Feature Request: Supercharger reservations

[xkwizit]

I sent the following to Tesla. Tear it apart and help to improve it. Or if you like what you read, write to Tesla and request the feature:

1. User is navigating to destination and the car is routed through a supercharger. The Nav should automatically place the car in queue and reserve a stall at the expected time of arrival at the supercharger. If the car is delayed by more than 10min, the car should prompt the driver and subsequently place the car lower in the supercharger queue.
2. Since other cars that didn't make a reservation through Nav will arrive at a supercharger and will not know what the queue looks like, there can be a display board that shows the next car in queue for each stall. Also, the cars that arrive without reservation and find no stalls showing OPEN on the display, should be able to make an instant reservation through Nav. Reservations should not be needed for stalls with OPEN status.
3. To avoid supercharger rage, the stall would only become active if it is either in OPEN status or if the VIN of the car matches the VIN on the reservation. If someone tries to steal a stall that is reserved, they would get a message on their screen to move out of the stall and either charge an OPEN stall or have an option to make a reservation.
4. The reservation system should be smart enough to place reservations in alternate stalls to avoid overloading one circuit such as 1A and 1B when possible.

 

[Az_Rael]

What about ICE'd stalls? The system would be making reservations for those stalls thinking they are open causing chaos when folks arrive and find their reserved spot isn't actually usable.

There are numerous superchargers where ICEing is allowed due to requirements of the parking lot owner. So the system would have to take it into account somehow.

 

[MP3Mike]

And what about if someone just squats in your reserved stall until your reservation expires? Or demands that you pay them to move? I just can't see that ever happening.

 

[TexasEV]

No. Way too complicated. The goal is to make driving an EV seamless. The problem this purports to address only exists at a few locations in California, less than 2% of the supercharger locations worldwide. The answer is to build more and/ or expand current ones, get the cars to turn over the spaces faster, and to make more destination charging available to lessen the demand for supercharging, all of which is being done.

 

[xkwizit]

No. Way too complicated. The goal is to make driving an EV seamless. The problem this purports to address only exists at a few locations in California, less than 2% of the supercharger locations worldwide. The answer is to build more and/ or expand current ones, get the cars to turn over the spaces faster, and to make more destination charging available to lessen the demand for supercharging, all of which is being done.

@TexasEV - I agree that ideal would be to improve the charging speed but I don't think we will have that coming in a big way anytime soon and it may not help all of the current Teslas. But with Model 3s to come in a year or two, you are looking at a potential problem all over US not just California. With California we need a solution now. Also the rollout can be based on most congested superchargers.

 

[Missile Toad]

@xkwizit Your idea does not go far enough.
1. ... The Nav should [[automatically place the car in queue]] solicit a payment above a 'congestion price' for that particular station, then put the car in queue if the driver en-route authorizes it
...
3. To avoid supercharger rage give the incumbent charger 50% of the payment above as incentive to move out, within 2 minutes of the 'queued driver' arriving. Fee split disappears if the incumbent takes 2-5 minutes to clear out. Penalty, equivalent to the fee split is exacted to any over-staying incumbent.

Finally, no-one who paid to queue can be 'forced' to make way, as described above, except per existing 'idle charges'.

 

[BerTX]

@TexasEV - I agree that ideal would be to improve the charging speed but I don't think we will have that coming in a big way anytime soon and it may not help all of the current Teslas. But with Model 3s to come in a year or two, you are looking at a potential problem all over US not just California. With California we need a solution now. Also the rollout can be based on most congested superchargers.

I don't agree that the advent of the M3 will suddenly give the world California-like Supercharger problems. The M3 will not have unlimited Supercharging. True, there will be some increase in urban Supercharger traffic, but so far there are not very many urban Superchargers outside California. Tesla followed their own rules -- Superchargers are for long-distance travel -- everywhere except California, and it has caused them nothing but trouble there.

 

[ElectricTundra]

Not necessary and a waste of Tesla resources that are needed for more important projects.

The focus needs to be on expanding charging slots and eliminating abuse. In particular locals who have other options.

 

[TexLaw]

I know there are some SpC stations that are very busy (and I expect OP is near one or more of those), but this is the classic solution in search of a problem. Either that, or it's the solution that creates at least as many problems as it solves. Essentially, it just adds something that each driver needs to do while on the road. It is unnecessary at a station that is not typically busy. At a station that often is busy, you actually will make the problem worse.

Put another way, when or why would a driver not make a reservation when heading to a supercharger? About the only reason I can think of is if it cost you something to make the reservation or involved some other commitment. If you have unlimited, free reservations, then the only thing you're doing is trading a physical line for a virtual one and, in all likelihood, decreasing the efficiency of the superchargers because some will be idle while waiting on the reservation holder to show up.

What a reservation system does is sacrifice volume for convenience, and that's not a good idea at this time. The idea is to get cars in and out of superchargers in the most efficient way possible. Can you imagine showing up to a supercharging station, only to find that all the empty stalls are reserved? That "supercharger rage" would get into serious high gear.

 

[xkwizit]

I know there are some SpC stations that are very busy (and I expect OP is near one or more of those), but this is the classic solution in search of a problem. Either that, or it's the solution that creates at least as many problems as it solves. Essentially, it just adds something that each driver needs to do while on the road. It is unnecessary at a station that is not typically busy. At a station that often is busy, you actually will make the problem worse.

Put another way, when or why would a driver not make a reservation when heading to a supercharger? About the only reason I can think of is if it cost you something to make the reservation or involved some other commitment. If you have unlimited, free reservations, then the only thing you're doing is trading a physical line for a virtual one and, in all likelihood, decreasing the efficiency of the superchargers because some will be idle while waiting on the reservation holder to show up.

What a reservation system does is sacrifice volume for convenience, and that's not a good idea at this time. The idea is to get cars in and out of superchargers in the most efficient way possible. Can you imagine showing up to a supercharging station, only to find that all the empty stalls are reserved? That "supercharger rage" would get into serious high gear.

@TexLaw - excellent point. That's the type of discussion I am looking for. You are on the spot. And maybe if Tesla decides to do this, they should charge a fee to make a reservation but then they have to ensure that the stall is available at the time it has been reserved for. And for that I don't see an easy solution other than having an attendant which people may just ignore as that person is not LE.

And as you and others have pointed out, this may not be a problem at several remotely located superchargers. However, for those one wouldn't need a reservation as there will be several OPEN stalls. I have been to superchargers that were wide open all night but come morning, there was a queue and no it wasn't locals.

Plus, the implementation of a reservation based solution can be staggered based on supercharger congestion.

One thing is for sure, till the supercharging time comes down to 10min or less, we will need a solution. The number of cars is going to multiply faster than Tesla can open superchargers.

And I have two superchargers near where I live and though I don't need to use them I see queues often at them. But then I have traveled the Pacific States enough and seen some supercharger that are idle all the time and others like San Mateo and Dublin, CA that are always queued up.

@BerTX - unlimited supercharging is gone from every new Tesla. Will it stop people from road tripping or commutes that require supercharging? No. So, think two years from now. You may not have a problem now. But you will for sure in two years.

Also, keep in mind not every current and especially future Tesla owner lives in a dwelling that has access to overnight charging. They need supercharging even if they have to pay for it to just be able to use their car on daily basis.