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The supercharger station is operated by Tesla. Unlike at a fuel pump, you don't need to authenticate or submit payment; you can just plug it in, and the car kno
by niftich 10y ago
The supercharger station is operated by Tesla. Unlike at a fuel pump, you don't need to authenticate or submit payment; you can just plug it in, and the car knows who you are. If you overstay after your car is full, your car will inform HQ, and they will bill you to your name.
You still own the car, of course. It's just a fascinating convergence of perma-OnStar, of over-the-air firmware and software updates, and it's quite different from the days when your relationship with the automaker effectively (or could have) ended when you drove off the dealer's lot.
- greglindahl 10y agoI don't see why this relates to ownership. Tesla owners own their cars outright. Tesla owners up until now have free access to the Supercharger network for long-distance travel. "Paying" at a Supercharger is very convenient. How does that affect car ownership?
- ajb 10y agoThe formal legal status of ownership is not the same thing as the affordances usually provided by it, and the latter is what people generally mean when they talk about ownership.
- snovv_crash 10y agoIf you left your car parked at a gas station pump you'd probably be towed. I don't see how this changes anything.
- Jarwain 10y agoTo be fair, there's another way to spin that. The car doesn't know who you are. Tesla knows who you are, because you purchased their car. It probably has a unique identifier. UID is transferred to HQ, query run, information gathered. So not so much the car as just Tesla. Besides, it's possible for a certain kind of user that would never take advantage of a supercharger, instead stopping for electricity wherever they go about their day. This is total speculation though, I have not driven a Tesla, never mind having purchased one.