Intelligent charge station navigation

[jmueller065]

Here is an idea: Scenario: You're going somewhere that is a distance away that you will need a charge. There are a bunch of charge stations around your destination. You have a preferred station that is closest to your destination but there are alternatives within walking distance...

Here is the feature suggestion:
The ability to program in multiple charge stations as destinations and while your are en route, the nav system should be monitoring the stations to see which ones are available. If your preferred station changes status to in use the nav system alerts the driver and selects the next station in the priority list and alters the route to that station.

 

[Kakkerlak]

I want chime in on navigation to charging stations: Ford should consider letting Plugshare do the work.

On my first long drive with the FFE, I cheerfully tried to use voice commands to find electric charging stations. I tried all the keywords I could think of and then finally used the Category feature to search Automotive points of interest, and found the magic phrase was 'Electric Charge Station'.

For an electric car, this should be the first category. Instead, gas stations and oil change facilities are still above it in the selection lists.

I eventually pulled over and used Plugshare to find the charging stations I wanted, then found them in the Navigation application and manually selected them using the touchscreen. Navigation then proceeded to get entirely lost in Olympia, WA, so I gave up and got back onto the highway to find a charging station I knew was at a mall ahead.

Ideally a charging station finder should use a radius circle, then narrow it down using the street navigation system.

There's some work to be done before this sort of technology is as reliable as the voice command "Find Starbucks".

 

[pjam3]

Plugshare is the way to go and it is mostly reliable. And you can alternative options if need be because most of the time there are only a few stations and they are taken at certain times of the day. So if you know this beforehand, you find a different place to charge. Or if the station has been broken recently or for months, you know that. Nothing like showing up needing a charge and being screwed over because it's packed or the machine is busted.

For most of the cars not named Tesla to work, there needs to be more reliable charging stations. Every single one seems to have issues in places that a lot of people use them. And some of these companies just don't fix them or they just wind up shutting down the chargers. NRG EvGo has been the best with fixing and customer service, but they don't have a ton either. Blink has a ton but half of them are busted now and again or take 8 hours to charge when paying for L2.

I also think the supercharger is the way to go. 30 Minutes or less to charge is far better than 4 hours.

 

[Kakkerlak]

I looked briefly at the "car apps" installation section in MyFordTouch, and carefully backed away.

My Android phone is a nightmare of auto-updates, with applications frequently disappearing from shortcuts or showing up with new bugs or different features, all because I consented to let them do so when I installed them. I know that Ford's Sync is built by Microsoft, but it doesn't look like any embedded Windows platform I've ever seen.

There's just no way I want that category of untested instability in any part of my car, even if it's "just" the infotainment system.

If Ford does go down the path of installable applications in the car, Plugshare is about the only one I would want to allow.

 

[jmueller065]

If Ford does go down the path of installable applications in the car, Plugshare is about the only one I would want to allow.

Ford does allow installed applications on Sync (sort of) but only on Sync V1..not on My Ford Touch. There was some work on getting App Link to work on My Ford Touch but, from what I've heard, they have given up on that.

To be clear these aren't really "Applications" like on your phone. Ford designed a way for apps to integrate themselves into Sync allowing for additional voice commands specific to that application (off the top of my head the MLB, and Sirius/XM Apps support App Link on Sync V1. In the Sirius/XM App's case you can use sync to tune channels in the app similar to the way you can tune channels on the radio--all via Voice commands).

 

[Kakkerlak]

Thanks for the clarification.

Even for a very tech-savvy guy like me, the distinction between Sync and MyFordTouch is a little confusing.

 

[unplugged]

I want chime in on navigation to charging stations: Ford should consider letting Plugshare do the work.

Ford announced a year or so back that Ford has a relationship with Plugshare for the plug-in hybrids. (They didn't mention the FFE for some reason.) I don't know what happened with that announced relationship.