Watch Truck Owner Try To Unplug Charging Tesla With Owner Inside

The Tesla owner was napping while his car charged, and he encountered a very rude awakening.

By: Steven Loveday

Jun 16, 2022 at 9:54am ET

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A video was recently posted on Reddit revealing a pickup truck owner intentionally attempting to unplug a charging Tesla. The truck driver pulls right up behind the car, which is plugged in at a public charging station, gets out of the truck, and starts pulling on the charging cable. The video cuts out before he's able to remove the cable.

It seems to be increasingly common to learn that people are unplugging others' EVs while they're charging. While it's a rude and terrible idea, it may make sense that someone is in desperate need of a charge, and all spots are occupied, with some cars potentially finished charging, and their owners nowhere in sight. This is one reason some EV makers are now charging idle fees.

At any rate, with a lack of charging infrastructure, and some EV owners neglecting to move their cars after a charging session, we've seen plenty of videos of angry owners trying to unplug other cars. Interestingly, while we don't have any scientific data, it seems a vast majority of the images and videos show people messing with a Tesla's charging cable.

Some people may tell you that these folks are clearly out to get Tesla. However, one of the main reasons there are so many videos of this happening to Tesla's vehicles is due to their built-in dashcam (TeslaCam) and camera-based Sentry Model security system, both of which come standard. For this reason, Tesla owners have access to such footage for sharing.

Thanks to the Tesla in-car videos, we've seen pickup truck drivers "coal rolling" Tesla's vehicles, and also parking at Tesla Superchargers so that EV owners can't use the spots to charge.

It's videos like this that drive the narrative that gas car owners – and, more specifically, pickup truck owners – are automatically Tesla haters. However, that's a narrative that's simply untrue across the board, and it can't be proven. These are isolated incidents that should never be used to target an entire group of people.

With that said, check out the brief video below, which was shared on Reddit by Tesla Model 3 owner OrdinarySpecialist38:

What do you think?

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The Model 3 owner says he was napping when the situation began, though he woke up and yelled at the pickup truck driver, which caused him to flee. OrdinarySpecialist38 wrote, "Anyone know the incentives for this behaviour?" He went on to ask why the Sentry Mode video cut out. He suggests that perhaps it was because it knew he was in the car.

Head down to our comment section and share your thoughts about this situation. Has your EV ever been targeted in such a way? Are there more workable solutions to curb incidents like this going forward?

Source: Autoblog