Supercharging Etiquette (or a complete lack thereof)

[Xenius]

How is it possible to stop another car from Supercharging if you don't have their key fob or Tesla App access to their car?

Wondering this myself.

 

[rpo]

How is it possible to stop another car from Supercharging if you don't have their key fob or Tesla App access to their car?

You just hit the button on the cable. It will only disconnect the contacts for a moment since the car is locked, and from what the prior posted said that apparently will reset the order of who was plugged in first, then will begin charging again. I've done it to myself before and, thankfully, wasn't on a shared charger at the time.

 

[Garlan Garner]

Interestingly, depending on how Tesla sets up the payment for supercharging on the 3, it could potentially make this worse. If they charge, say, $2k to add supercharging to the car, then people are going to feel entitled to use the superchargers as much as possible (and probably using them more than they NEED to) to make sure they "get their money's worth". It might also make some folks feel entitled to park, etc at supercharger spots (because they paid for the privilege)

Tesla needs to come out with an official terms of service for supercharger use that all buyers agree to or the whole thing may become a disaster if they continue to just rely on people's good nature to keep the system working properly. Then they can make rules and enforce them.

I am in the camp that California's supercharging situation is the canary in the coal mine.

I like your post. As a matter of fact I would feel entitled to use it as much as I like, however not at the expense of others that may need it more than I would "at the moment". Absolutely - when I go to an all-you-can-eat restaurant...I don't want the restaurant limiting me.

We are not having an issue with people using too much energy in this forum. There seems to be an issue with people eating all they can eat and never leaving the restaurant. That's a totally different issue.

 

[Garlan Garner]

How is it possible to stop another car from Supercharging if you don't have their key fob or Tesla App access to their car?

Who cares about stopping them? Who would want to? I say... let people be unethical. Its a lot easier life to let people be.

 

[Garlan Garner]

Thought I would share my daughter's lovely experience last Friday...

She plugged into a supercharger and went to a Walmart around the corner to pick up one item (wouldn't take more than 20 minutes). After about 10 minutes she got notified that her charge had been interrupted.

She returned to the car to find that it, indeed, had stopped. Apparently (best as we can figure) someone pulled into the paired supercharger and, to increase their speed, stopped her charge. When she restarted she was now secondary and charging much more slowly.

As rude as that was, the people also stayed at the supercharger for at least 1 hour and 15 minutes. At this point my daughter (as secondary) had enough charge to leave, so it may have been even longer. There were multiple people waiting the entire time.

This is only going to get worse as the Model ≡ rolls out and SC congestion gets heavier.

Great point.

My suggestion - Expect it. It makes it a lot easier to deal with. Expect rudeness. Expect disrespect. Expect to stand alone sometimes. It's ok.

 

[thefortunes]

How is it possible to stop another car from Supercharging if you don't have their key fob or Tesla App access to their car?

It is my understanding that you can press the button and it will interrupt the pilot and current. You cannot remove the connector if the car is locked, however.

If I am incorrect, then what would have interrupted her charge?

 

[ohmman]

I'm shocked to see this discussion turn into another Supercharging-post-Model-3 thread. I wasn't expecting that at all...

 

[Garlan Garner]

I'm shocked to see this discussion turn into another Supercharging-post-Model-3 thread. I wasn't expecting that at all...

I agree except this seems to be more about "how to deal with people" than it is about SC'ing.

 

[4SUPER9]

We are not having an issue with people using too much energy in this forum. There seems to be an issue with people eating all they can eat and never leaving the restaurant. That's a totally different issue.

Boom! Right there. All TM needs to do is put up official "1 Hour parking while charging. All others will be towed." They don't even have to enforce it. The signs enough will scare people away. Just at the several busy locations (all in my neck of the woods, of course).

I agree except this seems to be more about "how to deal with people" than it is about SC'ing.

While I appreciate your laid back philosophy, and even envy it, this is also about managing a situation that can have a truly negative impact on many people. Having a 4 hour commute, only to be stuck waiting another hour for a charge, then getting a slow charge after that, is neither fun nor relaxing. Some people have stressful busy lives and can't easily let such delays roll off their shoulders like you.

 

[brucet999]

Thought I would share my daughter's lovely experience last Friday...

She plugged into a supercharger and went to a Walmart around the corner to pick up one item (wouldn't take more than 20 minutes). After about 10 minutes she got notified that her charge had been interrupted.

She returned to the car to find that it, indeed, had stopped. Apparently (best as we can figure) someone pulled into the paired supercharger and, to increase their speed, stopped her charge. When she restarted she was now secondary and charging much more slowly.

As rude as that was, the people also stayed at the supercharger for at least 1 hour and 15 minutes. At this point my daughter (as secondary) had enough charge to leave, so it may have been even longer. There were multiple people waiting the entire time.

This is only going to get worse as the Model ≡ rolls out and SC congestion gets heavier.

How do you interrupt a car's charging? Doesn't it have to be unlocked to disengage the charging probe?

 

[wilheldp]

Who cares about stopping them? Who would want to? I say... let people be unethical. Its a lot easier life to let people be.

Uh, OK. I'm not sure what you thought I meant, but what I was trying to say is "I didn't think it was possible for charging to be stopped unless the car was unlocked or you accessed your car from the app." I find it concerning that people can come up and stop my car from charging at an SC when I'm not around, even if the only negative side effect is that it resets the charging priority on adjacent SCs. I think that if your car is locked, the button on the charging handle should be completely disabled (or just the receiver on the car).

 

[Az_Rael]

Uh, OK. I'm not sure what you thought I meant, but what I was trying to say is "I didn't think it was possible for charging to be stopped unless the car was unlocked or you accessed your car from the app." I find it concerning that people can come up and stop my car from charging at an SC when I'm not around, even if the only negative side effect is that it resets the charging priority on adjacent SCs. I think that if your car is locked, the button on the charging handle should be completely disabled (or just the receiver on the car).

Apparently this has become a problem in Hong Kong where a few unethical taxi drivers have figured out that if on a paired stall, they can push the charger button on the other car and instantly gain priority in their charging rate. It hasn't become a common problem elsewhere (yet), so Tesla hasn't changed the functionality.

I agree, though, it needs to be changed. The one thing I dislike about my Volt and public chargers is I can't lock my charger port so the cable can't be removed. I have been unplugged so many times it isn't even funny. Sometimes literally only moments after I walked away from the car (with an empty battery and almost no gas in the tank once - that one made me really angry). When I come back to the car, I often can't pull the plug back out of the offenders car to put back in mine, since most other EVs have locking ports. If I ever get towed because of being unplugged by someone else, it won't be pretty.

 

[Garlan Garner]

Uh, OK. I'm not sure what you thought I meant, but what I was trying to say is "I didn't think it was possible for charging to be stopped unless the car was unlocked or you accessed your car from the app." I find it concerning that people can come up and stop my car from charging at an SC when I'm not around, even if the only negative side effect is that it resets the charging priority on adjacent SCs. I think that if your car is locked, the button on the charging handle should be completely disabled (or just the receiver on the car).

My apology. I agree with you 100%. I misunderstood you.

 

[Garlan Garner]

Apparently this has become a problem in Hong Kong where a few unethical taxi drivers have figured out that if on a paired stall, they can push the charger button on the other car and instantly gain priority in their charging rate. It hasn't become a common problem elsewhere (yet), so Tesla hasn't changed the functionality.

I agree, though, it needs to be changed. The one thing I dislike about my Volt and public chargers is I can't lock my charger port so the cable can't be removed. I have been unplugged so many times it isn't even funny. Sometimes literally only moments after I walked away from the car (with an empty battery and almost no gas in the tank once - that one made me really angry). When I come back to the car, I often can't pull the plug back out of the offenders car to put back in mine, since most other EVs have locking ports. If I ever get towed because of being unplugged by someone else, it won't be pretty.

That's interesting. I wonder why Tesla would design it that way. That's really perplexing to me.

I'm not saying its right or wrong....I just don't understand.

 

[brucet999]

She returned to the car to find that it, indeed, had stopped. Apparently (best as we can figure) someone pulled into the paired supercharger and, to increase their speed, stopped her charge. When she restarted she was now secondary and charging much more slowly.

As rude as that was, the people also stayed at the supercharger for at least 1 hour and 15 minutes. At this point my daughter (as secondary) had enough charge to leave, so it may have been even longer. There were multiple people waiting the entire time.

Thanks for posting this. Did you mean that the others stayed in their car for 1h15min, or that the car remained?

I did not know that someone could stop a car charging in order to become primary on a paired station. If that happens to me, I now know that I can stop their charge and resume primacy.

 

[HankLloydRight]

That's interesting. I wonder why Tesla would design it that way. That's really perplexing to me.

I don't think it was intentional.. it's clearly a design flaw that could be fixed. Maybe it was a line of code added for debugging or testing that never was taken out? Surely the car can check to see if it is locked before disengaging the contactors. It just doesn't.

 

[Garlan Garner]

I don't think it was intentional.. it's clearly a design flaw that could be fixed. Maybe it was a line of code added for debugging or testing that never was taken out? Surely the car can check to see if it is locked before disengaging the contactors. It just doesn't.

That makes sense. I can understand and accept design flaws.

 

[PaulusdB]

I don't think it was intentional.. it's clearly a design flaw that could be fixed. Maybe it was a line of code added for debugging or testing that never was taken out? Surely the car can check to see if it is locked before disengaging the contactors. It just doesn't.

Could just as well be a safety measure, though.
Any bystander can cut off power to the car that way. (Like it or not.)

 

[brucet999]

Could just as well be a safety measure, though.
Any bystander can cut off power to the car that way. (Like it or not.)

Any fearless bystander who comes upon a burning Tesla and who also knows how to disconnect it?

 

[pdxrajiv]

A bystander cutting power is probably not the reason for this behavior - because a) you can not remove the cable, and b) as soon as you release the button, the car starts charging again.

Could it be that the current Tesla charging cable behavior is intentional for a different reason:
The thought may be to allow the present driver to establish priority over the absent driver.
The present driver does not know how long the absent driver intends to park/charge ... maybe they will not return for a long time, while the present driver is here now and need the faster charge because she intends to leave soon.

Nah, I am probably imagining a plausible but unlikely design rationale.