The Brisbane Convention Centre has cheap parking, and free car charging. So for $16 a day in parking, I can fill my car up with as much juice as I like. Which is a pretty good deal.
I’ve been meaning to charge the EV for a couple of weeks. It’s been sitting on 10% battery for a fair while now, but just haven’t got around to it. There’s only 8 car chargers, and they get busy during the day, so I usually drop the car in overnight, schedule it to start charging in the morning when there’s plenty of solar in the grid, and voila; free volts. But it’s a big ask. Especially when it’s late, you’re snoozy, and just want to go to bed.
So in the interests of trying something new, I organise with a friend to charge it tomorrow at their apartment complex. We work out the details and I put it in my calendar, but then my brain twitches:
Wait a minute.
Didn’t you drop the car in to charge last week?
And did you ever pick it up again?
No?
How much is THAT going to cost? Will it even still be there? Have they cut the cable and towed it to an undisclosed location?
PANIC!
With a massive pit in my stomach I set my Slack status to “lunch” and race out the door, almost forgetting my car keys. There’s no scooters around, but the bus is only a stop away, so I take that.
I share my situation with the lady in the car park office, who seems nonplussed. “Just drive out” she says.
So I do.
And you know what? The ticket machine has forgotten about me. The QR code scans as per normal, and as the boom gates lift the screen flashes the usual message: “Charged: $16”.
I double-check, and sure enough the invoice has only charged me for today. I was expecting it to run into the hundreds, but there were no consequences whatsoever for my whatever-it-was moment. Bank error in my favour, I’m off scot free. And after all that it’s kind of nice to know that the machines can have forgetful moments too.
🤔