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There’s a lot of complication involved there. Someone has to come by regularly, take the deposited money, put in the appropriate number of coins to give change,

There’s a lot of complication involved there. Someone has to come by regularly, take the deposited money, put in the appropriate number of coins to give change, the machines break regularly, yadda yadda. I’m annoyed by todays cashless society too but there aren’t good answers to these problems.

alphalima 3y ago
Not only that, the sums involved and siting (relatively unprotected) are going to be very attractive to theft, driving up the cost to secure.
runarberg 3y ago
Sell prepaid cards at approved vendors and in more centralized vending machines which take cash. Kind of like most public transit cards. This was also an issue with mobile phone payments, it was solved then, it can be solved today.
- afavour 3y ago
  It makes a lot more sense for public transit, though: they’re located in dense cities with many vendors nearby. Same can’t be said of a car charging network.
  - runarberg 3y ago
    This was actually talked about here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36816539 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36816539 tldr; Money laundering is the bigger issue. However if we ignore the problem with money laundering, prepaid cards can still be a nice option for many people. If you are about to leave for a road trip you just make sure your card has enough money on it to cover the trip, then you don’t have to worry about your phone dying or your bank card failing etc. which can get you stranded.
CogitoCogito 3y ago
> I’m annoyed by todays cashless society too but there aren’t good answers to these problems. Those problems have been solved for generations. The solutions aren’t free and require some work, but it’s a little crazy to say there “there aren’t good answers to these problems.” If they mandated that cash should be accepted, the companies would figure it out and it really would be fine.

alphalima 3y ago

Not only that, the sums involved and siting (relatively unprotected) are going to be very attractive to theft, driving up the cost to secure.

runarberg 3y ago

Sell prepaid cards at approved vendors and in more centralized vending machines which take cash. Kind of like most public transit cards. This was also an issue with mobile phone payments, it was solved then, it can be solved today.

afavour 3y ago
It makes a lot more sense for public transit, though: they’re located in dense cities with many vendors nearby. Same can’t be said of a car charging network.
- runarberg 3y ago
  This was actually talked about here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36816539 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36816539 tldr; Money laundering is the bigger issue. However if we ignore the problem with money laundering, prepaid cards can still be a nice option for many people. If you are about to leave for a road trip you just make sure your card has enough money on it to cover the trip, then you don’t have to worry about your phone dying or your bank card failing etc. which can get you stranded.

CogitoCogito 3y ago

> I’m annoyed by todays cashless society too but there aren’t good answers to these problems. Those problems have been solved for generations. The solutions aren’t free and require some work, but it’s a little crazy to say there “there aren’t good answers to these problems.” If they mandated that cash should be accepted, the companies would figure it out and it really would be fine.