Supercharging waiting makes my friends angry

[Parisio]

I would be telling him to get out and walk.

He is not a friend. You are afool to continue this relationship.

 

[Parisio]

He is not a friend. You are a fool for continuing this relationship.

 

[charisjapan]

Hahaha! Sounds a bit like "The Odd Couple."

But I gotta say, this script is pretty juvenile, or just 2023 ... either trolling or a very comical relationship that can't last much longer.

"Bickering Bros"

 

[Silicon Desert]

He is not a friend. You are afool to continue this relationship.

You replied to the wrong person. However, I don't call anyone a fool for any reason.

 

[JetFalcon]

There's plenty of CCS and a decent amount of CHAdeMO charging up and down highway 99. I've driven my non-Teslas EVs (never owned nor leased a Tesla) the equivalent of 2 round trips up/down 99 from entering/exiting from highway 152 and ending/entering at where 99 ends/starts.

I've gotten a bunch of free EV juice thanks to New Electric Vehicle Fast Chargers Now Available Along State Highways in Central California | Caltrans and Industrial St Parking Lot | PlugShare (no longer free) + Strata Federal Credit Union | PlugShare (broken now). On the road trip I referred to in post 7 that I recently returned from, I took 99 down south. I charged for free at Madera Maintenance Station | PlugShare and Tejon Pass Rest Area - Southbound | PlugShare. Denny's Delano | PlugShare was super cheap at $2/hour which I had to use since Delano Maintenance Station | PlugShare was broken at the time. But alas, all of this and my vehicle charge way slower than Tesla Superchargers.

The Caltrans free DC FCs are no more than 50 kW max. Denny's Delano EV Connect I recall seeing ~37 kW. So, your friend might even be more mad due to the slowness.

Except for those most recent trip where I returned via highway 101 (to go to Santa Barbara, Lompoc, Solvang, Hearst Castle and try to watch a rocket launch from Vandenberg), I take highway 99 to/from since for a non-Teslas, there's WAY more DC FC choices and backups than on highway 5.

Just look at Plugshare and filter by CCS. You can filter by CHAdeMO but be careful about Electrify America sites. Those only have 1 CHAdeMO handle. Woe is you if the handle/charger is down.

Damn this is so much to take in. I'm not even at this expertise to figure out all the adapters I can get and I hope I don't have to. I know about that Tesla to Chademo adapter but that thing is like $500 and will take up space in your road trip car. Thankfully most road trips are just one stop locations and we stay there, but maybe one day I will have to be more prepared if I venture out further.

I live in Southern CA and the only locations I road trip out to are: Las Vegas, Phoenix / Tuscon, Bay Area, Lake Tahoe.

Las Vegas is the easiest and the least concern for annoyed by supercharging passengers. It's only one supercharge stop to reach Las Vegas and there are plentiful of free charging options there to top off. Usually in hotels or shopping centers since I go to Dave and Busters & Round1 which both have free charging.

Phoenix is quite a challenge and I forced my friend to eat at Joes Crab Shack just so we could charge at the only supercharger near his parents house in Chandler AZ. As we would arrive to Phoenix AZ and need energy for the trip tomorrow. I didn't want to eat at Joes Crab Shack though but I also didn't want to just wait inside the Tesla for 1 hour so I just decided it be best we eat at Joes Crab Shack. Because I really wanted RainForest Cafe which was another option because it was kind of cooler but my friend wanted to save his first time to do with his girlfriend, so we settled on Joes Crab Shack. But stuff like this my other friend is more open to, my other friend, he will see it as impeding his freedom because he rather have In n Out than Joes Crab Shack even though him paying for gas may be more expensive than a Tesla supercharging and paying $20 for Joes Crab Shack. This is something I try telling my friends that supercharging and getting food at the same time is like getting free food while a gas car that has a $40-60 full tank budget can't get free food.

My other freedom based friend had an apartment in Phoenix AZ in the Glendale area, near the StateFarm Stadium. There were alot of shopping centers and they had free chargepoints, so I parked my car overnight and E-scootered back to his apartment every night (1 mile) so we had a full charge for our arcade day trips. So me finding a way to access a too far to walk EV charger by E-scooter was one the reasons we were able to commute the entire urban area of Phoenix and he had no anger about supercharging because it was not needed.

I felt it was easier to force myself to eat at burger king and look through their app coupons. It was an nice burger king too, renovated and super modern with flat screen TVs. Even if I was not hungry or somehow hated Burger King but I'm not picky so not a big deal for me.

 

[cwerdna]

CHAdeMO Adapter was $450 or $400 before it was quietly discontinued awhile ago. It's not that big. I've held it in my hands before. I've personally seen others use it. CHAdeMO Charging the Model 3 has used a tripod before.

https://shop.tesla.com/product/ccs-combo-1-adapter exists but your car must have the hardware to support it (it must show CCS enabled, see other threads on this). It's a long story that others can better convey. If your car has the CCS hardware, this would be a better purchase, by far. Even without it, depending on the price of the retrofit, this is still probably a better deal as CHAdeMO is pretty much toast in the US and will likely go into decline.

Also, the CHAdeMO adapter is limited to 50 kW max while the CCS1 adapter can go higher. Also, Electrify America installs usually 5 to 7 CCS handles at each site vs. 1 CHAdeMO. The worst ratio I've seen is 27 CCS1 vs. 1 CHAdeMO at Westfield Valley Fair | PlugShare.

Now with EA upgrades going on where they're ripping out old hardware (usually ABB, it seems), the new next gen stations seem to be just 1 handle each. Example is at Harden Ranch Plaza - Walmart | PlugShare. The old hardware (3 in a row of DC FCs) were dual CCS handle ABB DC FCs. The 3 replacements of next gen units (SK Signet dispensers) apparently are only single cable and handle each. I used this site recently, after it was upgraded to the new units.

Most non-Tesla and non-Rivian DC FC sites have both CCS1 and CHAdeMO. Only VW-owned Electrify America was doing the CHAdeMO sabotage of installing only a single 50 kW CHAdeMO vs. multiple 150 or 350 kW CCS1 handles. The rest generally have an even ratio of the handles although some new EVgo sites recently stopped doing 1:1 and have more CCS1 than CHAdeMO but usually not as bad as EA's ratio (example at El Gato Shopping Center | PlugShare).

 

[JetFalcon]

He is not a friend. You are afool to continue this relationship.

I have to reconsider now. We had arguments but this supercharging thing really got him so angry accusing me of being cheap and that spiraled into so many arguments.

He is more like a business partner because we are both advantage arcade players. I have stable income from somewhere else and the arcade is just a hobby that I can profit from, I just see it as a hobby that I get paid for so why not enjoy it. But my friend, the arcade is likely his main source of income to the point that he needs to use the arcade to pay off his used Honda Civic. He is so aggressive to not share some secrets to games or share his coupon sources. But then I drive him everywhere, I felt he could tell me where he gets those coupons but he just won't let up, but he will win me tickets / prizes elsewhere and that's what he rather do than tell me where his coupons come from.

This is just a hobby for me so I just play games I'm comfortable with and know will work. And I love having the Tesla because it makes traveling to further arcades more worth while so gas money doesn't eat into my winnings. And my friend knows this too. I let him use me for rides because he will help me win prizes at some other arcades like pay $25 for a card and he wins me 15000 tickets in 30 minutes and I keep everything.

But him constantly ditching me at Great America or not agreeing to go to San Francisco, and driving to a bunch of chuck e cheese for his YouTube tours. He refuses to tell me how to beat the 500 ticket Bust a Move at Round1. I need to figure out if it's worth staying friends or if I need to demand more out of him if he still wants rides. I don't see myself letting him come with me in my Tesla if he just asks, I will either need him be more respectful or force him to win 10-20k tickets dave and busters tickets on my card.

 

[CKwik240]

I would have stopped at the train station, told him to get out, and leave him there.

 

[JetFalcon]

I would have stopped at the train station, told him to get out, and leave him there.

I told him to get an Uber and told him to get out of my car when he complained about our last supercharging at Burbank Round1. I even took his Nintendo Switch OLED, put in his hands, said I'm serious. I stopped the car without charging just to stack up more time since he refused to compromise.

He couldn't man up and take the $100 uber at 11pm for someone who blames me for being cheap on how I want to charge the car. He still stayed in my car after I stood him up. He said other people would agree with him that charging at 2am is stupid, but he doesn't drive a Tesla and doesn't understand that I was trying to avoid the daytime rush if we charged the next day. He is so short term thinking he just wanted to get back to the hotel and refused to understand that peak hours means we may have to wait in a line / slower charging / higher rates. If he just handed me a $20 bill I'd probably shut up and go back to the hotel with 10% left.

He just said I'm being cheap trying to get the 2am off peak rate, but it's not just to save money, I said it's an incentive to get Tesla owners to charge at 2am if they can do so.

 

[CKwik240]

I told him to get an Uber and told him to get out of my car when he complained about our last supercharging at Burbank Round1. I even took his Nintendo Switch OLED, put in his hands, said I'm serious. I stopped the car without charging just to stack up more time since he refused to compromise.

He couldn't man up and take the $100 uber at 11pm for someone who blames me for being cheap on how I want to charge the car. He still stayed in my car after I stood him up. He said other people would agree with him that charging at 2am is stupid, but he doesn't drive a Tesla and doesn't understand that I was trying to avoid the daytime rush if we charged the next day. He is so short term thinking he just wanted to get back to the hotel and refused to understand that peak hours means we may have to wait in a line / slower charging / higher rates. If he just handed me a $20 bill I'd probably shut up and go back to the hotel with 10% left.

He just said I'm being cheap trying to get the 2am off peak rate, but it's not just to save money, I said it's an incentive to get Tesla owners to charge at 2am if they can do so.

Perhaps leave him at the hotel instead and move on. Either way, I'd probably finish the trip without him or go home.

 

[zoomer0056]

This is great material for a sitcom!

 

[RayK]

CHAdeMO Adapter was $450 or $400 before it was quietly discontinued awhile ago. It's not that big. I've held it in my hands before. I've personally seen others use it. CHAdeMO Charging the Model 3 has used a tripod before.

And I'm still using a tripod for CHAdeMO charging; a newer, more robust version than from a couple of years ago however.

My CHAdeMO adapter ran just under $500 when tax is included back in mid 2019. I've been using it to get $0.19kWh juice from a local ChargePoint station; cheaper than any local Supercharger at the moment. It has also given me the opportunity for free charging when traveling from various suppliers, or in the cases of EA largess around my home when they decide to offer complimentary sessions like this past weekend (actually yesterday - thanks @cwerdna for the heads up!).

It is stored in my sub-trunk along with the tripod, my mobile connector and half a dozen NEMA adapters, air compressor, tools, tire patch kit and a few other knick knacks. And there's still some room in the sub-trunk for a couple of four packs of beer or several bottles of wine. So it really doesn't take up that much room. I've rarely needed to use the frunk storage when taking overnight and multi-day trips to LA, Tahoe, Yosemite or Oregon.

Yes, it's limited to a theorhetical maximum of 50kW. In real-world usage, that's about 43-45kW. I plan out my charging when I don't have much to do or do it while out on errands. It's slightly slower than a Supercharger (the typical one I go to is 72kW Urban) but delivers a more constant flow over the entire session (normally). The session yesterday was 55 minutes and yielded 120 miles of range. To me it was worth spending that amount of time as the $13.76 that it would have cost me was waived (just over 32kWh delivered). I would NOT recommend getting a CHAdeMO adapter unless you get a great deal. By that, I mean under $100. CHAdeMO is being phased out and will probably go the way of the dodo in a decade.

 

[drtimhill]

I did a road trip from Southern CA (Orange County) to Northern CA (Sunnyvale) with my arcade friend. And wow everytime we had to supercharge he will vent his frustration and anger every time we had to do it. He will say why not do it later I don't want to do it now. But he also doesn't want to help put in some research on good places to stop that have supercharging so I had to do all that work to try get the car charged up every arcade or destination we stopped at. Since we are mostly doing arcades, mostly the big chains like Dave and Busters and Round1 have Tesla superchargers or free level 2 charging because they were in malls. My first plan was to find a home base to charge near our hotel while sleeping that was within a 5 minute E-scooter ride distance, but there was nothing open to the public. So I was forced to hopefully plan a charging route while we stopped at these arcades so we didn't have to wait separately for charging. ......

Get a new friend. As the old saying goes, with friends like him, who needs enemies?

 

[JetFalcon]

Get a new friend. As the old saying goes, with friends like him, who needs enemies?

I felt we were more like business partners and just tolerated him. He would win me tickets at arcades he didn't mind winning tickets for me, but it always felt like if he felt like it. I'm hoping to resolve this or just call it quits. But I still enjoy the Tesla for long road trips mainly because of autopilot and it's easier to drive than a gas car.

If my friend was willing to choose to eat only at superchargers and not a crowded In n Out, that could have helped out a lot.

But he doesn't think that way, he is more concerned to get Taco Bell, Jack in the Box, In n Out whenever he feels like not when we need to charge the car. He will say "I don't like something controlling my life" so we were forced to say wait at In n Out for 30 minutes then wait another 30 minutes (doing nothing) to supercharge. At least he bought me that In n Out because he did knows he was forcing me to do something I wouldn't agree to.

I just eat at wherever was next to the supercharger because I can say for that same money the gas car had to pay for a full tank, I could very likely get a full charge and pay full price food ($10 Chipotle) and maybe pay less than a gas car. If you can supercharge and eat at the same time, I just say it's like getting free food with the same budget as a gas car.

 

[JetFalcon]

Moderator note: This post, plus a few following, were combined in this thread as they formed the basis for a very similar discussion.

I already made a post about the dispute I had with my arcade buddy about supercharging. I don't want to make this as an excuse to vent a personal frustration but I feel as EV / Tesla owners that supercharging can cause tension and annoyance if the passengers are not aware how long it takes to charge the car. Especially if they drive a gas car and only know the concept of going to a gas station.

But it's very possible if you reach your destination and it's all local driving and back to the hotel, having a home base to charge overnight would be the best scenario. Maybe find a hotel that EV charging on site, but I don't know if you can rely on it because it's broken, it's expensive, always taken, etc. If there is no home base supercharging, bring an electric scooter and hope there is something within reasonable distance you can charge for free or cheap overnight. This did work out in Glendale AZ where my arcade friend had an apartment, there was no EV charging at the apartment complex, but there was one 1 mile away at a Carls Jr but it be a long walk, but an electric scooter it's reachable.

If home base is not possible, this is where you need to get your passengers to comply. Such as forcing them to eat at restaurants next to superchargers even if they really don't want to eat at Joes Crab Shack. Because from SoCal to Phoenix AZ, my passenger and I arrived into the city but had like 20% left so we had to charge up to have enough for the next day. I said instead of waiting 30-60 min doing nothing lets eat at a sit down restaurant inside that mall. Also this mall, I needed my E-scooter since the supercharger wasn't right next to Joes Crab Shack. But I got him to comply, and we ate at Joes Crab Shack. This also applies when going / leaving your destination for that 6 hour drive.

Anyone else have any ideas how to force reluctant passengers to do stuff around supercharging / charging?

 

[AMPd]

This thread, you shouldn’t have made. So weird

 

[ElectricIAC]

Anyone else have any ideas how to force reluctant passengers to do stuff around supercharging / charging?

Did you try the “ass, grass, or kilowatts” bumper sticker yet?

 

[RayK]

I'd say that you need to be more flexible in your eating / charging stops. Using words and terms such as "comply" and "forcing them" indicates to me that you always want others to follow your agenda. Sure it may make sense time-wise to arrange charging at the same time you and your friends refill yourselves but sometimes you have to compromise. Eat at a fast-food place to satisfy your companions knowing then you'll have to go out by yourself later and Supercharge somewhere. Use the Media Player to entertain yourself or bring along a handheld gaming console.

 

[Watts_Up]

Anyone else have any ideas how to force reluctant passengers to do stuff around supercharging / charging?

In general, watching Netflix or Youtube, is a relaxing way to spend 20 or 30 minutes.

The only issue is when there is no restroom, because some business are not open before 10 am or close at 6 pm or so.
So in this case you need to stop to a gas station or a grocery store who often stay open all the night.
But you might need to make a detour in this case before or after charging.
If you are in a more rural area, you can seach for rest areas which have in general restrooms.

I recently did an 800 miles trip to go to Yellow Stone National Park and honestly,
to stop every 3 to 4 hours and have a little walk to eat or drink something is very nice in fact.
And after this long trip, I was in fact very relaxed and not tired like I had been in the past with my previous ICE car.
But I should add that I was using the Tesla Auto Pilot so it was more like playing a video game on a computer than driving.

Don't you also share driving with your passenger?
If not, you could drive overnight, so your passenger will be sleeping, and traffic will be less congested.

You didn't mentionned how far you were driving and where?
If you are going from Los Angeles to San Francisco, you only need to charge one or two times.
If you drive cross country, in areas with few Superchargers and amenities around, this will be different,
and it would be advisible to search in advance where to charge and where to eat before doing the trip.

 

[cwerdna]

Re: rest areas, Caltrans has theirs under Quick Map at QuickMap. But, of course, on major highways there can be gas stations, truck stops and fast food places with restrooms.

Aside from rest stops, I agree that bathrooms esp. on national holidays and odd hours can be a problem. I recently had some problems with that.