Although electric vehicles are making big strides, the search for a reliable charge remains one of the big issues facing drivers. Now, Waze has entered the fray, and will attempt to make electric journeys simpler by adding charging stations to its route planning service.
The Google-owned company announced yesterday that over the coming weeks, it will be allowing drivers to enter the type of vehicle they’re driving and the type of plug they need to the app, so that it can help them find power along the way to their destination.
To make the service even more reliable, Waze won’t only take into account which chargers exist, but which ones work, too. The company says that its local Map Editors will review EV data and update its maps in real time to provide drivers with up-to-date information.
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That could be a very useful feature, because one of the major issues facing EV infrastructure is how unreliable it is. Not only are charging ports sometimes taken up by another vehicle, studies have found that technical issues can make some chargers useless, which could be a big issue for drivers on the road.
“By adding up-to-date EV charging information to the Waze map, it’s even easier to charge your car and get help finding where or when you’ll come across the next station,” Waze wrote in a blog post. “Waze is committed to making it easier and more accessible for EV drivers to charge your vehicles.”
Waze says it will be rolling the added functionality out globally over the coming weeks. Unfortunately for American users, the company told Electrek that it will take until mid-April for the updated tech to become available.
It can, however, already be used by EV drivers in Albania, Bosnia, Brazil, Chile, Estonia, Hungry, Iceland, Israel, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Mexico, Moldova, Monaco, New Zealand, Poland, San Marino, Serbia, Singapore, Slovakia, and Sweden.
