First Public Charger in San Diego 6/16 Show up to Support!

[davewill]

The day of the press conference, the cards worked despite not being registered. Hopefully they haven't changed that, yet.

 

[jcesare]

If I was an iPhone user, and used Recargo, I'd submit an entry for these (hint).

Personally, I like the PlugShare app better.

 

[electricfuture]

Torrey Pines parking garage entrance is next to the lodge entrance at the round about. There is a gate but open as you approach. There is no charge for parking. Unit on 1st floor is for handicapped. 2 units on level marked 4 behind the orange post where the sign says valet parking work without an RFID card.

 

[wsbca]

I received my Blink card, but cannot access blinknetwork.com to activate the card or to confirm that they activated it. It looks like a problem that may affect many people. Coincident with sending the card they also deactivated my old password, necessitating a password reset. But their password "reset" page only emails you a link to their password change page, which will not function without the old password. It will not function with an old password that they deactivated. Their support line will not answer the phone due to unusually high call volume, which strengthens my belief they have locked out many people's accounts right when they had a reason to access their accounts. So, I'm left not knowing if I were to drive to Balboa Park with 49% of battery remaining, whether I would be able to charge and make it home.

I was just able to change my "weak" password directly on the site (yes, it forced the change when I went to log in), and then was able to activate my recently received RFID. The RFID page showed my pending request, and I clicked "See Why" in the Request or Activate box, and got fresh buttons to activate or request, I clicked activate, entered the number off of my new card, and it took. When I went "back", the active card showed as card #2 (#1 is still my pending request, which this card actually fulfilled). So I think I'm set. Ready to try a trip to Balboa Park, except for the news that the spaces are not limited to EV's so I guess we'll have to go pretty early.

 

[walterbays]

Personally, I like the PlugShare app better.

Unfortunately PlugShare decided to focus exclusively on the 7% of people who use iPhone, ignoring the 11% who use Android, and the 6% who use Blackberry, and the 1% who use Windows phone. And there's the 16% who use Symbian, and the 1% who use some other smartphone. And there's the 58% who don't use a smartphone at all.

If and when they complete their long promised Android app they will extend their reach to 18% of the market. Had they instead developed a simple web based application then all 42% of smartphone users could look up charging stations on the road and all 100% of drivers could plan a trip ahead of time on a computer.

Imagine. They claim to list over 2,500 charging stations. Had they not restricted PlugShare to 7% of the market there would be fourteen times as many people using the app and potentially listing their EVSE's for shared use, so they would probably have 36,000 charging stations.

 

[bsavall]

Personally, I like the PlugShare app better.

Unfortunately PlugShare decided to focus exclusively on the 7% of people who use iPhone, ignoring the 11% who use Android, and the 6% who use Blackberry, and the 1% who use Windows phone. And there's the 16% who use Symbian, and the 1% who use some other smartphone. And there's the 58% who don't use a smartphone at all.

If and when they complete their long promised Android app they will extend their reach to 18% of the market. Had they instead developed a simple web based application then all 42% of smartphone users could look up charging stations on the road and all 100% of drivers could plan a trip ahead of time on a computer.

Imagine. They claim to list over 2,500 charging stations. Had they not restricted PlugShare to 7% of the market there would be fourteen times as many people using the app and potentially listing their EVSE's for shared use, so they would probably have 36,000 charging stations.

Nice rant walterbays; and completely unsupported by real world data. In which present universe does Android have a larger marketshare than iphone?

Here is data. http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/online_mobile/iphone-vs-android/

I agree that a web based system covers all bases, but don't make up data cause you regret your android purchase.

 

[walterbays]

Nice rant walterbays

Thanks.

; and completely unsupported by real world data. In which present universe does Android have a larger marketshare than iphone?

Gartner and Comscore.
http://www.gartner.com/it/page.jsp?id=1622614
http://www.businessinsider.com/android-iphone-market-share-2011-4
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&...s_upl=11620l11620l0l1l1l0l0l0l0l155l155l0.1l1

Here is data. http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/online_mobile/iphone-vs-android/

Interesting. I see your Nielsen data puts Blackberry way ahead of both Android and iPhone. I think the difference is that Nielsen is reporting installed base and Gartner is reporting new sales, so Apple and RIM's head starts make a big difference. It's also striking that Nielsen reports a much lower rate of total smartphone usage than I had found.

I agree that a web based system covers all bases, but don't make up data cause you regret your android purchase.

Actually my shakier data is the percentage of people who don't have a smartphone at all. I just took the first figure for that which came up in a Google search. I was surprised it was so high. But whatever the number is, the point is that there are a lot of people without smart phones, and any crowd sourced application which starts out by locking out a majority of the crowd may not do so well.

Btw, I am entirely happy with my Android purchase. And all of my friends who have iPhones are completely happy with them, and for good reason. As are all my friends who have Blackberries. I don't know anyone who has a Windows phone, but still don't believe they should be locked out of charging station information.

 

[bsavall]

Then it sounds like we agree to agree that web-based systems are the way to go.

 

[lonndoggie]

If I was an iPhone user, and used Recargo, I'd submit an entry for these (hint).

Personally, I like the PlugShare app better.

Same to me, unusable, since--as Walterbays has pointed out--like Recargo, it's also not available on Android. Neither is Carwings, in app form, but I can get to it in my browser.

I take it the Torrey Pines units are listed in PlugShare?
How about Stone brewery?

 

[walterbays]

A weekday morning trip to Balboa Park made me much happier with the charging station installation there. Until they get the EV signage I still wouldn't drive there on a weekend with less than 50% charge remaining; i.e., I wouldn't count on being able to charge. But there's cause for optimism. To begin with, davewill was right: the Blink card they sent me activated the charger even though I cannot login to my Blink account to activate the card.

Of the 4 charging stations at the Science Center, one disabled and one regular space were open, one was being used by another Leaf, and one was [Edit: not] being used by an ICE car as a premium parking space.


These are the closest parking spaces in one of the most sought after parking lots in the park. And still two spots were open, and only one was ICEd.

Note: Normally I would blur out the license plates of cars for privacy. But not in the case of ICE vehicles parked in EV spots: in case you missed it that Mercedes SUV is xxxxxx. [Edit: "davewill: You're being unfair to the guy at the science center. That space has no Blink in it."] And not in the case of dealer plates: both Leafs are wearing Mossy Nissan plates.

At the Air and Space Museum only one EV space was taken, and it was by an ICE vehicle. (Note: that Chrysler's license is xxxxxx) [Edit: davewill noticed that this ICE is also in a space that shares a Blink with a handicapped space.]




ECOtality and the city and park officials really made good choices in siting the charging stations. True, the few stations at the Science Center will attract more ICE squatters, but they also make EV's highly visible. And they put most of the charging stations in a non-prime location where it should be much easier to keep them reserved for EV's. Although that parking lot was full except for the EV spaces, there are several adjacent lots that were almost empty. Even on weekends ICE drivers should have plenty of parking choices almost as convenient as taking EV spaces.

The final - and biggest - reason for optimism is the attitude of San Diego's ICE drivers. Even without EV-only signs and without threats of towing, hundreds of ICE drivers chose not to park in the EV spaces. San Diego (and Nissan, and DOE, and GM) must have done a good job of making people aware of the existence of EV's. And the great majority of drivers do the right thing - or as they say in Texas: Drive Friendly.

 

[Coffee_Slurry]

Of the 4 charging stations at the Science Center, one disabled and one regular space were open, one was being used by another Leaf

That blue Leaf is mine.

I'll be there tomorrow as well. Yay Science Camp.

 

[davewill]

You're being unfair to the guy at the science center. That space has no Blink in it. The unit is in the handicapped spot. Without signage, I would have parked there myself.

 

[mwalsh]

The final - and biggest - reason for optimism is the attitude of San Diego's ICE drivers. Even without EV-only signs and without threats of towing, hundreds of ICE drivers chose not to park in the EV spaces.

That's cool! Good for them.

 

[leucadialeaf]

Went down to the zoo today, so we checked out the Balboa Park Blinks. Still no "EV only" signage. This wasn't too much a a problem when we arrived a little before 11AM. There was one Blink available in the RH Fleet parking lot (2 Leafs charging) and all six (7?) were free in the Aerospace Museum lot. However when we returned about 4 hours later there were no empty spaces in either location, with ICE vehicles occupying all but 3 spots - our Leaf and one other in the Aerospace Museum lot, one Leaf at the Fleet.

 

[lonndoggie]

There is, however, balance in the universe: To offset the lack of "ev only" signage in front of the Balboa Park chargers, at the now open Whole Foods in Encinitas, most of the parking spaces adjacent to the elevators are marked reserved for low emission/high-efficiency vehicles.

But no chargers.

 

[electricfuture]

Went to Balboa Park yesterday. The Blink spots by the Science Museum were occupied, so I went to the Space Museum. There I found 4 ICEs parked in the spots and only one Leaf. So I plugged in. Upon my return about 4 PM there were 5 ICEs parked in the slots and only my Leaf - even though there were empty slots available elsewhere. I am going to contact Ecotality and ask what happened to the signage.

 

[smkettner]

Signage is probably a separate bid controlled by the park.

 

[mwalsh]

Signage is probably a separate bid controlled by the park.

Time to get Banksy on them! I have a spray can if someone else has the letter templates? :lol:

 

[smkettner]

I am too far away to go down and try my luck. That would be a long trip from Orange county. And a long way back with no charge.

 

[OilFreedom]

I heard signs were installed Tuesday. Anyone see them yet?