Comment by 001sky | Hacker News Reader

Comment by 001sky | Hacker News Reader

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Have you seen the locations? These are for intra-state transit. Not for getting home from work. The locations are really only for making long trips feasible you would otherwise need to rent a "real-car" to take. Like SF to LA or what not (or tahoe, or La to vegas). In that context, it both seems less likely to find a backup at a station (because few tesla owners would not just Fly, be realistic), but a bit more of a hassle (extra 1 hr on a 5 hr drive, etc). You'd also expect to see "full" charges, because of the destinations.

TL;DR Its not the local/commuter crowd they are catering too.

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Edit: Locations - Only the LA and Fremont are even somewhat near major metros.

SF/SValley to Tahoe = 1x (Fremont)

SF LA corridor = 3x+1 (harris ranch, tejon ranch, gilroy, LA)

LA to Vegas Corridor = 1x (barstow)

SF-Tahoe-via Fremont seems the most likely actual drive for the target audience. Its only 1 of 6 locations.

I am not sure they should scale any worse than any turnpike rest-stop with food, the average time any person parked there stays there would be about the same (and chances are, people are going to want something to snack on while they wait). (On that note, I heard an idea in another HN thread about this that certain small businesses may provide charge-ups for free to customers. The power cost would be negligible (installation a bit more of an investment), and currently it would attract a likely profitable demographic. This variation of the idea should certainly scale.)

The one problem I see is if you could actually get enough power to a place like this the size of a parking lot.

certain small businesses may provide charge-ups for free to customers

I just spotted a free electric car charging spot at a drugstore in Seattle (Wallgreen's on Market st. in Ballard). It made me feel like I was in the future.

I saw a pizza delivery guy plugged into a Walgreens charging station near Seattle last week! Don't know if he was in the process of delivering a pizza at the time, but he had the doohickey on the roof.

The mock ups only had a couple of chargers evident. Think that was the issue people alluded to. park your car in 1 of 3 spots and go have a cafe = nbd for 30 min. but it you are #4, your stuck for 60 min, increasing your trip time ~20% vs regular car (etc). If you are #7 you're there for 90 min. But honestly, are there going to be 7x $100k teslas in Barstow? I doubt all at the same time...

Bigger problem is you can't take the PCH with your sweet car =/

You can't also drive the PCH at 75mph... trade-offs :)

(and that's probably even a bit slow for I5)

trade-offs :)

...like horsepower vs torque ! :D

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