I've been reading a lot of comments about how people would like a reservation system or status of how busy superchargers are. It makes a lot of sense at first, but I think that it would be more trouble than it's worth.
For example, reservation system:
Pros:
There's probably a bunch of things i'm leaving off. But, what I'm getting at is that a reservation system would be not be ideal due to unforeseen traffic delays, user error, and life.
Even real-time status wouldn't help.
Again, a real-time status indicator wouldn't help much unless you could get to the supercharger very quickly. ChargePoint has a reservation system and almost all the stations in remote areas in California have reservations disabled. Probably because it was too much trouble. But, I don't see anything wrong w/ having a status indicator, they just wouldn't give you good signal.
What I think would help a lot of people is a usage over time graph. When are superchargers busiest? Is 2pm @ harris ranch bad? How bad is Sunday? etc.
Anyone else got any ideas?
For example, reservation system:
Pros:
- You get a reserved slot of time to charge
- You don't show up for your appointment and someone is waiting for it
- You miss your appointment because of traffic and you lose your reservation and the rest of the day is reserved
- You don't have a reservation and you arrive 15 minutes before a reserved slot and so you can't finish your charge
- etc
There's probably a bunch of things i'm leaving off. But, what I'm getting at is that a reservation system would be not be ideal due to unforeseen traffic delays, user error, and life.
Even real-time status wouldn't help.
- If all the superchargers indicated they were in use, and you were 2 hours away, would you wait? You don't know how many other cars are incoming.
- If it indicated that they were free and you showed up 10 minutes later and they were all busy, you'd be mad.
Again, a real-time status indicator wouldn't help much unless you could get to the supercharger very quickly. ChargePoint has a reservation system and almost all the stations in remote areas in California have reservations disabled. Probably because it was too much trouble. But, I don't see anything wrong w/ having a status indicator, they just wouldn't give you good signal.
What I think would help a lot of people is a usage over time graph. When are superchargers busiest? Is 2pm @ harris ranch bad? How bad is Sunday? etc.
Anyone else got any ideas?