Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by wkat4242 892 days ago
Cash wouldn't work as most charging stations would be constantly broken due to attempts to rob them. It's why even parking meters no longer take cash.

In Amsterdam a lot of the officials that collected the coins actually took a lot for themselves even. All those little coins add up to a lot.

But it should NOT be necessary to give up your privacy. Privacy is a human right.
2 comments
crazygringo 892 days ago
> In Amsterdam a lot of the officials that collected the coins actually took a lot for themselves even.

Considering the fact that the machine counts the coins it receives, and a value of coins gets deposited in a bank, this seems like the easiest fraud in the world to catch.

If that went on for a long time, that is some horrifically incompetent oversight.

Edit: I'm suddenly realizing this was probably about the pre-digital coin-operated parking meters. Which makes me wonder how could you prevent widespread skimming? Unless they had tamper-proof "odometers" inside that you had to record the value of each time you emptied them?

link
dotancohen 892 days ago 

  > Considering the fact that the machine counts the coins it receives
It doesn't. The added hardware for that would be redundant if you could trust the coin collectors. Remember, these were completely mechanical devices.
link
anticensor 892 days ago
Yes, they had mechanical odometers in them.
link
wkat4242 892 days ago
They did but the values were registered by the same people that emptied them.

Eventually it was very hard to find who tampered with the books but eventually they were caught, which is how we know about it.

link
tzs 892 days ago
> Cash wouldn't work as most charging stations would be constantly broken due to attempts to rob them. It's why even parking meters no longer take cash.

Most gas stations in the US take cash without having to fend off constant robbery attempts. I don't see why EV charging stations could not do the same.

link
wkat4242 892 days ago
Because most EV charging stations are unattended. It brings the barrier down from armed robbery to vandalism and theft.

Putting cash in a pole in the street is really going to casuse a problem at the amounts that EV charging requires.

link