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Re:Hertz Charges Tesla Model 3 Renter $277 Fee for Gas by aprilthird2021 on Thursday May 09, 2024 @12:53PM (#40310190)
I do really feel your frustration, but at the same time, the network and ease of use of gas refueling has just had so much more time to grow and become ingrained in society. You likely learned how to refuel a car before you could drive. There's been almost a century of gas station franchising and growth and regulations and laws written around them.

All that is shrunk enormously for electric fueling. So yeah it's gonna be inconvenient. I don't see how they can fast forward so many decades, but yeah they def could improve things.

Re:Hertz Charges Tesla Model 3 Renter $277 Fee for Gas by JasserInicide on Thursday May 09, 2024 @02:11PM (#40311112)
I do really feel your frustration, but at the same time, the network and ease of use of gas refueling has just had so much more time to grow and become ingrained in society.

Irrelevant. If you're taking on the incumbent you better have done your homework and made the experience as frictionless as possible. There's no technological reason recharging an EV has to be as difficult as it is, but companies are completely addicted to building a walled garden around you and selling your data.

Re:Hertz Charges Tesla Model 3 Renter $277 Fee for Gas by aprilthird2021 on Friday May 10, 2024 @01:19AM (#40315701)
I agree that the need for companies to "capture" you as a user, with apps, sign ups, etc. is a lot of unnecessary friction.

But gas stations and gas refueling had the advantage of coming up in a world before that was possible. So BP, Exxon, etc. never built all that stuff and now that they have a product they sell without doing that, they can't wall everyone in. If gas refueling was invented now, they would.

I guess I'm just saying it's a nascent industry with less volume, less usage, and fewer companies and competition. No wonder it's not as smooth as a process with much larger and competitive economy of scale