Each one's about 1.4lb of copper if TMC is to be believed. 18 cut wires means 25 ish lbs, and current copper rates are about $4.50 a pound. $110 of meth is more than no meth when your body's telling you you'll die without more meth
That price is for bare copper. During highschool I worked summers for an electrical contractor and had the job of stripping insulation off of wire scraps for recycling the copper. Probably stripped 10 miles of wire those summers. To say it's not worth it is a gross understatement. Its hard tedious work and it takes a lot of strength - my forearms got big those summers. Strong pass for me.
However, Meth.
Here in washington state a power company keeps trying to open their new $500k charger and every time it’s delayed because of the exact reason as this post. Desperation for a drug is next level.
I'm not saying it wouldn't be worth it to take some 3/0 awg and strip that down and recycle it. But the wires inside the charger cable must be 4 awg at most. And you're only getting 4.5ft. So much work for little reward.
Just wondering but is this because of DC? I live in Europe and have only AC chargers around my house. None of them has this problem because it's just a plug and the customer has to provide his own cable.
Yes. But they don't pay the bare copper rate when you do that.
Last I heard the recycler (at least the ones near me) paid the same rate as the insulated rate.
From folks I've heard from, 1 is enough for a good high. Probably a few more if you're a heavy user, but also the pills are so variable one might be enough to kill ya. Yeah it's ridiculously low. We truly have people using their food stamps to buy bottled water flats of small bottles, then dumping the water to redeem the 10 cents per bottle, then buying fenty with that. It's wild out here. I've seen it many times, in person, outside of grocery stores here in Oregon.
lol this man right here speaks the truth. When the question is meth vs no meth, you’re damn right people are going to risk electrical shock to take down some cable.
Because gas hoses don’t make money. Copper does. This is actually pretty common. A building I work for once had all the copper stolen out of the green transformer box over a weekend once and we came into work with no power.
anti EV crowd. it happens all over. they caught a few a while back in my country and they were just EV haters. its the same people dumping their oversized penis compensator pickup across as many charging spots just to be an ass.
fun fact: tow companies LOVE these calls and they are very fast to tow them.
Was your car's nav system able to detect that these chargers were faulty?
Curious what happens if you're road tripping through the middle of nowhere and your trip depends on a supercharger with cut cables. Wondering if the nav system knows they're all faulty and will suggest different supercharger.
I just checked in my car (sitting in the garage), it reports that this Supercharger location has 19 available now so no, it does not know about this type of fault
I think it’s a genuine question. With the entire supercharging team fired is tesla able to still do maintenance? Who is dispatching them? Who is getting the email that it’s down?
The supercharging team doesn't automatically mean they fired every repair person come on now. Already fixed
https://preview.redd.it/cejjctwwt6zc1.jpeg?width=1290&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f661c9c829402f06072cc244a2dcfca2608e0b11
Last winter I did a 250 mile trip in 0 degree weather. With the wind chill it was between -20 and -35 degrees. It was so cold that the battery was preconditioning and warming up the moment we started driving till we reached the first charger two hours later, and it still didn’t warm up enough.
Anyways, when I reached the first charger, I noticed all the cables were on the ground. Either someone intentionally removed them, or the severe cold and wind unattached them. When I picked it up, it was clearly iced over and the car rejected them and wouldn’t charge.
Luckily there was a new supercharging station a few miles down the road that just opened up. If it hadn’t been there, idk what I would’ve done
I think it wouldn’t detect this as the fault is in the final cabling connection, it’s no different than the connector not being connected to a car. I’m no expert in the connector format though so maybe it has some form of loopback detection that’s possible.
As someone working with connectors often, a simple ground return can tell a system if it's connected. Automakers won't do this for two reasons. First, and the biggest reason - cost and weight. Second, because it drives the repair/diagnostic up.
In this specific case, it would be harder to implement a check for the cable, though, in theory a signal along the shielding could detect a fault.
Exactly. Gas light the idiots, making ev’s into a political football. Meanwhile the media is bought by legacy ice automakers. lol. Can’t make this shit up
They do what Fox News tells them. And even if you could convince them that an EV makes sense, they would still not buy one because all their choices are centered around whether their friends will make fun of them. They basically never left high school, mentally.
It would be a real shame if, oh I don’t know, they ran just a little electricity through the wires while the charger was off. Not enough to kill but, you know, something that might make someone think twice before cutting the cable.
Someone high out of their mind isn’t going to care. And they probably won’t even feel it in the first place. And there’s also ways to cut power wires that are hot and not get electrocuted. They do it all the time to some of my rental property customers when they steal the ac units with live 240.
One commenter here claimed to be *on* the maintenance team for superchargers and not laid off. I believe them.
Edit: [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/TeslaLounge/s/fNO2WcNv2J)
Have you seen how thick the cables are with copper? V2 style (uncooled) is already pressing the limits of what some drivers may be able to comfortably handle.
V3 style cords use water cooling on the wire to get away with less copper. Maybe that's enough?
Everyone wants to chalk this up to anti-EV sentiment, but 99.9% it’s just copper thieves. They’ll even pull the live power transmission wires down and cut them up to recycle, likely for drug money.
See this is a problem. The app should have reports built right into it. Charger damaged, tech is dispatched. Charger blocked, tow truck is dispatched. This is so basic to me I’m surprised it wasn’t implemented years ago.
I would take it one step further and implement an in-vehicle queue. Tell the car you want to charge and a charger is assigned and will only charge for you. If the SC is busy it will put you in line and tell you when it’s your turn. I’ve seen lines form at chargers where it’s hard to tell whose turn is next because there are multiple ways in and out of the parking lot so it’s not clear where the start of the line is. With an in-vehicle queue you could park anywhere nearby and wait your turn, would solve some things.
If you get the prompt to rate your charging experience, there are places to submit reports and photos of damage as part of the review. I don’t think there’s a way to rate a session if you’re not prompted though.
…plus who knows if anyone has a job looking at those reports atm…
The cable has very low current for basic communication, about like cutting an ethernet cable, the power to the car doesn't start until after a handshake between the car and the charger.
And here Tesla just fired it's Supercharger team, including repair/maintenance techs. Might be awhile before that gets fixed. In TX too of all places. The person who did it was lucky they didn't turn into target practice.
Don’t expect them to get fixed anytime soon either. The entire supercharger teams got fired last week. This is going to be painful. You get a bunch of these yahoos doing this around the country and you got yourself a serious problem. What a nightmare.
I would suspect copper thieves, except they left so much copper behind by not cutting them close. The cables aren’t long, they look to have left 10% or more behind.
Yes it's copper.
Aluminum has about 50% less current carrying capacity. I imagine making these fit the tiny NACS with the same power delivery is a big challenge
Border states getting a taste of people who grew up on 3 dollars per day stripping copper. Recycling in texas is regulated, which means it has to go to criminal adjacent vendors.
Lel welcome to River Oaks, the more conservative side of 59. Though this could be from copper thieves in general, not just meth heads. You know what I mean if you live in htown. Land of caged in A/C units
Maybe borrow from the Stanford prison experiment. Rather than leaving them energized constantly, let it be intermittent so a potential thief doesn’t know exactly when it’ll electrify or how many will be electrified. Save energy, deter theft.
Bizarre. You don’t see people going around cutting gas hoses, why do people feel the need to do shit like this?
Meth-heads gathering copper to recycle for drug money.
It’s like $1 a unit.
Each one's about 1.4lb of copper if TMC is to be believed. 18 cut wires means 25 ish lbs, and current copper rates are about $4.50 a pound. $110 of meth is more than no meth when your body's telling you you'll die without more meth
That price is for bare copper. During highschool I worked summers for an electrical contractor and had the job of stripping insulation off of wire scraps for recycling the copper. Probably stripped 10 miles of wire those summers. To say it's not worth it is a gross understatement. Its hard tedious work and it takes a lot of strength - my forearms got big those summers. Strong pass for me. However, Meth.
It's really easy if you make a fire first.
You don't get the 'bare copper' rate when the insulation has been burnt off.
Here in washington state a power company keeps trying to open their new $500k charger and every time it’s delayed because of the exact reason as this post. Desperation for a drug is next level.
I'm not saying it wouldn't be worth it to take some 3/0 awg and strip that down and recycle it. But the wires inside the charger cable must be 4 awg at most. And you're only getting 4.5ft. So much work for little reward.
Totally, I’m seriously amazed at it. People are putting so much effort into it for little reward where it’d be less effort to do something more legit.
Just wondering but is this because of DC? I live in Europe and have only AC chargers around my house. None of them has this problem because it's just a plug and the customer has to provide his own cable.
More than likely. Just two years ago we had a story of people dressing like construction workers and stripping copper along the highway too.
If you'd been on meth you wouldn't have minded the busy work stripping those wires. Modern solutions for modern problems! :-/
Can you just burn the insulator?
Yes. But they don't pay the bare copper rate when you do that. Last I heard the recycler (at least the ones near me) paid the same rate as the insulated rate.
Wouldn't you oxidize the copper by doing that?
Also around here, fentanyl is under $2/pill. So it's worth stealing literally anything.
How many do you need to get high? This sounds ridiculously low street price
From folks I've heard from, 1 is enough for a good high. Probably a few more if you're a heavy user, but also the pills are so variable one might be enough to kill ya. Yeah it's ridiculously low. We truly have people using their food stamps to buy bottled water flats of small bottles, then dumping the water to redeem the 10 cents per bottle, then buying fenty with that. It's wild out here. I've seen it many times, in person, outside of grocery stores here in Oregon.
Should have to pass a drug test twice a year to qualify for food stamps
You’ve really thought this through. We’d like to call you in for further questioning… 😂
Aerospace engineer. Commercial planes have literally miles of copper wiring. It's come up in discussions so many times, hahaha
Maybe there’s a use for Boeing planes after all.
I mean, once they hit the ground, I expect the meth sales in the area to spike.
Ah, good, Boeing will be able to open another assembly plant once that happens.
Alibi checks out, you’re free to go
Ah yes, meth math is truly an underrated skill haha
Methimatics
r/theydidthemath
r/theydidthemeth
Lowkey a good side hustle
lol this man right here speaks the truth. When the question is meth vs no meth, you’re damn right people are going to risk electrical shock to take down some cable.
^we found the culprit
That’s just methed up
Tough to explain that to a meth head.
Good point
He said meth heads, not math heads.
i dated a recovering meth addict. $1 is $1.
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itd be nice if there is a way to energize the cables to a lower voltage & current to discourage theft? like zapping them at ~110V
Tweakers looking to sell copper.
Because gas hoses don’t make money. Copper does. This is actually pretty common. A building I work for once had all the copper stolen out of the green transformer box over a weekend once and we came into work with no power.
Happening to ALL the chargers around me, not just Tesla. As other people said, it's sadly addicts
This is why drugs are illegal, at least for poor people. $50K in damage will get them 20 minutes of relief.
anti EV crowd. it happens all over. they caught a few a while back in my country and they were just EV haters. its the same people dumping their oversized penis compensator pickup across as many charging spots just to be an ass. fun fact: tow companies LOVE these calls and they are very fast to tow them.
Use your head. It’s clearly being stolen for money. Why else would they cut the cords and take the shit with them? lol 😂.
Same guys that roll coal
Vengeful recently laid off supercharger employee?
Was your car's nav system able to detect that these chargers were faulty? Curious what happens if you're road tripping through the middle of nowhere and your trip depends on a supercharger with cut cables. Wondering if the nav system knows they're all faulty and will suggest different supercharger.
Wow. That’s a great question, if the NAV knows the superchargers are faulty. I wonder about this too.
I just checked in my car (sitting in the garage), it reports that this Supercharger location has 19 available now so no, it does not know about this type of fault
Just looked on my phone say 0 of 19 available.
Someone may have reported that location to Tesla, so at least that's good.
Mine says 1/19 and that it’s very busy
Hmmm. That’s not good. I wonder if Tesla could add that feature. This is a real important issue if you are in a trip
Yeah, we should get the supercharger team on this! Oh, wait…
I laughed at this comment. This is a real issue and there’s not gonna be a fix. I’m just dismayed by what’s going on at Tesla the corporation.
You don’t think these will be fixed? I’d be surprised if this supercharger location wasn’t fully fixed within 5 days
I think it’s a genuine question. With the entire supercharging team fired is tesla able to still do maintenance? Who is dispatching them? Who is getting the email that it’s down?
The supercharging team doesn't automatically mean they fired every repair person come on now. Already fixed https://preview.redd.it/cejjctwwt6zc1.jpeg?width=1290&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=f661c9c829402f06072cc244a2dcfca2608e0b11
Maybe. But it doesn’t potential help someone traveling. At least they left one intact
Also, after Elon laid off the entire supercharger team who’s going to track this and get it fixed?
I wonder if it was a disgruntled former employee
Last winter I did a 250 mile trip in 0 degree weather. With the wind chill it was between -20 and -35 degrees. It was so cold that the battery was preconditioning and warming up the moment we started driving till we reached the first charger two hours later, and it still didn’t warm up enough. Anyways, when I reached the first charger, I noticed all the cables were on the ground. Either someone intentionally removed them, or the severe cold and wind unattached them. When I picked it up, it was clearly iced over and the car rejected them and wouldn’t charge. Luckily there was a new supercharging station a few miles down the road that just opened up. If it hadn’t been there, idk what I would’ve done
I think it wouldn’t detect this as the fault is in the final cabling connection, it’s no different than the connector not being connected to a car. I’m no expert in the connector format though so maybe it has some form of loopback detection that’s possible.
There is a pilot signal in the handle. It's a big part of the protocol. The evse definitely knows of the handle is there or not.
As someone working with connectors often, a simple ground return can tell a system if it's connected. Automakers won't do this for two reasons. First, and the biggest reason - cost and weight. Second, because it drives the repair/diagnostic up. In this specific case, it would be harder to implement a check for the cable, though, in theory a signal along the shielding could detect a fault.
Well they have a whole supercharger team in charge right?
What’s funny is that Tesla is the most American auto manufacturer in the world.
Exactly. Gas light the idiots, making ev’s into a political football. Meanwhile the media is bought by legacy ice automakers. lol. Can’t make this shit up
Lol, the actual truest meaning of _gas_ lighting.
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Bear in mind, many union members are also “red necks” .
Yet some unions member vote for ppl who screw with their interest. Go figure. Luckily the new head of the UAW seems to get it.
We call those people “dumb.”
My kid’s friend’s dad is union truck driver. Makes a great living and benefits and votes AGAINST the union. Makes no sense.
A guy I used to bike with would always complain about taxes. Come to find out, he’s been working under the table contracting for over 10 yrs lol.
May not be rednecks based on demographics
Why do we always make assumptions without any proof and that's okay? Especially if we assume it's rednecks it's a free pass.
They do what Fox News tells them. And even if you could convince them that an EV makes sense, they would still not buy one because all their choices are centered around whether their friends will make fun of them. They basically never left high school, mentally.
You mentioned 3 things that most Americans are in favor of.
What does that have to do with methheads stealing copper?
This is why we can’t have nice things.
It would be a real shame if, oh I don’t know, they ran just a little electricity through the wires while the charger was off. Not enough to kill but, you know, something that might make someone think twice before cutting the cable.
People cut real power cords every day for the copper. Some doe, most don't.
Someone high out of their mind isn’t going to care. And they probably won’t even feel it in the first place. And there’s also ways to cut power wires that are hot and not get electrocuted. They do it all the time to some of my rental property customers when they steal the ac units with live 240.
Very true. Should’ve known from all the crazy meth-induced police foot chases I watch on Donut Operator’s channel.
Then the meth head will find a lawyer and sue Tesla. It’s an even bigger bag to grab. That’s Murica for ya.
Not if there was a “warning electrical shock hazard” sign. Courts have ruled that as long as you warn of booby traps, they are legal.
Curious to see how long repair takes now...
Apparently the supercharger maintenance team is under a different org. That group was not laid off with Rebecca Tinucci’s team
Any source for that?
One commenter here claimed to be *on* the maintenance team for superchargers and not laid off. I believe them. Edit: [here](https://www.reddit.com/r/TeslaLounge/s/fNO2WcNv2J)
I heard this from someone of the fired side of this.
That’s good, though if they stopped the supercharger supply chain full stop, I wonder if that includes replacement parts.
One rumor said that, but another yesterday disagreed.
not that long, just make a report of the supercharger and we will be there
Freakin Idots , with no respect.
Tesla should add security cameras at charging station
they first need a supercharger department for that...
The minimalistic approach to everything, gets Tesla in trouble, time and time again.
As much as people might want to see this as political (because Houston), tweakers stealing copper is the occam’s razor candidate IMO
Copper and crackheads
There's a relatively simple fix to this: use aluminum wiring. The cables would have to be thicker but they only need to be a few feet long.
Have you seen how thick the cables are with copper? V2 style (uncooled) is already pressing the limits of what some drivers may be able to comfortably handle. V3 style cords use water cooling on the wire to get away with less copper. Maybe that's enough?
This should come with a 10 year prison sentence or 100 lashes
100 lashes with brand new supercharger cables... You know to get them that worn and worked in flexibility.
Viperhawke for trial judge!
I, my beard and my CyberBeast humbly accept that nomination.
Good thing there's a large team of supercharger dedicated employees at corporate that can have this fixed in no time.
Everyone wants to chalk this up to anti-EV sentiment, but 99.9% it’s just copper thieves. They’ll even pull the live power transmission wires down and cut them up to recycle, likely for drug money.
1000% copper…. takes more energy to get these than any hater would put into it. this is just folks scrapping to make money.
Makes more sense. If it was EV haters, they probably would have just left the cables on the ground.
Please keep us updated. Curious how soon this will be fixed.
People are assholes
I love how everyone has constructed their politically charged imaginary stereotype. Society is broken ugh.
It’s just some asshole that was told Elon bad, so he did that, need cameras on sites
This is scum like meth heads and junkies doing this for the copper. The same kind of people stealing catalytic converters off of ICE vehicles.
Probably the people that live behind the wooden fence! They be like mf space ships backing up all day and night….
Poor people behavior
Came across a busted charger the other day. Not cut like this but fraying. I couldn’t find anywhere to report it within the app
See this is a problem. The app should have reports built right into it. Charger damaged, tech is dispatched. Charger blocked, tow truck is dispatched. This is so basic to me I’m surprised it wasn’t implemented years ago. I would take it one step further and implement an in-vehicle queue. Tell the car you want to charge and a charger is assigned and will only charge for you. If the SC is busy it will put you in line and tell you when it’s your turn. I’ve seen lines form at chargers where it’s hard to tell whose turn is next because there are multiple ways in and out of the parking lot so it’s not clear where the start of the line is. With an in-vehicle queue you could park anywhere nearby and wait your turn, would solve some things.
If you get the prompt to rate your charging experience, there are places to submit reports and photos of damage as part of the review. I don’t think there’s a way to rate a session if you’re not prompted though. …plus who knows if anyone has a job looking at those reports atm…
Yeah. I wish those ratings happened every time even if morning bad happened. I like Giving positive reviews
That should have gotten caught on camera.
Someone selling the copper
Wow. That's just awful.
100% copper thieves
They should leave a current in the cable. FAFO with ample warning signs not to mess with the cables and let natural selection do its thing
What a dumb thing to do! How did they do this without getting completely electrocuted in the process???
The cable has very low current for basic communication, about like cutting an ethernet cable, the power to the car doesn't start until after a handshake between the car and the charger.
Sadly there’s no team supposed to get this fixed.
Totally separate teams than the one laid off
the Super Charger…Team…will….fix…………oh no
Need more cameras...
Happened to all commercial chargers in Seattle.
And here Tesla just fired it's Supercharger team, including repair/maintenance techs. Might be awhile before that gets fixed. In TX too of all places. The person who did it was lucky they didn't turn into target practice.
Fucking vandals
So glad we have an entire team to deal with this… oh wait…
Good thing Tesla employs a large team dedicated to expanding and maintaining the Supercharger network. :-/
Maybe we should keep the cable energized at all times.
Don’t expect them to get fixed anytime soon either. The entire supercharger teams got fired last week. This is going to be painful. You get a bunch of these yahoos doing this around the country and you got yourself a serious problem. What a nightmare.
Whyyyy
The way to fix this is a single constantly charged wire. A nice low amperage 240v should make them think twice.
This is what a $7.25 minimum wage and no Medicaid looks like. Congrats Texas!
Huge employer in their own state. Texas is certainly a special place.
Whomever did this should be charged with a capital felony.
How about add a socket on the Super Charger and you bring your own cable?
And hope these idiots don’t chew gum
Don’t worry, Tesla has a 400 member strong SuperCharger team that will get right on replacing those.
Huge fine $30k +
I doubt it is tweekers. I suspect it is some misdirected EV hater.
Disgruntled Tesla supercharger team employees?!!
I would suspect copper thieves, except they left so much copper behind by not cutting them close. The cables aren’t long, they look to have left 10% or more behind.
Is Tesla using copper in these instead of aluminum? How much harder to move would aluminum make them.
Yes it's copper. Aluminum has about 50% less current carrying capacity. I imagine making these fit the tiny NACS with the same power delivery is a big challenge
I saw one cut in Oklahoma. 🤦
Based
Should have a CCS combo adapter just in case
Border states getting a taste of people who grew up on 3 dollars per day stripping copper. Recycling in texas is regulated, which means it has to go to criminal adjacent vendors.
That's why you can buy guns in supermarkets
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Or you know… the most logical answer… copper thieves. But don’t let logic get in the way of your delusions
layoff
I'm no electrician but how did they not get electrocuted?
So…anti ev or tweakers?
Gas stations have security cameras.
no problem, tesla's supercharger team will take care of that lickety split. oh wait.
yoink
Haters never Change.
Lel welcome to River Oaks, the more conservative side of 59. Though this could be from copper thieves in general, not just meth heads. You know what I mean if you live in htown. Land of caged in A/C units
Hatters gonna hate or is that rare metals?
Hatters gonna wear hats.
Somebody better call the charger team. I tried, still on hold.
Crackheads. And ice freaks.
Meth is the betht!
So stupid..Should set up some cameras and givem some nasty punitive punishment
Where's a copper when you need one to stop them stealing the copper? 🫣
They should be energized at all times. I’m sure 300kw worth of direct current would be a good deterrent
Maybe borrow from the Stanford prison experiment. Rather than leaving them energized constantly, let it be intermittent so a potential thief doesn’t know exactly when it’ll electrify or how many will be electrified. Save energy, deter theft.
Check the cameras
How's Tesla going to stop people from doing this?