photos of @johnr’s video for all to study.

 

[PLUS EV]

Fan, labeling the Casa de Fruta location as Hollister is not any more confusing than labeling the Supercharger along Interstate 5 as Bakersfield - I5 or the Supercharger at Topaz Lake, Nevada, as Gardnerville.

I agree with you in principle. Tesla could spend a few minutes to determine the absolute best name for these locations by speaking to individuals at sites like these to determine exactly what the areas are called by those who frequent them. Moreover, for anyone who has driven SR152 (Casa de Fruta) or US395 (Topaz Lake) there are signs aplenty along the roads indicating that these locations are close.

Instead, I assume, Tesla has merged the zip code data provided by the USPS with the geographical data.

On the one hand, I can appreciate Tesla's effort to keep their naming practices standardized, but in a handful of cases (such as this one), they would be wise to use an alternate name. Ironically, they did this with some of their first supercharger locations at Tejon and Harris Ranch. It would be stupid if they referred to them as Lebec and Coalinga of course and they seemed to know that at the time. But then they got lost in technicalities in naming Bakersfield, Gardnerville, Arlington, Gustine, etc.

 

[PLUS EV]

Wow! Not just “started” but “almost completed”. I was there a few weeks ago but did not drive into that part of the Casa de Fruta complex, I’ve never been back there. I missed it!​

I'll give you an F+ on your scouting mission! Try harder next time! The Tasmanian devil has shown us up yet again!

 

[McManX]

I’ll be driving through in about a week and a half and take a look. Could easily be done by then

 

[ken830]

I'll give you an F+ on your scouting mission! Try harder next time! The Tasmanian devil has shown us up yet again!

Was the "+" for effort?

This is even funnier because we strongly expected the location to be at Casa de Fruta, he went to Casa de Fruta, and he still couldn't find it!

 

[wws]

Everyone knows Casa de Fruta as Casa de Fruta. It would be silly to call it "Hollister" or "San Felipe".

 

[Ulmo]

Wow! Not just “started” but “almost completed”. I was there a few weeks ago but did not drive into that part of the Casa de Fruta complex, I’ve never been back there. I missed it! Thread title changed.

When this new location becomes operational and it shows up in the car nav I will change the location name to whatever the car nav shows. As now I don’t know if it will remain as “San Felipe” or will change to something like “Casa De Fruta” or even “Hollister”.

When I search Google Maps for “Casa De Fruta” the street address shown is a Hollister address. But that town is many miles away and if Tesla applies that name to this location I think it would be confusing.

Here are GPS coordinates which I picked from Google Maps satellite view of where I think the exact location is based on that video: 36.9899107,-121.3804477

Anyone care to guess if I picked the right coordinates?​

This should be called Casa de Fruta. The one called Gustine should be called Santa Nella. The one called Bakersfield should be called something else. Etc.

My hopes are not high.

Guaranteed if they call it San Felipe or Hollister, someone will run out of electricity because of misnaming. Hollister is not in Casa de Fruta. Hollister is between Monterey, Salinas, Gilroy and Casa de Fruta. If someone goes to Hollister instead of Casa de Fruta expecting energy, they could easily run out of energy when they could have stopped almost anywhere else to charge first.

Same for Gustine, which is ten MILES away from Santa Nella's SuperCharger.

On the one hand, I can appreciate Tesla's effort to keep their naming practices standardized, but in a handful of cases (such as this one), they would be wise to use an alternate name. Ironically, they did this with some of their first supercharger locations at Tejon and Harris Ranch. It would be stupid if they referred to them as Lebec and Coalinga of course and they seemed to know that at the time. But then they got lost in technicalities in naming Bakersfield, Gardnerville, Arlington, Gustine, etc.

Those should just be renamed. The names Tesla chose are wrong, however you score it.

It is easy to standardize on logical names that people who use it understand, rather than some sort of stupid zip code mapping software that no one pays attention to and often confuses not only humans but computers, too. Zip codes suck. USPS sucks. USPS is for pre-computer, pre-Internet. It makes no sense for Tesla to use pre-Internet ridiculous unworkable databases used by no one except some awful departments in the government or some outdated paper mail system.

 

[ecarfan]

Was the "+" for effort?

This is even funnier because we strongly expected the location to be at Casa de Fruta, he went to Casa de Fruta, and he still couldn't find it!

Yep, pretty pitiful performance on my part. I didn’t even know that area of the complex existed!

 

[ecarfan]

This thread is for discussing this particular Supercharger location. I choose to celebrate a new Supercharger, not complain about what it might or might not be named (we don’t know yet), the Zip Code system, and USPS. You can do that in another thread. In Off Topic. Thank you.

It is easy to standardize on logical names that people who use it understand, rather than some sort of stupid zip code mapping software that no one pays attention to and often confuses not only humans but computers, too. Zip codes suck. USPS sucks. USPS is for pre-computer, pre-Internet. It makes no sense for Tesla to use pre-Internet ridiculous unworkable databases used by no one except some awful departments in the government or some outdated paper mail system.

 

[bmah]

OK so to get things back on topic, in the pictures we can see what look like at least 13 pedestals. There could be more out of frame. I thought having the two pedestals perpendicular to the rest were interesting. One of them is probably for a pull-in spot (maybe for handicapped access?)...specifically the one to the left in the picture. The perpendicular pedestal to the right...I'm not sure what that's for. It's not a pull-in spot for sure because your car would be off the pavement. It could be for a back-in spot, although why not just put that pedestal in the long row with the rest of them? Interesting.

If I knew about this, I would have structured my road trip yesterday to swing through Casa de Fruita to do some more recon! :-D

Bruce.

 

[ecarfan]

I thought having the two pedestals perpendicular to the rest were interesting. One of them is probably for a pull-in spot (maybe for handicapped access?)...specifically the one to the left in the picture. The perpendicular pedestal to the right...I'm not sure what that's for. It's not a pull-in spot for sure because your car would be off the pavement. It could be for a back-in spot

I wondered about those two pedestals as well. Very unusual. To use the one on the right you would have to back in on the far side (from the point of view of the photo) of the island those two pedestals are located on. To use the one on the left you would simply drive in to that spot.

To bring up once again my interest in charging without unhitching the trailer I will be towing next year, given that the paved area where all these new Supercharger pedestals are located in is very large, it seems possible that the pedestal on the left could be used to charge from without unhitching a trailer because there is likely plenty of space for cars to go around it to reach the stalls to the right.

Here is a Google Maps screen capture showing the parking area where I believe this new Supercharger is located, it may be in the lower right corner of this image. It’s a large parking area with no apparent striping or marked stalls. Lots of space!

 

[ACA Man]

This thread is for discussing this particular Supercharger location. I choose to celebrate a new Supercharger, not complain about what it might or might not be named (we don’t know yet), the Zip Code system, and USPS. You can do that in another thread. In Off Topic. Thank you.

Exactly.

 

[Doug Archer]

Yeah, San Felipe is confusing. At first I thought it was the little beach town in Mexico on the Baja California peninsula (now that would be awesome!), but then I put it in the Tesla nav and it said it was a little mountain town near San Diego (even more confusing!). So the actual location makes sense cause I always thought Casa de Fruta would be a great Gilroy alternative. I don’t know why they don’t just call it Casa de Fruta!

 

[Ed Trotter]

Yep, pretty pitiful performance on my part. I didn’t even know that area of the complex existed!

Reminds me of an incident in high school. We got grades every six weeks with a permanent one at the end of the semester. One of my friends got an F+ in physics for a six-week term. We couldn't figure out if he failed in a collosal way or just missed a D-.

 

[Darksoldier360]

So drove to Casa de Fruita today to take some pictures. Site is complete except for the transformer from PG&E. 20 stall site. Photos attached.

 

[Darksoldier360]

Link to video from the back side.

 

[Kipernicus]

Great video from the train (Casa de Choo Choo)!!

 

[cpa]

I hope I haven't crossed the line, but here goes:

According to "California Place Names," Fourth Edition; Gudde, Erwin G., revised and enlarged by Bright, William, (c) 1998:

"San Felipe Creek, Hills, Lake, town and Valley [San Benito, Santa Clara Cos.]: The names were preserved through three land grants: San Felipe, Apr. 1, 1836; Bolsa de San Felipe, Nov. 13, 1837; and Canada de San Felipe y las Animas, Aug. 27, 1839, and Aug. 1, 1844. The stream is recorded as San Felipe River on Wilkes's map of 1841. Creek and Lake are mentioned in the Statutes of 1850 (p. 59)"

So, there you have it. This place name antedates statehood by a good 14 years. Those land grants were yuuuge, too.

I submit that Casa de Fruta sits squarely in one of the three above land grants. Perhaps Tesla is trying to give us a little history lesson.

 

[ecarfan]

Beautiful site! No utility transformer yet so it won’t be open anytime soon.

 

[ecarfan]