Electric vehicles (EVs) and chargers have had a longstanding issue with balancing the number of EVs on the road and DC fast chargers. On heavy travel days or in areas with a high concentration of EVs, this imbalance can lead to frustratingly long wait times. In an effort to alleviate this issue, Tesla has begun piloting a new "waitlist" feature for its Superchargers.
This feature allows cars to reserve a spot in line while navigating to a charger, potentially reducing wait times and smoothing out the Supercharging experience. Although Tesla hasn't released many details on how it works, a video shared by the company on X suggests that the system will enable cars to line up for a charger as they approach the station. The in-car navigation will display the estimated wait time and the number of cars ahead in the queue.
View Price on AmazonTesla's senior director of charging, Max de Zegher, first mentioned that the company was testing this feature almost a year ago. However, this is the first time we've heard of a wider rollout. De Zegher noted that Tesla has had success in reducing wait times by optimizing the physical aspects of Supercharging, such as deploying more rapid chargers with modern equipment, and improving its software solutions, like Tesla's Trip Planner, over time.
The virtual queue that Tesla is building now removes the self-regulation of charging lines and helps to put some guardrails in place. Not A Tesla App spotted this feature before it launched after decompiling the latest version of the Tesla app. The app also supports adding the charging status to live notifications on a driver's phone.
While this virtual crowd control seems like a solution to brawls over chargers, it might not be the end-all, at least not in its current beta testing phase. Note A Tesla App says that messages in the app will warn drivers if they're cutting ahead, but there's no logic in place that will actually prevent them from beginning a charging session.
It's not immediately clear how non-Tesla vehicles approaching a charger would be aware of this queue, outside of relying on their phones. The feature will initially roll out to five chargers, with four in California and one in New York. Tesla's de Zegher noted that the company will continue to improve and iterate based on feedback and, if the feature proves to be successful, roll it out to more Superchargers.
Source: insideevs.com
