[tlb]

I'd love to have an alternative to ChargePoint for charging my Tesla at airports. It takes multiple minutes of diddling around with their app to make their charger's relay contacts close. They have reviews within their app, wherein people report which of their chargers usually work, which sometimes work, and which never work. In no case is the actual power faulty -- it's their monetization strategy that fails to tough-luck.

Back in the early 80s, I spent part of a summer in a slate-roofed cottage in Wales. The cottage had a box in which you had to insert a coin to turn on the electricity. Like, if you wanted to cook or watch TV that night you had to insert a shilling coin and turn a knob and --- kerchunk --- you'd have electricity until you'd used up your 1d worth of kilowatt-hours and then --- kerchunk --- you were a savage again.

Somehow, paying for electricity at each act of consumption feels bad. Like paying for toilets.

Tesla got it right. I paid $100,000 for the car -- I want hassle-free electricity, thanks.

[CalChris]

I use ChargePoint a lot. If the charger isn't broken, it takes significantly less time than dealing with a gas station. 9 times out of 10, I know ahead of time whether a charger is broken or busy.

As for their monetization strategy, I think chargers should require a maintenance contract and that that should be built into the kWh cost. Pay at the pump. I do not like to see free chargers because everyone uses them and no one maintains them because they're not getting paid for.

A buck an hour should be the minimum for 6kWh L2. $5/hr if you leave it 30 minutes past full.

As for the blockchain idea, this seems strange. Too much solution for not enough problem. I don't want to use some random person's L2 in a neighborhood. I could imagine an emergency thing but that's about it.

[foota]

I don't have an electric car, but I was under the impression that filling a tank up took a significant amount of time?

s/tank/battery

[mulmen]

You don't have to stand at the car while it charges so the time comparison should really just be how long it takes to plug in and pay. This assumes the charger is at a location you are already visiting. If we accept that assumption you also save the time you went out of your way to a gas station.

[CalChris]

That is what I meant. The OP is at the airport and wants to set the car charging. This really doesn't take long at all if the charger is working.

If the charger isn't working that's because someone didn't fix it. That's usually because there isn't a maintenance contract and people didn't pay enough for said maintenance contract. When you buy gas there are use taxes for road maintenance. Kinda like that.

[dingo_bat]

> it takes significantly less time than dealing with a gas station

Considering that most interactions at a gas station are over in 2 minutes, this seems to be a revolutionary fast charging technology!

[Retric]

You need to get to a gas station, where charging stations can be anywhere. If you have one at work and one at your house you will spend vastly less of your time filling up.

[Symbiote]

Those pay-as-you-use-it (prepayment) meters still exist!

The first house I rented as a student had one, in 2006. The landlord said the previous tenants had had trouble paying the bills, so the electricity company had insisted on the meter when reconnecting the supply. In reality, I think he'd asked for it to be installed to simplify his job.

Nowadays, the meters are topped up with a smart card, usually at a local newsagent or corner shop. I think we put £100 on it, then forgot about it for several months.

Info and a couple of pictures: https://www.uswitch.com/gas-electricity/guides/prepayment-me...

[thinkmassive]

I'm not familiar with how billing for Tesla's chargers work, except that some of the high end models include free charging (or at least they used to). Are you saying the electricity should be free, or simply that you prefer to pay monthly based on usage?

This startup seems like a stepping stone to me. Eventually you should be able to define limits (max $/kWh, min charge rate, min time available, max distance) and the app should just show you available stations. Billing can happen automatically.

[tlb]

My Tesla is an early model, so charging at their stations is free. Paying a monthly usage bill would fine too. The bad thing is having to use a flaky UI every time I need to charge remotely (which is only every month or two). I think ChargePoint's fundamental problem is in order for their app to enable charging:

- the app must be installed and updated

- it must get an accurate location from GPS to look up the ID number of closest station (and often they're adjacent, so the next one is 12' away).

- my cellular data, and the base station's cellular data have to work

- all inside a concrete parking garage.

so it only works 3/4 of the time.

[mercutio2]

Why bother with the app? Just get a free tiny RFID card. It’s basically instant (although, you have to avoid losing the little card, I suppose).

[tigeba]

Just get the RFID card and keep it in the car. Way less hassle than the app for unlocking the charger.