Tesla owner was asleep while charging his car, but he experienced a rude awakening.
Recently, Reddit posted a video showing how a pickup truck owner attempted to unplug his charging Tesla. The truck driver pulls up alongside the Tesla, plugging it in at a public charging station. He then gets out of his truck and begins pulling on the cable. Before he can remove the cable, the video cuts off.
People seem to be unplugging other people’s EVs as they charge. Although it is a terrible and rude idea, it could be a good idea if someone is desperate for a charge and all spots are full. One reason EV manufacturers are charging idle fees is because they don’t know what to do with their cars.
We’ve seen many videos of angry owners trying unplug their cars, despite the fact that there is not enough charging infrastructure and some owners failing to move their vehicles after a charging session. While we don’t have scientific data on this, the vast majority of images and videos seem to show people trying to unplug other Teslas’ charging cables.
These people might tell you they are out to get Tesla. The Tesla vehicles come with a built-in dashcam (TeslaCam), and a camera-based Sentry Model security systems. Tesla owners have the ability to share such footage.
We’ve seen pickup trucks “coal roll” Tesla’s vehicles and also park at Tesla Superchargers to ensure EV owners don’t have access to those spots for charging.
Videos like these are what drive the myth that Tesla haters are gas car and pickup truck owners. This narrative is simply not true across the board and cannot be proved. These are isolated incidents and should not be used to target a whole group of people.
With that said, check out the brief video below, which was shared on Reddit by Tesla Model 3 owner OrdinarySpecialist38: According to the Model 3 owner, he was asleep when the situation started. However, he woke up screaming at the pickup truck driver which led him to flee. OrdinarySpecialist38 wrote: “Anyone know what the incentives are for this behavior?” He then asked why Sentry Mode cut out. He suggested that it could have been because it knew he had been in the car. You can comment on this situation by going to our comments section. Have you ever had your EV targeted in this manner? Do you think there are more effective ways to prevent incidents like these?