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Comment by jseliger | Hacker News Reader

Last time this came up I wrote: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39934120:

A few weeks ago I rented a Model 3 from Hertz in San Diego, and the car didn't come with an SAE J1772 Charging Adapter (this covers most level 2 stations). That's crazy. I was staying primarily at UCSD for cancer treatment, and there are a million level 2 chargers that I couldn't access without the SAE J1772 dongle. The Tesla my wife and I have always has a SAE J1772 dongle in the center console. I complained about the lack of this essential part.

Hertz would charge for the dongle and then refund upon its return. The car itself was good!

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I parked my Model Y in a garage in LA about a year ago and was sitting in the car charging from a J1772 port while my family shopped. Two women in a Model 3 parked next to me and tried for 20 minutes to plug their car in. I watched but didn't intrude. Finally they saw me and knocked on my window to ask me how to charge. I asked them if they had a J1772 adapter and they had no idea what I was talking about. They said they had rented the car. They looked everywhere in the car but no adapter. I suggested a supercharger and showed them how to find one on the car's screen. This was also the first time they had heard the word "supercharger."

Whoever they rented the car from (likely Hertz but I didn't ask) had done absolutely nothing to describe the charging procedure to these unfortunate customers.

Every time I've rented a Tesla from Hertz, I've been bombarded with emails I could not opt out of all about how Teslas operate differently than normal cars and how to charge them.

And I can guarantee most people ignore them. Any time you book anything on travel, hotel, or airlines you get a daily stream of useless “prepare for your trip”, “we’re so happy to have you”, “there’s still time to upgrade to first class”, etc. emails that can be safely ignored.

It’s no surprise that an actually important message gets lost in that stream of junk.

LOL

Average Joe has 16932+ unread emails. IF they have an idea they have an email account and email app.

Not sure what it says about me or google but my original 2004 gmail until recently had about 300,000 unread emails.

Granted most of the 300k emails were in tabs like social, forums, updates, promotion.

After a bit of spring purging the inbox is down to more managable 91,078 unread emails.

Then again, I've seen the first sentence for these emails so I expect I am not missing out on much.

I'm not aware of any email service what would allow you to tag some incoming messages with an "expire in 30 days" or something rule. Except the spam folder.

But again, the main purpose of Gmail is to harvest your behaviour data, not providing you a good email service.

That’s surprising. I rented a Bolt from them and they were very clear it was different. I figured that I could work it out so I told them to skip it and I’d just go work it out if I needed to. They handed me a pamphlet with instructions or link to. I paid no attention because I didn’t need to charge the car.

Perhaps these women did the same thing as me but they did need to charge the car.

I rented a Tesla from Hertz last summer. They sent me several emails before the trip explaining about an EV, how to find a charger, and how to charge. There were also videos showing the processes. When I picked up the car, the desk person asked if I had any questions about using an EV.

Perhaps other people ignore those emails?

Do you need an email address to rent a car now?

Just rented from sixt and they asked for email for the electronic receipt

I rented ahead of the time and they sent me information. It was welcome.

It's electric SIR, how would forced induction help?

Lol

Send them to an auto parts store and have them ask for a supercharger for their Tesla just to confuse the clerk.

Obligatory: I wouldn't actually do this but it's amusing to think about.

I do find it annoying that Elon Musk redefined a well-understood automotive term to refer to a completely different automotive term.

Of course we're not innocent here. What does gate mean in electronics? What does persistent mean in computer science? What does memory mean in computer engineering?

Context matters.

I just make a new words. Such as "dojober".

Dojober (noun): A handcrafted thing that makes it possible to do a job (i.e., complete a task).

Synonyms: widget, contraption

I've seen many posts in the forums sharing similar experiences. People are given the car with no instruction and have no idea where to go to charge them or how to charge them.

Every thing I’ve ever rented was the same. I do believe you would be laughed at if you had to ask how any tool worked when you picked it up from the rental desk. Or that they would just deny you from renting it, since you obviously don’t know what you’re doing.

Why should machinery that comes in a vehicle shape be different?

Because in a lot of cases they are being given to people that thought they were renting gas cars.

"You get to learn how to charge in an unfamiliar place with no help" isn't a welcome surprise for many people.

The adapter is often either in the large undertrunk which some people don't even notice, or in the small well on the left corner of the trunk.

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