> arc flash injuries With all due irony for not having searched is that actually a thing? I'm fairly certain I would have heard of something about it.
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Amongst the electrical protections are leakage, ionisation detection, cable integrity, voltage, current and performance monitoring. In the UK the uptime is regulated by government. There is also an Open Charge Point Interface Protocol for interoperability. Software and update verification.
sep 2, 2025, 2:11 am • 1 0 • view
As far as I know it's not! I'm not aware of any injuries from electric shock of any kind when using DC fast chargers. With how many folks out there have a vendetta against EVs, there'd for sure be a ton of media coverage if these chargers were hurting people.
sep 2, 2025, 1:21 am • 56 1 • view
I would expect it's orders of magnitude likelier to be run over by a car than being exposed to significant voltage while charging it there
sep 2, 2025, 4:46 am • 0 0 • view
I did lights and sound, I can ~do electrical. But my point is: I am *sure* I would have heard if people are getting zapped every time they tried to charge their car. We have a home charger here: no fatalities yet. #carbrain #propaganda
sep 2, 2025, 1:35 am • 7 1 • view
It all feels like a bit of an "established = safe; new = dangerous" thing, too. According to statistics, gas station fires, on average, kill a few people per year and injure dozens of others. Yet, nobody really thinks about dispensers' inherent danger beyond knowing not to mess around with them.
sep 2, 2025, 2:03 am • 1 0 • view
If by "it" you mean my reply, you can see others in this conversation where I make it clear that I'm not a fan of gasoline pumps, either. Do not think that one must like one of electricity or gasoline and hate the other, with no other options.
sep 2, 2025, 2:07 am • 0 0 • view
Sure, but my point is that we live in a world where an inherently more dangerous technology—There's really nothing stopping you spraying gas everywhere except the shut-off—has relatively negligible safety impact. Nothing is ever 100% safe, but dooming about a technology with more safeguards isn't>
sep 2, 2025, 3:10 am • 0 0 • view
>particularly productive. Do we need consumer education, responder shut-offs, and proper maintenance? Absolutely, but this is a process that's existed for years with zero confirmed deaths. Some will happen eventually for certain, but your position is one of an established problem.
sep 2, 2025, 3:10 am • 0 0 • view
We literally don't know yet what the mode of failure will be that creates mortal danger. Like, the people who've made vehicles and chargers so far are aware of the dangers of electricity and have designed for that. The travel on the road to the charger is much more risky than charging at it.
sep 2, 2025, 3:10 am • 0 0 • view
And, sure, it's not correct to pretend that our present state of safe use by a small and largely enthusiast community educated on chargers' use is the inherent level of safety for wider adoption, but it's also not correct to assume they'll become incredibly dangerous based on what we've seen so far.
sep 2, 2025, 3:10 am • 0 0 • view
As you said, it's hard to trust the current regulatory environment, but it's also true that the current administration are pretty anti-EV. It's very much in the self-interest of EV and charger manufacturers to continue with at least current safety levels, given the investment risk if EVs fail.
sep 2, 2025, 3:10 am • 0 0 • view
Seeing every problem through a lens of cynicism and pessimism about risks leads to social paralysis. Safety is an ongoing process, and nobody should be complacent about it, but there will always be acceptable risks in a society. Nobody thinks gas pumps are too dangerous, despite provable mortality.
sep 2, 2025, 3:10 am • 1 0 • view
Bravo for this reply!
sep 2, 2025, 3:13 am • 1 0 • view
Your original premise was that EV fast chargers use a voltage which is unsafe without "going through a 2 week course in handling high voltage lines". And yet, despite years of existence and use by the general public, they've never once killed or seriously harmed somebody. That's the counterfactual!
sep 2, 2025, 3:10 am • 1 0 • view
If Americans can handle the pressurized gasoline hose with zero requirements to be secured in the car to function at the cost of a few deaths per year, I have pretty good faith they can manage highly-engineered charging cords. [I do have less faith in ongoing maintenance routines on safety systems.]
sep 2, 2025, 2:06 am • 0 0 • view
If there's anything I trust less than safety standards enforced by a fascist government bent on dismantling any and all regulations, it's a corporation that has a financial incentive to invest _just_ barely enough into safety to maximize the profits versus wrongful death payouts. Like GM did.
sep 2, 2025, 2:15 am • 0 0 • view
1000V capable CCS stations have been on the ground since 2017, and there are now over a hundred thousand 800V-class EVs on the road. Drivers don't need to take courses on how to handle these big scary cables and connectors because *they are not scary* They are power cords like anything else.
sep 2, 2025, 1:25 am • 169 2 • view
And on top of *that* the charger on the other end of the cord is in constant communication with the car it's charging, is constantly monitoring for signs of electrical faults, and will isolate the cable the moment something seems wrong - and this is a big reason charging sessions get interrupted!
sep 2, 2025, 1:28 am • 170 3 • view
Question is…how long until someone touches their tongue to this
sep 2, 2025, 1:47 am • 2 0 • view
I don't know where to find safety data, but that is a pretty convincing line of reasoning. It's hard to distinguish between a lack of news stories and a failure of search engines to find them. Holding my nose, I asked Copilot, which said it couldn't find any such news, either. So that's good.
sep 2, 2025, 1:35 am • 4 0 • view
I asked Google for recent incidents: > In November 2024, a Reddit user reported receiving a strong electric shock while plugging in a cable at an EV charging station lol.
sep 2, 2025, 1:38 am • 1 0 • view
I'm not sure what to make of that. I don't find an anecdote on Reddit any more convincing than an anecdote on Bluesky. That aside, there does seem to be a lack of any verifiable incidents.
sep 2, 2025, 1:45 am • 0 0 • view
Agreed according to Google the last time it happened was in November of last year according to some dude on Reddit. I remain unpersuaded.
sep 2, 2025, 1:50 am • 1 0 • view
I can be at peace with the fact that we have different understandings of electrical safety, but I don't think you started from a place of reason. That's why I came out so strong.
sep 2, 2025, 1:43 am • 11 0 • view
Fair enough, I have been perhaps overly spooked by _many_ stories over the years from electricians. And I'm risk averse. I shared my reaction rather than asking for information to temper that reaction; that was a mistake. As long as I'm touching only buttons and an unpowered cable, I'm satisfied.
sep 2, 2025, 2:21 am • 4 0 • view
Yep, and that's exactly how they've been designed since the 90s. GM's first deployment had underwater charging demonstrations to show the safety. youtu.be/tU_oTXur_r4?... Arc flashes are deadly, and that's why lots of engineering went into making sure they can't happen at an EV charger.
sep 2, 2025, 3:44 am • 1 0 • view
In terms of arc flash, the cable can only be connected/disconnected whilst ‘dead’ so there is no risk of arcing at this stage. If the contactor within the unit arcs, it will be contained within the housing. Detection/prevention systems are in place.
sep 2, 2025, 2:28 am • 1 0 • view
Also, and please correct me if I'm wrong, doesn't the charging process not start until after a signaling handshake happens to negotiate the charging rate, meaning that there's ideally no current running through the cable during handling?
sep 2, 2025, 1:37 am • 19 0 • view
Like, yeah, an electric shock can harm you, but so can an explosion caused by gasoline being ignored by a cigarette or static electric shock. Simply put, there is less risk of exposure to the electric current in a charger than to fuel dispensed via a nozzle (w/ no failsafe to ensure containment).
sep 2, 2025, 1:37 am • 19 0 • view
I don't think you get gasoline fume _explosions_ at stations much because there's nowhere for a significant amount of fumes to build up. Don't go imagining I'm happy about handling gasoline, either, though.
sep 2, 2025, 1:46 am • 0 0 • view
I didn't say fumes. Plenty of people are careless and spill gasoline on the ground or car, or fill up unsafe containers. A misplaced cigarette butt coming into contact with liquid fuel and you've got a situation. Simply put, chargers are safe enough. Perfection need not be the enemy of good.
sep 2, 2025, 1:54 am • 0 0 • view
Gasoline doesn't explode; it burns. Fumes explode, so I thought you were talking about fumes. I don't fill unsafe containers and try not to spill it. I'm still not happy about handling it and am not convinced it's "safe enough". Maybe I'm just weak. 🤷 Comparing V to gas doesn't make it look good.
sep 2, 2025, 1:58 am • 1 0 • view
Attached garages, at least where I live, have to slope to daylight to get leaked gas mostly outside. Eventually if we go all EVs that requirement will likely go away.
sep 2, 2025, 2:04 am • 0 0 • view
Not to mention the station has a current measurement device to make sure there isn't a ground fault before or after charging
sep 2, 2025, 1:40 am • 3 0 • view
Even better! (I've never used chargers as I live somewhere only *just* starting to get EV infrastructure)
sep 2, 2025, 1:41 am • 1 0 • view
They mostly work It's as dumb as plug in, scan app, walk away
sep 2, 2025, 1:44 am • 1 0 • view
Correct, unless the control pilot pin is connected between the car and the charging station and they are communicating, there is never any voltage on the cable at all. And if for any reason the signal on the control pilot pin is lost, the charging station will immediately power down.
sep 2, 2025, 1:41 am • 27 0 • view
In fact, this is being used to detect overheating on charging adapters. The control pilot pin is routed through a thermal switch which will open if it gets too hot, cutting off the CP signal and initiating immediate shutdown.
sep 2, 2025, 1:42 am • 26 0 • view
My concern would be more the batteries, not that we see a current problem, but eventually you will get more people that are repairing battery packs and taking shortcuts. Of course, any car repair can turn dangerous, so this is not actually new.
sep 2, 2025, 2:02 am • 2 0 • view
I learned the hard way at work that iPads will also do this and stop charging and outright tell you it's not charging. I'm glad it did it because we don't have backup iPads, but getting them to replace anything a timely manner is like pulling teeth. Was interesting to discover the feature tho!
sep 2, 2025, 2:15 am • 1 0 • view
I think part of the problem is that for decades we've been cautioned more and more how dangerous electricity is. If you don't understand any of the nuance, then in your brain the lesson becomes "electricity bad" and the most you can deal with is the familiar.
sep 2, 2025, 7:55 am • 0 0 • view
I once needed my (pretty smart, actually) girlfriend to hold two wires of a car floodlight to the battery terminals (broken cigar lighter plug) and she flat wouldn't do it. Even after I did it myself to show it was safe. She couldn't get over the fear of being shocked. By 12v.
sep 2, 2025, 7:55 am • 0 0 • view
So it's a combination of fear of the unknown, fear of change, and years of conditioning. I'd say "conditioning with no nuance" except a lot of that does actually include details. Alas, many people will get as far as "electricity bad" and won't understand the nuance, so it gets lost anyway.
sep 2, 2025, 7:55 am • 1 0 • view
I think the fear will fade with time and familiarity, like happens with most technological advances. As long as there's no fear-mongering by paranoid conspiracy theorists. I was trying to work "future shock" in there somewhere without it sounding like a dad joke. I've failed on both counts.
sep 2, 2025, 7:55 am • 0 0 • view
I can’t pull the charge cable from a car and spray the person standing next to me with flammable liquid but I can with a gas pump. This is arguably much more easily done than any possible harm from an electric cable, and yet…
sep 2, 2025, 3:11 am • 2 0 • view
Happened to me the other day! I got better. #MontyPython
sep 2, 2025, 3:12 am • 2 0 • view
The children of the future won't understand Zoolander...
sep 2, 2025, 3:29 am • 5 0 • view
Or Oregonians learning about self serve...
sep 2, 2025, 3:34 am • 1 0 • view