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Self service vehicle fueling is going to happen anyway in the decades ahead when EVs become the norm.
Would you want a requirement that a 4 charger location with no cover is staffed 24/7 just to plug in a car and press a button? Thats a crazy high cost to avoid the not-frequent damage you're trying to address.
Thats because owners don't maintain them. Gas pumps break frequently too, except there is staff there to report it immediately, and other staff to repair them within a day or so.
There's a two post EV charger I am close to in a place I have been visiting for years. About 3 months ago one of the two become non-functional. The other is still working so its not usually a big deal but a couple of times I haven't been able to charge it. As of right now, the one is STILL broken. Is this because people are tearing it up? No, its because the owner has acknowledged it isn't working, and simply is choosing not to fix it. This is sadly pretty common for non-Tesla chargers. Charging companies don't maintain their equipment. This will change with time and demand.
Right, its an unnecessary waste of money that 49 of the the 50 states in the union have done away with.
...and...
You're suggesting one way to address broken chargers. What you're suggesting is an unnecessarily expensive way. Ask yourself this: if employing an on-site worker is the only way to prevent broken chargers, how is it that the largest charging network of DC fast chargers (Tesla Superchargers with 1,246 fast charging locations ) not only doesn't use an on-site worker, yet also has the most reliable chargers with the highest operational uptime?
Do they simply make a better charger? Possibly, but I've still seen an occasional non-working stall. Out of 20 visits to a 20 stall EV charging location I might see one stall not in full operation. So the Supercharging network clearly has technicians that are keeping things repaired, and it doesn't take someone sitting on a stool at the location for at least 8 hours a day to make this happen. So you say none of the charging companies take care of their networks, except the largest network operator of DC fast chargers does.
Adequate staffing doesn't mean an on-site worker sitting there everyday waiting for a charger to break to report it. That seems to be the solution you're championing.
Rightfully so. Gasoline (and diesel) stored in large quantities can be dangerous. Leaks into soil cause large problems of contamination. Contaminated fuel can cause damage to consumers vehicles. These are storage and product purity concerns for private gas station owners. A commercial distribution network for volatile liquids is a safety issue. Electricity has neither of these.
None of that applies to electricity where we pipe it into our homes everyday. Why would you treat electricity transport the same as gasoline transport when they don't have the same dangers and don't behave the same?
You're misinterpreting the problem. I get it. Its complicated, but you're seeing the same symptoms as I am but you're attributing the wrong reasons to why those symptoms exist.
Lets start here:
Who owns the biggest EV charging networks (by DC fast charging locations) in the USA?
So two of the 4 were created by forced regulatory compliance. Yet the most successful of the 4 in terms of reliability is the one that has an incentive to have working chargers available at the most places all the time with no regulatory requirement.
Don't think that I'm a proponent of laissez faire capitalism. Quite the opposite! Put regulations where they are needed. Perhaps there are some needed yet in EV charging, but forcing charging companies to staff them like gas stations is not it.