Even more of a game changer than rapid charging will be hands-off charging. Either contactless or with a robotic arm, I don’t know or care. But when it comes, then restaurants, hotels, and parking garages will be scrambling to install it, and soon people will forget that you need to charge as most of the time, it’s done for you.
I do not expect the cars to do the hookup themselves, but instead wait docilely until the “stable hand” (which is what I am now calling this) attempts a hookup, then all it does is grant permission. Decoupling is also automatic, especially since the parking space owner doesn’t want the expensive stable hand damaged if a driver decides to force the issue.
All of this to say that the woman in this video will be replaced by the person whose car refused to start because the owner forgot that not all places have auto-recharge.
And I too subscribe to the idea that she was most likely trying to top off a rental before returning it, like we have all gotten into the habit of. A sort of muscle memory, you could say.
