First experience renting Tesla from Hertz last week, I was looking forward to a nice 80 mile drive from the city to upstate NY. I read about regenerative breaking, charging basics and I was ready to try things out.

Actually the trip went smooth. I got used to the new style and made it to my destination safely. Then my friends and I hit the road again after an hour to check out some wine spots, and after putting the Tesla into park and then coming back to start up again an hour later, this interesting message came up, "Charge cable might be plugged in"

> "Unable to shift Into gear because the vehicle is not able to determine if a charge cable is plugged into the charge port. Driving the vehicle  with a charge cable connected will cause damage. Please ensure there is no
charge cable plugged into the vehicle. Shift gear again after confirming."

And also on the left pane it says "Unable to charge. Service is required." . Then as soon as we acknowledge that nothing is connected, we can drive again, although the "Unable to charge. Service is required." message remains. But then another message comes up. This time there are two active Alerts, "BMS_a091" and "PCS_a023" both   "Unable to charge".

We can still drive, but concerned I will not be able to charge when I need it, we do some reading online and we are directed to try a soft reset.

That does not help to remove the alerts.  We also notice that the dash options to open the charge port actually do not work. Also holding up a charge cable next to the charge door did nothing. But, we are able to physically open the charge port door manually though. However, there is clearly some kind of small protrusion there, which looks like it is used to keep a cable fastened . This is probably the physical manifestation of the "Charge cable might be plugged in" message ! 

And per instructions online, after using a charge port release cord in the trunk, this protrusion recessed and we were able to attempt connecting the charge cable in the trunk to a normal house hold outlet. However, there was no indication that any charging was taking place !

Speaking with someone at Hertz, the suggestion was to try going to a supercharge station. But my main concern was that I would not have enough juice to make it all the way back home and so the second suggestion from Hertz was to trade in at a closer Hertz rental for another car. Good idea, but it was already too late on a Saturday and there were no Hertz locations in the area open in the later part of Saturday and so I decided not try driving back home and my friends offered I could crash with them and try a closer Hertz location in the morning.

So next morning, I found a super charge location nearby first before heading to a closer Hertz location.

I was happy to try it out, but I was not expecting much and indeed using the super charge station, there was still no indication of charging activity. So I started heading to the closer alternate Hertz location, White Plains NY!  It looked like I would be able to make it back with around 10% charge remaining.

But I did not want to risk it so I made the trip with the windows open and no AC in the cool 86F outdoor air haha. My coworker later pointed out that haha probably saving on AC may have not necessarily saved on battery if I ended up increasing drag with the windows open 😅. I did not do the calculation at the time!

Well of course it started to pour rain when I had the windows down. And the wind shied wipers did not turn on, oops. When traffic slightly slowed with the rain getting heavier, I investigated the dashboard and saw that the windshield wipers were just "Off" and I switched them to "Auto" haha. And luckily they started up. Really happy about that because it actually poured some crazy rain and I did not want to be doing it without visibility!

When I returned the car to the alternate Hertz location, I did get smacked with a "Inter City Fee" of $160, plus an additional day's worth of charges. 

This was out of my control and I came to understand that I would need to call in by phone to get the extra charges adjusted. And indeed, I did call and after a few business days I did get a refund for the additional charges, so I am happy I ultimately was not stuck with charges related to the whole "Unable to charge" situation.

I took the Metro North back home. Quite a relaxing train ride ! 😀