I realize we're heading toward a cashless world, and I use credit cards for plenty nowadays, but I hope there is never a time when we can't buy things without depending on the power being on, the servers operational, the batteries charged. When you can still decide to give a buck to a busker or a beggar, and so on.
Now I really don't have much to hide, but I can see how some people might find it very objectionable that some nameless agency can trace how they spend their money, and on what.
Side issue I know. But it would bother me if I must have a current and functional account, and with a specific manufacturer too, in order to run my car.
There have been a couple of times, for example, when the card I was using for gas was frozen owing to a security breach, or for some reason just failed to work. I can always switch to another card or to cash and sort it all out later. If I were driving a Tesla and stopped at a Tesla station with too little charge to go somewhere else, and my card didn't work, what then?
We will need a robust and flexible infrastructure once enough drivers are driving a varied enough fleet of electric cars to introduce an element of chaos, and once the small percentage of malfunctions starts adding up to a bigger absolute number.
One of the more obvious bits of technology, I would think, would be a cash-swallowing machine like the supermarket checkouts. Go to self-checking pump, and it takes either a credit card or bills. Put in a 20, and the timer starts. Whatever the charge per kilowatt is, you get twenty bucks' worth per bill. Easy, existing technology.
