Public charging infrastructure is rapidly ramping up around the country, but it?s woefully lacking in one area: ease of use. Anyone who?s tried to charge an electric vehicle?except for those from Tesla?probably knows that it can be a jungle out there, with inconsistent charger interfaces, restricted access, or required keycards or apps. And then there are the ?charger hogs? who see it as a cheap or free parking space.
Tesla is the exception to much of this disarray because it wholly owns and runs its Supercharger network, which offers the same look and user experience from charger to charger. And while it?s dealt with the charger hogs by imposing a 40-cent-per minute (yes, $24 per hour) idle fee, one important piece of information was missing even for those within the Tesla ecosystem: charger occupancy status. The charger-occupation data was fully enabled earlier this month in what Tesla spokesperson Alexis Georgeson would describe only as ?a recent incremental release,? and it shows up as a new data field used by the mapping and navigation features of the Model S and Model X. It includes a summary of how many charging stalls are available out of the total number at that location; it?s also expressed with a segmented red bar placed above the location marker that is easy to read at a glance.
The feature could prove especially important as Tesla gears up for the release of its mass-market electric car, the Model 3, which will reach a different, more mainstream demographic ...