I've noticed a big market gap, ever since I got an electric car. Every EV owner has a 120V AC charger that they can plug in almost anywhere with an outlet, however getting permission is a challenge. Owners of the outlets rightfully want compensation. But a full commercial charger rig is like $1000 at least. That's way too much!<p>What I'd like is for outlets to have wifi or bluetooth connectivity on them. I just tell the outlet to turn on via some app, and the app/outlet keep track of how long the outlet is on and charges me a flat rate per unit time. Simple. The smarts for this need only cost $13 above what a regular outlet costs, as this project shows.<p>This would be especially useful in apartments or parking garages. Provided you already have lights, it'd be cheap to run a 120V outlet to within reach of most (or at least a large number of) parking spots. $13 of electronics plus maybe $50 (i.e. a quad outlet of $200 split among 4) to install an outdoor outlet is all it'd cost to electrify a parking space. The owner of the parking lot could offer low cost electricity and, say, make a profit off the difference between residential and commercial/industrial electrical rates (might take a few months to pay for the outlet, but not more than a year for a well-used spot, then the owner makes an easy profit). Everyone wins, and urban EVs become practical for everyone (and a slow charge is fine. of course, you would still want fast chargers to top up if you were doing a lot of driving, but that can be done elsewhere). Also would be pretty cheap to install on all parking meters.<p>Just need someone to develop that app and an outdoor outlet with a $13 bluetooth relay that talks to the user's app (only the user's app would necessarily need internet connectivity). Someone do this and be a hero.