6 ms·

I remember in Thanksgiving 2019 that Tesla owners were sometimes waiting in line for hours at Supercharger stations in California -- and California has a lot of

I remember in Thanksgiving 2019 that Tesla owners were sometimes waiting in line for hours at Supercharger stations in California -- and California has a lot of those! Even Tesla doesn't have it figured out during peak travel times.

theshrike79 6y ago
You can't build for peak traffic, not in software nor in hardware.
- twblalock 6y ago
  Gas stations seem to be able to handle it. Why can't we expect the same for charging stations? Build for peak capacity. The chargers don't draw much when they aren't plugged in to cars. If we expect to succeed with charging infrastructure we need to make it convenient, even during holidays.
  - theshrike79 6y ago
    Building a gas station for peak capacity would mean building so many pumps that you never have to queue. Even when people leave their car by the pump while going to the bathroom or grab a slushie and some snacks.
    - Daho0n 6y ago
      That is a solved problem in most of the world. I have waited at a gas station at most 5 times in my life and never more than 2-4 minutes. Going to the bathroom or leaving the pump I have never seen anyone do. If I did I would turn off the pump at the big red STOP button as leaving the pump running unattended is illegal.
      - theshrike79 6y ago
        You can't leave the pump running outside of the US, the fuel nizzle won't lock. I mean the people who fill up their car, and just leave the car at the pump.
        iggldiggl 6y ago
        > You can't leave the pump running outside of the US, the fuel nizzle won't lock. There might be places where locking nozzles are indeed uncommon, but I don't think you can generalise this to "outside of the US". I'm living outside of the US, but gas stations still commonly have locking nozzles.
        HeyLaughingBoy 6y ago
        That must suck in the middle of winter if you have to stand there holding subzero temperature metal while filling your 20-gallon tank and when it's done, go clean off your windshield, hatchback glass, etc. Hell, around here, when the temperature drops well below 0F, lots of people keep their car running and just sit in it while the tank fills.
        theshrike79 6y ago
        Yea, I live in Finland, cold isn't an issue :) And like every ICE fan likes to repeat, it's like 2-3 minutes to fill up a tank in a European car. And 2 minutes of that is fiddling with the chip&pin card reader in the cold. Even if it's negative Freedom Units outside, the car won't cool down enough to get cold during refueling - keeping it running is just plain stupid.
      - chrisdhal 6y ago
        I think he's saying leaving the pump after getting your gas. That's very common in my area. You pump your gas, go into the shop to get something and you leave your car at the pump. Nobody leaves their car while pumping. It's not uncommon to have to wait a few minutes for a pump to open up in my local gas station and it's got about 15 pumps.
      - HeyLaughingBoy 6y ago
        Where do you live? Everywhere in the US I've been the normal use case if you're getting something other than gas is to start the pump and then walk into the store to get food/use bathroom/etc., while the tank is filling. Yes, it's illegal, but people do it all-the-time.
  - beowulfey 6y ago
    Contrast Tesla superchargers in CA with, e.g. getting gas at a Costco. They experience similar degrees of queuing. There is a limit to how much of peak capacity you can build for. The solution is not to increase the capacity of a single station, but to build more of them (just as with gas stations). Which is obviously what Tesla is doing.

theshrike79 6y ago

You can't build for peak traffic, not in software nor in hardware.

twblalock 6y ago
Gas stations seem to be able to handle it. Why can't we expect the same for charging stations? Build for peak capacity. The chargers don't draw much when they aren't plugged in to cars. If we expect to succeed with charging infrastructure we need to make it convenient, even during holidays.
- theshrike79 6y ago
  Building a gas station for peak capacity would mean building so many pumps that you never have to queue. Even when people leave their car by the pump while going to the bathroom or grab a slushie and some snacks.
  - Daho0n 6y ago
    That is a solved problem in most of the world. I have waited at a gas station at most 5 times in my life and never more than 2-4 minutes. Going to the bathroom or leaving the pump I have never seen anyone do. If I did I would turn off the pump at the big red STOP button as leaving the pump running unattended is illegal.
    - theshrike79 6y ago
      You can't leave the pump running outside of the US, the fuel nizzle won't lock. I mean the people who fill up their car, and just leave the car at the pump.
      - iggldiggl 6y ago
        > You can't leave the pump running outside of the US, the fuel nizzle won't lock. There might be places where locking nozzles are indeed uncommon, but I don't think you can generalise this to "outside of the US". I'm living outside of the US, but gas stations still commonly have locking nozzles.
      - HeyLaughingBoy 6y ago
        That must suck in the middle of winter if you have to stand there holding subzero temperature metal while filling your 20-gallon tank and when it's done, go clean off your windshield, hatchback glass, etc. Hell, around here, when the temperature drops well below 0F, lots of people keep their car running and just sit in it while the tank fills.
        theshrike79 6y ago
        Yea, I live in Finland, cold isn't an issue :) And like every ICE fan likes to repeat, it's like 2-3 minutes to fill up a tank in a European car. And 2 minutes of that is fiddling with the chip&pin card reader in the cold. Even if it's negative Freedom Units outside, the car won't cool down enough to get cold during refueling - keeping it running is just plain stupid.
    - chrisdhal 6y ago
      I think he's saying leaving the pump after getting your gas. That's very common in my area. You pump your gas, go into the shop to get something and you leave your car at the pump. Nobody leaves their car while pumping. It's not uncommon to have to wait a few minutes for a pump to open up in my local gas station and it's got about 15 pumps.
    - HeyLaughingBoy 6y ago
      Where do you live? Everywhere in the US I've been the normal use case if you're getting something other than gas is to start the pump and then walk into the store to get food/use bathroom/etc., while the tank is filling. Yes, it's illegal, but people do it all-the-time.
- beowulfey 6y ago
  Contrast Tesla superchargers in CA with, e.g. getting gas at a Costco. They experience similar degrees of queuing. There is a limit to how much of peak capacity you can build for. The solution is not to increase the capacity of a single station, but to build more of them (just as with gas stations). Which is obviously what Tesla is doing.