They should add a feature where users can virtually “get in line” for the next available charger. In some places, it’s not practical or safe to physically line up a bunch (or even a few) cars waiting for the next available charger. It’d be nice if the app would just let you virtually queue for a charge, so you can go park somewhere close by. Maybe have it set so once a charger is available, you have a few minutes to start charging, or you lose your place in line. If somebody else physically pulls into the charging spot, it wouldn’t let them charge, and would ideally show a notification on their app that X number of people are in line in front of them.
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Seems like something that can be done pretty easily within the existing charging apps. I believe ChargePoint offers it (maybe the charger owner has to opt in or something).
karen pulls into open spot.
‘‘i was here first. i have nowhere to go and am not moving until i get to charge’’
The only thing I can think of is a car that pulled into the empty spot and refusing to move until the other car allotted time to charge expires, since I believe it would be just a few minutes anyway.
If I’m not mistaking there are alreaey some providers that offer this.
Needs more blockchain.
A good idea would be to be able to see how long the other cars have left charging so if they have 15 mins left you can go into the store, then come out and wait
This would have to be implemented by a network as a standard way of using their network. Someone like PlugShare making reservations on a Chargepoint plug would be chaos, because not everyone has or uses that app or has any visibility to the process.
Reservations do exist at some plugs, but they are one “one deep”. As in, you can reserve it for 10 minutes while you drive over, but someone else can’t queue a reservation behind you.
Chargepoint is not one deep
This will never work for a variety of reasons.
- Its going to hurt EV adoption if you have to reserve charge spots, especially for road trippers.
- If you reserve a spot for ~10am and don’t roll in until 10:15am, is the charger not available to anyone for that entire 15 minutes? What if you reserve and don’t show up at all.
- It puts more unneeded dependence on apps.
- If someone pulls in desperate for a charge but they can’t use it because someone with 52% reserved it an hour ago but isn’t there yet, are they just supposed to sit around?
The only solution is to introduce more charging stations. More and more are being built, but solutions like this aren’t going to help.
They just released update that predicts how many will be at supercharger by the time we arrive. The next progression of this would be to know which car is virtually next in line and can estimate arrival & charge times. So could easily juggle cars around and not rely on the user. If you don’t show up on time it goes to next in line, the car thats a minute or two away. I think its a great idea.
This exact thing already exists for chargepoint if the business owner wants it enabled. Let me tell you it’s literally the worst idea ever. The reviews at these locations on PlugShare are all people complaining the virtual line is so long and once their turn comes someone who has no idea is in the stall trying to figure out why they can’t charge and then the 10m grace period runs out and the parking stalls are an absolute cluster fk. It ends up that nobody can charge at these locations and there’s tons of road rage and arguments clogging up the flow of traffic in a parking lot.
Dear sweet child, This will never work.
IMO, the simplest solution is to just build the stations, and re-work existing stations, so that they provide a place to physically queue up. This would be easier of the charging stations were built with a pull-through design. If there are multiple groups of chargers, there could be multiple queues.
Either EvGo or ChargePoint are supposed to have reservations in the app - I think I used it once before my charger got installed. Nobody is ever at the charger I used so I probably didn’t need it and the jury is out on how effective it’d be.
Take a ticket
Spend the effort on more chargers, IMO.
They already do at La Cumbre Plaza in Santa Barbara. That’s the only place I’ve encountered it.