I'm gonna buy the diesel v12 version to guarantee I'm paying maximum $ per brew. I want to make sure big oil has enough money to feed their families this week.
This thread is like a gathering of people who are the reason they need to put "Do not eat" on washer pods. Like jesus christ people, a little critical thinking wouldn't go amiss.
Rheinmetalls engineers are now scrambling to waterproof all their equipment after learning about water damage from the scientists of reddit. Little did Germany know that their entire military was in danger from the humble rain cloud.
I'm German and my dad will often make the joke that the critical thinking skills in the US are so low you need to put a warning label on microwaves to not microwave your hamster. I'm glad he doesn't use Reddit, he would lose his mind about the comments.
IIRC nobody really microwaved hamsters. The "hamster in microwave" is a stand in for the weird liability laws in the US. A more real thing might be the "Objects in mirror are closer than they appear" on car mirrors (he's laughing about that as well). Of course they do, why do Americans need the extra warning.
The simultaneous inventer of the microwave created his first microwave for the specific purpose of defrosting hamsters, successfully freezing and reanimating live hamsters.
Someone was shitting on these on Reddit when they were announced - saying that it would never work. I argued with them and am happy to see them in action!
I first noticed them about a year ago. I used to have to walk past where they are on my way to the office. It's one of those weird situations where I saw something and than a week or two later started seeing news articles and reddit posts about them.
Nice joke OP but there’s no way that’s an EV Charger. EV Dodge Chargers are like 5.2 meters long and 2 meters wide. How can they fit 2,600 kg of car in that curb?
Lampost and Kerb charging is a game changer for on street parking roads, especially in places like Britain where old terrace houses are common in streets in cities.
Light poles are on their own circuit with often a switch that cuts the entire circuit.
They are also owned and operated by the municipality, where EV chargers are commonly operated by private companies, so it can be an administrative nightmare to have them on a shared grid, for example in situations where a single meter measures the usage of the entire circuit for billing.
Also the light pole circuit would have to be upgraded, since a single EV charger uses about as much energy as an entire McDonald's.
These curb chargers are also only something between 11-22kW.
There are already light pole systems in Germany and often times replacing old inefficient street lights with LEDs frees enough capacity in the shared grid to install some slower 3.5-7kW chargers without even upgrading the grid capacity.
Nobody needs DC fast chargers with 400kW for curbside parking in residential areas. Slower is actually better there, because people drive there to park, not to charge.
God fucking damn it this stuff makes me so upset! You can SEE THE DIRT COVER IN THE PICTURE. Outdoor plugs are not a new engineering problem that's at the cutting edge of being solved!
There are plenty of things that engineers made that do not make sense for a practical application, especially when it comes to cars and car adjacent products
Okay, but why do people dont look for information for one minute before assuming the worst? Some people in this thread would react to the first smartphone like "what if it falls down, what if it rains, what if the battery runs out, what if there is sun out, what if i have to wear gloves, what about the blind people, what about the people with no hands, this is completly unusable and not worth pursuing" smh...
People regularly fuck up plenty of ruggedised things manufactured by Rheinmetall all the time. They're clever, not magic, and a kerb is a challenging place for a socket to be.
Just because a design is good doesn’t make what he said wrong. He was correct in everything he said lmao, he never said it would break the outlet or that it wouldn’t work long term.
Dogs will inevitably piss on that thing.
Once that happens, what? You'd still touch it?
This is not a matter of "being more knowledgeable than an entire company", this is basic logic.
Put something on the ground, and it'll quickly be covered in filth.
The system does not require touching. Once the charger is unlocked, the flap over the charging socket can be opened using the customer’s plug (a brief instruction guide is available on the curb charger).
Encapsulated electronic components (IP68) and a sealed charging socket with integrated water drains ensure reliable charging, even in wet conditions. If water accumulates on the street and could compromise safe charging, a water level sensor interrupts the process before the residual current device (RCD) is triggered.
And because no one ever thought about this before they did not actually plan for it and didn't test it either...
Oh, wait. They actually did so for a year in cologne proving that those things show less issues under real world conditions than regular charging points.
Is that observation unique to this charger? It applies to gas pumps, parking meters, vending machines, elevators, doorbells, locks, virtually any public facing device. Thank you Captain Obvious.
There are always windowlickers who come at every invention made for infrastructure with the "Lol Teenagers will fuck this up so bad". Whilst completely ignoring that they in fact did not fuck up other similar things. And that vandalism is not as common as you think when you spend all day on reddit seeing videos of what I would describe as the extremes of society..
everytime i say this a horde of people tell me they cant be filled with dirt. but i know dirtbag teenagers who will stomp little stones into the receptacle or pry it open or whatever. these units need to be quick changeable so they can be maintained offsite and quickly replaced. im also convinced they WILL get dirt in them or damaged. just need someone run near it with muddy shoes and rain washes it in while someone is charging. after a few times its borked and you cant get the plug in anymore cause of the dirt
How is that different from any other public charger without a fixed cable (ie, any public AC charger)? There's 10s of thousands public AC chargers in Western Europe already. Cables getting vandalized happens, but it's not all too common.
Cables for EVs generally cannot be unplugged while charging, because such high voltage does cause arcing. Cutting the cable would most certainly hurt if not kill the person doing it. I doubt someone would fuck around with a cable like that.
Judging by the cars next to the spot, the place is probably under monitored camera as well.
The initial ones were installed in the derendorf neighbourhood. It's a mixed business residential area. It was developed by Rheinmetall. And it's outside some of their offices. Rheinmetall are also a weapons manufacturer. So it'd be like installing them outside the offices of Lockheed Martin in the US.
It probably depends on where you are in Germany. Where I live, the most exciting thing that happened recently was a bird building a nest in the church tower. Just the other day, my car was sitting in the driveway with the door wide open because my kids forgot to close it. My wallet was still in there too, nothing happened. My neighbors leave their garage door wide open all day, for reasons I honestly don't get. You could just walk up and grab bikes or whatever tools you want. Town of 40k in Bavaria.
Yeah, in the village I grew up in (3k in Bavaria) nobody locks their doors. When you go to a friend you just go over, walk in and ask if they have time.
we have Romanian and Bulgarian Sprinter Vans scouring the Land for anything that is not bolted down. And I’ll be downvoted for “racism” but its just factual and I have seen them collect everything on disposal days and later collectively dump what is not needed in the woods.
Just fyi - I live in Berlin and not so long time ago we had S bahn (local trains) cancelled bcs someone stole cable. I bet this cable had much more powerload than EC charger
True, but we rarely plow on parking spots and sidewalks in germany, because most of the time salt is enough. And a big plus of that curb charger is, that it has an integrated heating and cooling system to be operational in all seasons
They are manufactured developed by Rheinmetall. They are frost and storm pove. They the plow would not demolish it. They are exactly placed as the sidewalk bricks and if anything gets demolished it's the plow. It's solid metal.
It is frost and rainproof. I was sceptical myself, but I have seen them personally at the Intersolar convention. They have thought about everything. It's super durable.
You open the lid with the edge of your plug, you do not touch it at all. People in this thread seem to think that touchscreens on public chargers are perfecly clean...
Yes and no. I am an electrician working for a renewable company and I/we are so swamped installing EV chargers here in California. I’ve been at it for 2 years, and am starting to get exhausted. We have so much work still left to do. Lol
I work as an electrician in Germany, and it’s the exact same story here. Everyone wants wallboxes, solar PV, battery storage, and home energy management systems. Electricity in Germany currently costs around 30 cents per kWh. Solar setups and all related equipment are tax-free. We’re swamped with work, but I really enjoy it, it feels genuinely meaningful to help expand renewable energy.
On the flap ist a pictogram-instruction. The Typ2 charger (the cable) has a little knob, which ich usually used for locking the cable in the charger. That knob can bei used to open the flap. So no touching of anything but your own cable necessary.
There are slower AC and faster DC chargers. For AC you usually plug in you own cable, DC chargers have their own cables that are thicker and also often water cooled.
The Plug has small Drains, which Lets the water out at the bottom.
If the Water rises and gets higher than the Curb itself, the curb will deaktivate itself before anything happens.
But in case it deactivates to Late it has also a Fuse Build in.
Google „Rheinmetall charging curb“ if you want to learn more.
Yes the Same Rheinmetall that Builds tanks and stuff like that 😂
Well, fast chargers are the ones with that problem because they have fixed cables and that, unfortunately, still happens. Slow chargers are always bring-your-own-cable.
You pay by app, charging pass or credit card. That is also where the authentication happens. I don't know it curb outlets have the card payment stuff in them or if they are app only, because it would be a little inconvenient to use, but that's that.
The only communication happening between the car and the "not a charger"* is a go-ahead signal and how much current it may draw.
*) when AC-Charging, the actual charger used is the one built into the car. These "chargers" on the road are actually just a smart outlet with some metering and billing stuff stuck to it. This keeps them simple and cheap. If you charge DC, the charger actually is a charger and feeds directly into the car's BMS.
These are Build by Rheinmetall (Yes, the arms Company), they have a Description on how this works on their Website.
Just Google Rheinmetall charging curb.
You can do this with CCS2, the European version of CCS (also called the Mennekes connector). It also has an electronic lock. You cannot do this with North American CCS1, but you could with NACS.
Are people here defending this curb mounted charger in particular? Or electric chargers and electric vehicles in general?
This particular charger was introduced in 2022 and it has not become popular because it really is inconvenient to kneel on the curb to take your phone or charging card to the nfc reader or the QR code (if its visible through snow and mud).
I have an electric vehicle so i am not against more chargers.
Where are you taking your infos from? The curb chargers in Düsseldorf only exist since 2025 and they actually are popular. First samples have been tested in Berlin since 2022 if that's what you meant, but they are now appearing in more cities because they are popular despite being more expensive than conventional chargers
Where I’m from the argument is still stuck at the stretching the cable across a public path being a trip hazard. These eradicate that argument so I’d happily kneel (and yes I’m old so there’d be an ‘oof’ on the way down and up).
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u/ObjectiveKale837 19h ago
Hanging from the trees, Italy.