Why does the cars need to move?
Just build car charging coils into every parking spot, then have a computer keep track of what car arrived at what time, and give them an hour each of full charging sequentially.
Example
Car 1 parks in space A and starts charging, car 2 arrives shortly after and parks in space D, the computer logs the VIN and timestamp, placing it first in the queue. 30 min later car 3 arrives and parks in space B, the computer logs the VIN and time stamp, placing it second in the queue. Then car 2 leaves space D, the computer logs it and removes it from the queue, making car 3 first in line, then car 2 arrives back in space D, and is placed second in the queue since it left earlier.
No need to move tonnes of metal and batteries, just switching the power, a cheap and fair way to extend the number of charging spaces, while not overloading the circuit and ensuring that everyone gets a fair timeslot, all without having to risk dammage while moving the cars.
bluGill@fedia.io 17 hours ago
This is a wrong take. It needs to be normal to leave your car plugged into a charger.
Cars take too long to charge for us to consider it reasonable for someone to stand next to their car waiting while it charges (even worse - as I write this the temperature is -17C, but even when things are nice). We need to expect that people will be doing something else while charging and only come out sometime latter to move their car. If someone is at work they can't leave work until lunch time. If someone is at the symphony/theater it is impolite to leave when the car is done charging as it disturbs everyone else.
Of course if your car just as enough range to get back home so you don't need to charge for normal trips that is better. However when someone needs a charger it should be considered normal to stay there for 6 hours, there needs to be enough to handle that. (obviously people making a road trip will disconnect as soon as the car is charged so they can continue on, but if you make the trip to a distance city for an event you may need to charge during the event to get back home).
vinceman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 17 hours ago
If we’re talking level 2 chargers I might agree, but no, you should never be leaving your vehicle parked for 6+hours at a level 3. We can’t just build football stadium sized parking lots because people can’t charge at home or work.
bluGill@fedia.io 16 hours ago
My city is full of level 2 chargers, and I get nasty messages when I use them because when my car is finally charged I'm in the middle of something else (I have a PHEV that only does level 2 charging, and I need a charge to get back home on electric only on the rare case I go downtown) Even with level 3 though, the time is long enough that you will need something else to do for that half an hour and nobody can plan that close. Most cars with level 3 charging have enough range that most people won't need to charge on a normal day, but when you do you will need something to do in the mean time and if that something else isn't about the time of a charge there is a problem.
vinceman@lemmy.blahaj.zone 15 hours ago
Why not just drive home on gas, you said it yourself it’s a rare case you go downtown. It’s not acceptable to leave a vehicle parked in front of a gas pump, this is fundamentally no different. You’re inconveniencing people because you don’t want to drive on gas once in a while.