Searching for Superchargers Only on Google Maps

[gnuarm]

When I do a search on Google maps for Supercharges in a given location, it returns tons of other hits for general chargers, especially destination chargers. I've tried adding -destination with no benefit. I've tried putting "Superchargers" in quotes with no benefit. Often it does not show a Supercharger that showed up a moment before.
Is this just a limitation of Google maps? It seems like they want to generalize a Supercharger search to all chargers.

I'm using Google instead of other sites because the charger location is just the focus of my search. I'm looking for other things around the Supercharger.

 

[mociaf9]

When I do a search on Google maps for Supercharges in a given location, it returns tons of other hits for general chargers, especially destination chargers. I've tried adding -destination with no benefit. I've tried putting "Superchargers" in quotes with no benefit. Often it does not show a Supercharger that showed up a moment before.
Is this just a limitation of Google maps? It seems like they want to generalize a Supercharger search to all chargers.

I'm using Google instead of other sites because the charger location is just the focus of my search. I'm looking for other things around the Supercharger.

Try searching with "Tesla Supercharger" in the quotes instead of just supercharger alone.

 

[Earl]

Try searching with "Tesla Supercharger" in the quotes instead of just supercharger alone.

Google is all about advertising money. Tesla Superchargers won't pay for ads but others will try to jump onboard to try to hijack your interest. Plugshare.com or Tesla.com are the only real places to go to find Superchargers or info.

 

[captanzuelo]

~A better route planner~ will bring up all the superchargers along your route

 

[gnuarm]

Try searching with "Tesla Supercharger" in the quotes instead of just supercharger alone.

Yeah, that did the trick! Thanks.

 

[gnuarm]

Try searching with "Tesla Supercharger" in the quotes instead of just supercharger alone.

Not working anymore. I like Google because of its flexibility in other ways. Using -destination doesn't do diddly once you zoom in a bit.

I'm trying to examine a route for alternative charging points, and ABRP isn't showing anything other than the ones recommended for the trip. If I start with a blank slate, it shows nothing at all.

ABRP has some nice features, but often it is as contrary as a mule!

I'm trying to show someone how easy it is to drive a BEV... oh, the irony!

 

[gnuarm]

~A better route planner~ will bring up all the superchargers along your route

That was a fail yesterday. It only showed the chargers it suggested for stops. ABRP is a moving target. They fix some things and break others on a daily basis. It can be very frustrating to use, as they don't use mouse over text and the manual is a joke.

 

[Rocky_H]

I'm trying to examine a route for alternative charging points, and ABRP isn't showing anything other than the ones recommended for the trip. If I start with a blank slate, it shows nothing at all.

Oh, well I wouldn't start with a route planner for finding the chargers. That's the cart before the horse. Plugshare is what you want for seeing what is available along a route.

 

[gnuarm]

Oh, well I wouldn't start with a route planner for finding the chargers. That's the cart before the horse. Plugshare is what you want for seeing what is available along a route.

I don't follow. They used to provide indicators of all the chargers. What is wrong with that. Why would I use two tools rather than one? That seems silly and difficult. It's bad enough having to use a PC and a phone and a car. What a mess!

Yesterday I found what a pain it is to try to do in the car, the things I normally do in ABRP. The car navigation is much more limited in the information provided, especially the what-if sort of stuff. I seem to recall it didn't give me an indication of how much time I would need to charge at a given stop.

 

[Rocky_H]

I don't follow. They used to provide indicators of all the chargers. What is wrong with that.

But I doubt they showed the relative ratings of them like Plugshare does, so you wouldn't know if it's a good one that is reliable and always has good ratings, or if it has a 2 rating, because the last dozen checkins have showed that it is broken and not working. That's what Plugshare is good for.

Why would I use two tools rather than one?

Because they are two different things with different purposes that don't have the exact same overlapping functionality.

That seems silly and difficult.

Or one might say helpful and useful to get all of the information you are asking for.

It's bad enough having to use a PC and a phone and a car. What a mess!

But sure, go ahead and just criticize people who help answer your questions that you asked.

 

[GtiMart]

I think what we have here is a clash between "it should be as easy as this" and "this is what you can do today".

It would absolutely be great if Google Maps would know about all chargers and would know their ratings and/or when some are limited or closed, if it could route us accordingly etc. Or better yet, if chargers were 100% reliable. In the meantime, it cannot do that and some people here are explaining what you can do to get the relevant information and plan by yourself.
You don't have to, you can just plug your destination in the car and it will do a reasonable job, with mostly live information about superchargers (but not CCS chargers).

I would not want to do what-ifs in the car, I do that in the comfort of my living room in advance of a trip.

 

[Earl]

It should be as easy as pulling off the road, anywhere, and every parking space (and there's always an available close one right next to the restaurants and bathrooms) has a DCFC in it that we can use. Everything else is more inconvenient than it would have to be.
In the mean time, we adapt to what's available or make something different.
The map in the car is perfectly good enough for any roadtrip on Interstate highways in the continental US. One can optimize with Plugshare and go to places off the interstates with it but, in general, it is not needed. I, personally, have never found ABRP or EVTRIPPLANNER to be particularly useful.

 

[ucmndd]

If you want a supercharger-specific easy to use map/interface, supercharge.info is about as good as it gets.

 

[gnuarm]

But I doubt they showed the relative ratings of them like Plugshare does, so you wouldn't know if it's a good one that is reliable and always has good ratings, or if it has a 2 rating, because the last dozen checkins have showed that it is broken and not working. That's what Plugshare is good for.

Not sure what that's about. I don't find much difference in Tesla chargers, and there's always enough working it's not a problem. I've never worried with it and never been disappointed other than with the food nearby.

Because they are two different things with different purposes that don't have the exact same overlapping functionality.

Yeah, I'm not seeing what Plugshare brings to the party unless I'm just looking to find chargers and not planning a trip. That doesn't happen very often. Mostly when I'm discussing things here.

Or one might say helpful and useful to get all of the information you are asking for.

But sure, go ahead and just criticize people who help answer your questions that you asked.

Please don't take my comments personally. It's not about you. I often get frustrated with the car or the tools. The main problem with ABRP is that the UI and even the functionality changes a lot, so it's hard to keep up with how to use it. Then there are various bugs that you never know whether it's worth the trouble to report or not, since you expect many others to see the same problems... maybe.

The built in planner in the car is not able to do "what if" considerations. It gives me a trip and tells me where to stop. If I don't like that, I can take a flying leap. One trip I often take has two main routes to get there. One is a bit more rural with a few (or a lot of) traffic lights, but less congestion and jerk drivers. The other is highway, faster and a bit shorter... unless there's an accident or just plain congestion. The car always tells me to take the highway and if I start the other way, I'm travelling blind because it may not stop telling me to turn around for 50 miles!

The Tesla car app is another one that is in flux, not as bad as ABRP though. They did finally add multiple stops, which is a great help, if a bit awkward to use. But still no way to manage where to charge. On a trip which should be just about a tank of electrons to reach home, it will have me charge near the destination even though I have enough range to reach an intermediate charger on the return leg. That would give me much more time to charge, so I can eat. No way to get it to change its mind other than adding the stop at the food Supercharger and telling it to not stop to charge. It really doesn't like that, showing angry red, so I have to delete the final leg home.

This is the sort of silliness I hate dealing with. ABRP doesn't give me so much grief and lets me explore choices. Plug share gives me nothing more to work with. In fact, they typically can't even indicate the power level of the chargers.

 

[GtiMart]

ABRP shows power levels and Plugshare does too. When I travel, I choose my route and I only input the next supercharger in the car. In an area that has multiple charger options, I might look at Plugshare to see how it's rated. If it's not a 9 or 10, there's a high chance that it performs badly when I get there so I try to skip those. I do this checking and planning while I'm charging, thus there is no time loss. ABRP would be used, along with Google Maps, to decide which route I want to take before I leave.
I believe this prevents your "navigation wants me to take the highway" problem as well as your "no way to manage where to charge" problem. ABRP interface is indeed wonky at times, and it is unfortunate to have to use multiple apps indeed.

 

[gnuarm]

I think what we have here is a clash between "it should be as easy as this" and "this is what you can do today".

It would absolutely be great if Google Maps would know about all chargers and would know their ratings and/or when some are limited or closed, if it could route us accordingly etc. Or better yet, if chargers were 100% reliable. In the meantime, it cannot do that and some people here are explaining what you can do to get the relevant information and plan by yourself.

Sorry. I think you misunderstood my posts. I didn't say I expected Google Maps to have ratings on chargers. My complaint about Google is they include many other types of chargers when I say I'm looking for "Superchargers", with the quotes. Earl explained this is intentional, to pull in more advertising dollars, while driving me off. Google has the same problems with many map searches. If I search on "restaurant near me open now", the initial page shows restaurants open now, some of which are "near me" (sometimes Google has strange ideas of what "near me" means). If I try to zoom in, it typically starts to include restaurants that are not open now. Zoom in more, and it includes many things that are not restaurants, and I can't even see what I'm looking for. This is what it does for "Tesla Superchargers".

I am aware of the various information sources. I would think that was clear from my posts. No? My main purpose in this thread is to find a way to get Google to only show me Superchargers on the map.

You don't have to, you can just plug your destination in the car and it will do a reasonable job, with mostly live information about superchargers (but not CCS chargers).

Hmmm… I'm not in the car at the moment. I often plan my trips using my laptop. It's much harder to plan a trip while you are driving down the road. I would also dispute the idea that the car "does a reasonable job". I have previously explained how it has little flexibility in the route. You travel the route it picks for you, or you have to start out on your own, and it may catch up with you after you have driven some miles, if ever.

I would not want to do what-ifs in the car, I do that in the comfort of my living room in advance of a trip.

Then why are you telling me to plan my trips in the car???

 

[GtiMart]

I do what-ifs in ABRP (like you on my laptop), and decide which roads I will take. I plan my next stop in the car while I'm charging, depending on how long I want to drive and the rating of the SC on my route.

As you said higher up, don't take all this too personal. I'm just listing options and explaining one method. Other methods are good too, and I agree that applications today are imperfect.

 

[gnuarm]

ABRP shows power levels and Plugshare does too.

Plugshare has the ability to show power levels, true. My experience is, if level 2 charging is included, some 90+% does not have any data whatsoever on the individual charging units, other than indicating the type of connector.

I don't typically use ABRP for examining details of chargers, because I use the Tesla network and never have a problem with any of it. I don't have an adapter for Chademo or CCS, so those units do me no good.

When I travel, I choose my route and I only input the next supercharger in the car.

Yes, that's what I am talking about, planning the trip. I would normally do this using ABRP because of its relatively advanced consumption calculations. Because of its flexibility in setting routes, I also use it for examining alternatives, "what if" analysis, if you will.

However, in my most recent use of ABRP, it no longer would show any chargers other than the chargers used in my route. So I no longer have "what-if" opportunities, unless I already knew where the chargers are. Maybe that was a temporary glitch. ABRP is constantly under modification, and they develop all manner of glitches that get ironed out in a few weeks or months.

In an area that has multiple charger options, I might look at Plugshare to see how it's rated. If it's not a 9 or 10, there's a high chance that it performs badly when I get there so I try to skip those. I do this checking and planning while I'm charging, thus there is no time loss. ABRP would be used, along with Google Maps, to decide which route I want to take before I leave.
I believe this prevents your "navigation wants me to take the highway" problem as well as your "no way to manage where to charge" problem. ABRP interface is indeed wonky at times, and it is unfortunate to have to use multiple apps indeed.

I'm thinking you are using non-Tesla chargers. I literally can't remember the last time I had a problem getting charged at a Tesla station. There may be individual stalls that are not working, but there is a big advantage to having so many stalls at one installation.

I don't even look at the ratings, does ABRP even have that??? It's not a problem that needs to be addressed with the Tesla Superchargers.

As I've pointed out, Google maps does a crap job of showing locations of Superchargers and ABRP lately has not been showing them either. That's why I'm presently here, so see if anyone can shed light on this.

Ah, found it! I was preparing for a screen capture and found this setting. Not sure how it got changed. Maybe I was looking at CCS chargers at some point, but I don't recall that.

 

[gnuarm]

It should be as easy as pulling off the road, anywhere, and every parking space (and there's always an available close one right next to the restaurants and bathrooms) has a DCFC in it that we can use. Everything else is more inconvenient than it would have to be.
In the mean time, we adapt to what's available or make something different.
The map in the car is perfectly good enough for any roadtrip on Interstate highways in the continental US. One can optimize with Plugshare and go to places off the interstates with it but, in general, it is not needed. I, personally, have never found ABRP or EVTRIPPLANNER to be particularly useful.

Earl,

I'm glad that you are happy with the existing Tesla tools. For my purposes, they are definitely not "good enough", offering no ability to examine choices of chargers. If all we were looking for was "good enough", there was no reason to spend a bunch of money on an electric car. In fact, in many ways, I'm happier with my Kia Sportage than I am the model X. At least I got a day/night adjustment on the mirror! I can probably fix that with a trip to Pep Boys and a $15 purchase. I need to remember to do that.

I find ABRP to be indispensable... when it is working well. There is no other tool that will let me choose charging locations and optimize my time, rather than optimizing some variable I don't even know about, most likely something that is more important to Tesla than to me.

 

[gnuarm]

I do what-ifs in ABRP (like you on my laptop), and decide which roads I will take. I plan my next stop in the car while I'm charging, depending on how long I want to drive and the rating of the SC on my route.

As you said higher up, don't take all this too personal. I'm just listing options and explaining one method. Other methods are good too, and I agree that applications today are imperfect.

I like to have things mapped out before the trips. Lots of the planning has to do with not wasting time charging, but charging while eating. That is nearly impossible other than on the laptop where I can test alternative charging stops on my battery level and properly research restaurants.

I lament Tesla's decision to add Superchargers at so many gas stations. The food is seldom good. I assume it is the gas stations who are trying to figure out their next move for when gas becomes obsolete. I don't think many gas stations will remain. The ones along the highways will be needed for charging, probably a lot more of them. But the ones scattered across towns will mostly die off with people charging at home.