Comment by beefield | Hacker News Reader

Comment by beefield | Hacker News Reader

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> EV chargers aren't this "dumb" for one simple reason: they need to be able to charge you for the power used. A dumb outlet, if metered properly, would still need some app or something to be able to restrict you from just taking power infinitely.

I'm scratching my head here. The old gas/diesel dispensing stations have solved this problem of restricting people taking all of the fuel in the pump with a disruptive financial technology called blo^H^H^H credit card. And I am really, really struggling to understand why I cant buy electricity directly with my credit card. (I do understand why the app might be better experience in many ways, but it is no excuse for not making it possible to pay with card without stupid obligatory app)

The main limit is minimum transaction fees. A gas station is usually at least a $20 transaction. Since most level 2 charges are about $1 of electricity per hour, you're paying massive credit card fees for short charges. The apps all support some sort of balance to combine charges into large single transactions.

Soda machines that take cards are common. It doesn't seem like small charges are a real problem.

So much the better to pay less fees, but I can't imagine it is really driving anything.

You can in the EU (or you will be able to anyway). Thanks to EU red tape you'll be able to use contactless to pay for charging.

https://www.nfcw.com/2023/08/07/384966/eu-mandates-contactle...

Presumably the Brexit dividend will allow UK EV owners to continue to have to deal with a gazillion shitty apps.

I wish they'd do the same for car parks.

You can, a lot of chargers these days do have credit card terminals and can start charging with just a swipe/tap/chip read of a regular card.

I'm not suggesting you couldn't do this directly via credit card payment via terminal. I think they should allow that. In fact, some systems DO allow this. My point is that if you make it a "dumb outlet" like the author suggest, it's literally identical to what we have today except you now have to bring your own charging cord (which, is inconvenient. Like bringing a gas pump handle and line with you to the gas station).

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