Electric car charging is setting us up for CBDCs. From Eric Peters at ericpetersautos.com:
Readers of this column witnessed – because I posted video of it – the difficulty I had recently attempting to put charge into an EV. The same problem I have encountered in the past when attempting to charge an EV – at a public “fast” charger. (I always use the air-fingers quote marks when using “fast” in the EV context, to point out the Orwellian use of a word to describe the opposite of what it used to mean.)
The problem isn’t the “pumps.”
Well, not exclusively.
It’s with the payment they’ll accept.
Nominally, these EV “fast” chargers allow the supplicant to buy electricity using a credit card. But I have discovered – by trying to pay for it with a credit card – that many of these “fast” chargers won’t accept a credit card. Not unless you’ve signed in with the company that owns the “fast” charger. Or – what they really want you to do – downloaded their “app” (cloying Millennial-era infantile abbreviation, because it’s too much trouble – and too adult – to say application) onto your phone so that they can keep track of you.
Charging you for the charge is almost incidental.
None of these “fast” chargers accept cash, either – at least, none that I have ever had to deal with. They are 100 percent electronic transaction. Which means they are 100 percent not-anonymous.
The computer says No.